Chapter 1 - Teaty Of Versailles / League Of Nations Flashcards
Why were the views of the Big Three at the Paris Peace Conference not unanimous?
The Paris Peace conference was the formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after WWI to set peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. However, what they had in mind was different from one another.
Describe USA : wanted Germany to be punished but not broken apart and create peace to prevent another war WHY?? - USA wanted to promote democracy and Wilson’s 14 points around the world as it was more peaceful. It also wanted to maintain US economic superiority with free trade. It wanted Germany to recover and trade with them but also wanted tot sympathised with the losses of Britain and France to the war Germany had started.
Explain: wanted fairer terms on Germany to promote long term peace and prevent further war
Describe Britain: ** wanted Britain to maintain her wealth**
WHY?? - wanted Germany to be punished due to an astronomical amount of British casualties in WWI but not too hard as it may spark off another war. It wanted to keep Germany strong to act as a buffer against the growing Communist threat from USSR.
Explain: Britain supported France in imposing a harsh treaty on Germany to prevent Germany from starting another war and satisfy the British public in punishing Germany.
Describe France: wanted Germany destroyed and broken up into smaller pieces
WHY?? - France had lost earlier in the Franco-German war and was also nearly defeated by Germany in WWI. Germany should be crippled as Germany could recover more quickly due to lesser damages than France and threaten France in the future. Buffer zone should be created between Germany and France to help France recover.
The Treaty Of Versailles is fair as Germany caused heavy casualties and great damage on other countries during WWI.
8 million soldiers were killed during World War I. War destroyed huge areas in Europe and factories, farmlands and industrial areas were in the ruins.
Since Germany caused so much damage to the other European countries during WWI, it was only right to punish Germany and pay all the damages caused by WWI as a form of compensation.
The Treaty Of Versailles was fair as Germany imposed a harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on the Russians.
The Germans made harsher demands on Russia on the treaty of brest-litovsk as compared to what the Allies demanded from Germany in the Treaty Of Versailles. In the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia lose 80% of the coalmines and 30% of their population. In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany only lose 16% of their coalmine and less than 10% of their population.
Since the Germans were harsher on Russians than Allies on Germany, there is no wrong in imposing a harsh treaty on Germany. If Germans had won instead, the treaty would be far worse.
The Treaty Of Versailles was fair as Germany could be considered responsible for WWI.
Austria-Hungary would not have the courage to attack Russia if not for the strong military support given by Germany.
Since Germany gave Austria-Hungary the confidence to go to war, there is no wrong in imposing a harsh Treaty Of Versailles on the Germans.
The Treaty Of Versailles was fair as Germany could still potentially be strong.
Other than the lack of war material and resources, the Germany military was still powerful and not defeated. Germany only lost as it was unable to feed the military and people and provide war material for the war.
Germany could recover faster from the war and still pose a threat to others . France wanted a harsher treaty and have Germany broken up and pay higher war reparations but was persuaded by USA and Britain to compromise.
The Treaty Of Versailles was fair as Germany was not allowed to negotiate and had to sign a diktat
Germans expected to be treated fairly and negotiate the terms on the Treaty Of Versailles as they did not get defeated but ran out of resources to continue the war.
The Allies were winning the war and expected an unconditional surrender from the Germans. Although the Germans felt that they did not lose the war, they don’t have sufficient resources to continue fighting. The Allies was much stronger and would have invaded Germany, causing greater damage and won the war. Thus the Allies did not allow the Germans to negotiate.
The Treaty of Versailles was unfair the Germans had to sign the War Guilt Clause.
The Germans received total blame for the war. Article 231 served the basis for territorial reductions, limitations and reparations placed on Germany. The Germans were forced to admit guilt in starting WWI. The Germans felt wronged as well they did not feel that they deserved total blame for the war. Other countries such as Serbia and Austria-Hungary are also responsible for starting WWI. They hated being blamed forever for the war.
The Treaty Of Versailles was unfair as it created new boundaries from German territories.
