Paris Peace Treaties

Question 1

Who were the big three?

Answer 1

. USA’s president : Woodrow Wilson
. France’s president: George Clemenceau -> “the tiger”
. Britain’s Prime Minister: David Lloyd George

Question 2

Aims of the big three: what did Woodrow Wilson want?

Answer 2

. Not very harsh treaty on Germany: world peace to perdure -> if it were too harsh, Germany would want revenge when she recovered from punishment
. Reinforce democracy in those countries which were defeated: so that leaders did what people wanted in order to gain votes -> people wanted there to be peace and did not want to experience another war
. Wanted international cooperation: in order to find peace, the allied themselves, so that there was another great war -> league of nations created
. 14 points

Question 3

Aims of the big three: what did David Lloyd George want?

Answer 3

. Agreed with US on not being too harsh with Germany so that she didn’t revenge and cause another war
. Wanted peace with Germany and did not want to punish harshly: for economic and employment purposes -> before the war Germany was Britain’s second-largest trading partner, being very beneficial
. Wanted Germany’s navy to be Weeknd: so that the British empire wasn’t threatened (island) buy German expansion
-> It was difficult for Lloyd George to: follow his beliefs because his people wanted to be very harsh with Germany, and he had promised this in the elections

Question 4

Aims of the big three: what did George Clemenceau want?

Answer 4

. Wanted to diminish Germany’s power: so that it could never attacked them again -> wanted to divide Germany into states
. Wanted Germany to pay for the destruction caused by war: this was a total of 200 million francs, so somehow weaken them and so that the French were helped to face the crisis postwar
. He wanted Germany to lose all of the land they had gained and more
. He wanted the German armed forces to be destroyed completely
-> Clemenceau was harsh on Germany as: revenge on first world war (most fighting on French territory) and Franco Prussian war (took Alsace Lorraine from France)

Question 5

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles

Answer 5

1. War guilt clause
2. Reparations.
3. German territories, and colonies
4. Armed forces
5. League of Nations

Question 6

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles: war guilt

Answer 6

Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war -> known as article 231

Question 7

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles: reparations

Answer 7

. Germany had to pay reparations to the allies for damage caused by war -> amount would be $6600 million If the term hadn’t been changed by Young plan in 1929, Germany would have finished paying in 1984

Question 8

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles: German territories (2eg) , and colonies (africa examples, 4)

Answer 8

. Germany’s overseas empire: taken away
. Colonies: became mandates, controlled by league of Nations.
-> examples: German colonies in Africa
. Cameroon and Togoland were run by Britain and France.
. German south-west Africa given to South Africa
. Alsace, Lorraine: given back to France
. Saar: important German coalfield given to France for 15 years, after which a plebiscite would decide ownership
. Poland: independent country with “route to the sea” -> Polish corridor separating Germany from East Prussia
. Upper silesia: very rich in raw materials -> given to Poland
. Territories From Russia: Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia became independent states -> Germany had taken these from Russia in 1918
. Anschluss: union of Germany and Austria, forbidden

Question 9

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles: armed forces

Answer 9

. 100,000 soldiers
. No conscription -> had to be volunteers
. No armoured vehicles
. Navy reduced to only six battleships
. Rhineland became a demilitarised area -> important because it was border between Germany and France

Question 10

The five terms of the treaty of Versailles: league of Nations

Answer 10

. Set up as an international ‘police force’ -> left Germany out until she demonstrated that they were a peaceful country

Question 11

Facts on Paris press conference

Answer 11

. Signed: 28 June 1919, in Versailles
. Participation: 32 countries participated (the big three dominated the talks) -> the defeated powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey) we left out
. Two reasons for blaming Germany for war:
- 1st to declare war to Belgium
- Encouraged, Austro-Hungarians to attack the Serbians -> attack known as the spark which caused WW1 to escalate to bigger conflict

Question 12

The Allies reaction to the treaty: George Clemenceau -> things they liked

Answer 12

. Reparations -> would repair damage to France
. Tiny German army -> would prevent Germany from attacking France
. Demilitarised zone in Rhineland -> would protect France by creating a buffer zone
. France got Alsace-Lorraine, and some German colonies

Question 13

The Allies reaction to the treaty: George Clemenceau -> things they don’t like

Answer 13

. He wanted treaty to be harsher
. He wanted Germany to be split up into smaller states

