Hope for Peace - Peacemaking after WWI

Question 1

What was the context of the Peacemaking?

BBC VIDEO SUMMARY

TERMS of the TREATY

Answer 1

• WWI - a traumatic experience - a legacy of destruction: 40 million dead or injured.
• Coined - ‘War to end all wars’ - such a thing should never happen again.
• General mood to replace NATIONALISM with INTERNATIONALISM

Question 2

Paris Peace Conference: The basics

Answer 2

• Held at Versailles (Paris),
• France 1919 (January to June)
• Woodrow Wilson - USA
• Lloyd George -Great Britain
• Georges Clemenceau - France

Question 3

Wilson: Main views/aims

Answer 3

• Based on his 14 Points
• “Make democracy safe for the future”
• Key aim: DISARMAMENT (No more arms races)
• League of Nations - (Organisation to encourage international co-operation)
• Self-Determination: No empires - People to govern themselves.

Question 4

Lloyd George: Main views /aims

Answer 4

• Reparations - GB had spent £8 billion on the war.
• ‘Just but fair’ Peace.
• Germany needed for trade.
• Maintain an Empire No navy for Germany (A potential threat to GB’s Empire)

Question 5

Clemenceau: Main views/aims

Answer 5

• French Security requirements paramount. (Germany invaded France twice in 50 years)
• Germany to be made weak militarily.
• Reparations - Northern France devasted by war.

Question 6

Key Terms Versailles: Blame & German objection.

Answer 6

• Clause ‘231’ - War Guilt Clause - the basis of the Treaty German
• Objection: ‘Unfair’ believed war was a complex mix of pre-war nationalism of all countries. No one country should be held to blame.
• Also down to increased tension - e. arms race - all contributed to this.

Question 7

Key Terms Versailles: Reparations & German objection.

Answer 7

• Compensation for war damage. Amount ‘debated’ - reparations commission to decide.
• 1921 decided on £6.6 Billion.
• German objections: Germany economically destroyed - would prevent her from recovering.
• Not ‘fair’ - future innocent Germans paying for what previous leaders had done.

Question 8

Key Terms Versailles: Land & German objection.

Answer 8

• Germany lost 10% of land (Border readjustments)
• West Prussia to Poland (Polish Corridor)
• Upper Silesia to Poland.
• Alsace Lorraine to France.
• Saar - to France for 15years (Had coalmines)
• German Objection: Where was Germany’s ‘self-determination’?
• 12.5% of Germans now lived under foreign rule.

Question 9

Key Terms Versailles: Military & German objection.

Answer 9

• Armed forces severely limited. Army - 100,000, no conscription, no General Staff. Navy - 6 battleships, no submarines.
• Airforce - No airforce.
• Rhineland - demilitarised (French security demands)
• German objection: Germany disarmed, but no other European powers did so. Germany surrounded by hostile powers.

Question 10

Why were there so many protests about the Peacemaking after WWI? [10]

10 min SUMMARY with Hip Huges

Answer 10

(Starter 1) Firstly there were many protests from the Germans who felt that the Treaty was completely unfair.

• Many thought the Treaty was too focussed on revenge rather than creating a lasting peace.
• The Germans hated everything about the treaty:
• They were angry that they had not been allowed to negotiate – it had been imposed.
• ‘Deutsche Zeitung’, a German newspaper, vowed: “We will never stop until we win back what we deserve.”
• Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, leader of the German delegation at Versailles said Article 231 - the war-guilt clause - was “a lie”. Germany officially denied the war-guilt clause in 1927
• It hardly created the basis for better relations between Germany and France

(Starter 2) Moreover, even those who imposed saw it was a flawed Treaty process.

• Lloyd George thought the treaty was too harsh, saying: “We shall have to fight another war again in 25 years time.”
• The British diplomat Harold Nicolson called it “neither just nor wise” and the people who made it “stupid”.
• The economist John Maynard Keynes prophesied that reparations would ruin the economy of Europe.
• Self-determination may have been a bold idea – but it proved impossible to implement - neither Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia survived as united countries.

(Starter 3) Lastly, even the French did not think it was good enough and protested!

• Many French people wanted an independent, not a demilitarised, Rhineland.
• Most French people did not think the League of Nations would protect them against Germany.