German land and citizens were given to other countries created by victorious Allies. For example, the Polish corridor to Poland, Alsace-Lorraine to France and was not allowed to form a political union with Austria.
Many Germans felt angry as they felt that it was natural for German-speaking Austrians to be part of Germany as part of Wilson’s idea of self-determination. This was unfair to the Germans and they hated the Treaty. Germans , being badly mistreated, are minorities in other countries and had to leave their belongings to escape back to German land with many losing their lives and suffering great hardships thus they hated the treaty.
The Treaty Of Versailles was unfair as the terms were too harsh.
Germany had to massively disarm. For example, army size reduced to 100K with all wartime weapons destroyed along with the demilitarisation of Rhineland. Germany had to pay 132 billion marks as war reparation and lost 13% of their land and 6 million people to other countries.
Demilitarisation of Rhineland meant that France could easily bully Germany as it could not protect her borders against France. Additionally, Germany was poor and had to pay huge war debts and rebuild her country which would take a long time due to a lack of economic resources that are used to pay off the war debts. Moreover, Germany is defenceless without a strong military, making Germans feel unsafe. All these reasons make Germans feel angry and thus feel that the TOV is unfair
The Treaty Of Versailles was unfair as the new government was not responsible for the war.
The Kaiser declared war and quitted. The new democratic government was not supportive of war and had to do an armistice. The people felt that it should be Kaiser and his supporters that should be punished and not the new democratic government and the people who were innocent. Many generations would be paying the war reparations. Thus the Germans felts angry and found the TOV to be unfair.
The Treaty Of Versailles was unfair as Germany was not solely responsible for the war and damages.
German felt that other countries such as Serbia and Russia also contributed to events that led to war but was forced to sign the War Guilt Clause. By pushing the blame to Germany alone for the damages was too much as Germany also suffered huge loss of lives and damage to infrastructure on top of a crippling economy. They also felt that countries like Serbia and Russia should also bear the responsibility for the damages. Thus it was not fair
The League Of Nations failed due to structural weakness
Describe : The various parts of the League did not work well together Secretariat was understaffed and the working relationship between the General and the Council was not clear. Moreover, authorisation for any action required both a unanimous vote from the council and a majority vote from the Assembly. The Council members have veto rights and thus dominated the decision-making as their support was necessary.
Explain: With so many members and some more powerful than others, it is difficult and slow to come up with an agreement, making the League lose its credibility as they would most likely not do anything.
The League Of Nations failed due to membership problems.
Describe: Not all nations were members of the League. For example, USA, being one of the most powerful countries, did not join the League as it was pursuing a policy of isolationism. USSR was not allowed to join initially as its ideals of communism were against the League’s ideals. Defeated nations such as Germany and Austria was prohibited to join the League as a punishment for causing WWI.
Explain: This weakened the League as it has less influence to get nations to cooperate and less military power to go to war and protect countries. Also, economic sanctions would be hard to enforce without the US as they aggressor countries would buy weapons from USA even though they were under military or economic sanctions.
The League Of Nations failed due to the ineffectiveness of economic sanctions
The League stressed cooperation of member states in accepting and carrying out its decision but that was not usually the case. However, this was not usually the case. For example, when imposing trade sanctions on aggressor countries, some countries refused to carry it out as these sanctions harm their own economic interest.
Thus, these economic sanctions were unable to weaken the aggressor economically and force therm to stop attacking other countries. Hence, the League lost its credibility as it was unable to maintain international peace, making countries prepare for war instead.
The League Of Nations failed as it lacked an armed force.
The League did not have any armed force on its own and depended on other member nations to contribute troops to create an international fighting force to go to war to keep peace. However, many member nations like Britain were unwilling to contribute troops for collective security and the League had no right to force them so.
Thus, the League was unable to use force to defeat aggressors and stop conflicts, disrupting peace. The League lost its credibility as it was unable to maintain international peace and many started to prepare for war instead.