Question 14

The Allies reaction to the treaty: David Lloyd, George -> things they liked

Answer 14

. Britain got some German colonies -> expanded the British empire
. Small German Navy -> helped Britain to continue to ‘rule the waves’

Question 15

The Allies reaction to the treaty: David Lloyd, George -> things they didn’t like

Answer 15

. He thought treaty was far too harsh and would ruin Germany -> This would cause another war in 25 years time

Question 16

The Allies reaction to the treaty: Woodrow Wilson -> things they liked

Answer 16

. League of Nations
. Self-determination for people of eastern Europe

Question 17

The Allies reaction to the treaty: Woodrow Wilson -> things they didn’t like

Answer 17

. Some of his 14 points didn’t get into treaty
. When Wilson went back to America, Senate refused to join the league of nations, and even refused to sign the treaty of Versailles

Question 18

German reaction to the treaty of Versailles (4 points)

Answer 18

New German government (Ebert’s government) which had overthrown the German government that had entered WW1, refused to sign the treaty
. They were angry that their government wasn’t represented at peace talks, and that they were being forced to accept harsh treaty without either choice or comment
. They felt that thet hadn’t lost war and so they shouldn’t be treated as defeated country.
. 14 points: treatment of Germany wasn’t keeping with Wilson’s 14 points
-> examples:
- Whilst self-determination was being given to countries, such as Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia, Germans were being hived off into new countries, ruled by non-Germans
- Union with Austria was forbidden (Anschluss)
. Treaty’s purpose: almost failed, because Germans felt punishment was too harsh, and they should have a revenge
-> example: German ships and British ports were sunk by Germans in form of protest (ships had been taken under British control)
—> however, Germans couldn’t do nothing apart from signing the treaty: they would be defeated very quickly, because they were left very weak by the war

Question 19

German reaction to treaty terms: war guilt

Answer 19

Particularly hated clause -> Germans didn’t feel they had started war and felt that blame should at least be shared

Question 20

German reaction to treaty terms: reparations

Answer 20

. Unfair as Germany was expected to pay for all damage caused by war when German economy was severely weakened -> unfair as they hadn’t caused all damage

Question 21

German reaction to treaty terms: territorial terms

Answer 21

. Unfair for Germany to be losing colonies while British and French were increasing their empires by taking control of German territories in Africa -> they contradicted what was said about Imperial powers disappearing

Question 22

German reaction to treaty terms: military terms

Answer 22

. Army made a very small for a country of Germany’s size -> felt they couldn’t defend against almost any country
. Reducing their army was very humiliating as it was a symbol of German pride
. None of the allies were asked or forced to reduce their armies in any way

Question 23

German reaction to treaty terms: league of Nations

Answer 23

. They felt insulted/discriminated because they weren’t included in league of Nations

Question 24

The great suffering caused by the war: France

Answer 24

. Area larger than Whales got destroyed
. Over 3 million people had to flee from their homes
. 750,000 houses, 23,000 factories, and 48,000 km of roads wrecked
. 1,400,000 soldiers killed and 2,500,000 wounded in fighting

Question 25

The great suffering caused by the war: Britain

Answer 25

. Lost 947,000 soldiers and 1,500,000 wounded
. Huge debt as they spent 9 billion in war -> 1 billion supplied by Americans, which had to be paid back

Question 26

The great suffering caused by the war: germany

Answer 26

. Nearly 2,000,000 soldiers killed
. Revolution in Germany, causing chaos
. Millions of people suffered from starvation

Question 27

Unfair or fair?: Fair -> reparations

Answer 27

. It was fair that reparations should be paid because nearly all the fighting had taken place in France and Belgium, and their land, industry and people had suffered the most
. Modern historians think that Germany deliberately exaggerated their inability to pay reparations, and in fact, their economy would have been strong enough to pay it in the end

Question 28

Unfair or fair?: Fair -> demilitarisation

Answer 28

. Demilitarisation of the Rhineland to stop them attacking France again
. Germany had been at least partly responsible for starting the war with the Schlieffen plan.
. Fair to reduce armed forces to lessen the danger of war

Question 29

Unfair or fair?: Fair -> colonies, and territories

Answer 29

. If Germany had one they would have made the other countries suffer even more: e.g., the way they treated Russia, in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk
. Fair to give Alsace-Lorraine back to France because Germany had taken it in 1870
. Further to give land to Belgium, because Germany had committed a lot of atrocities and they had been neutral
. Fair to hold plebiscites in upper Silesia, northern Schleswig, and later on in the Saar

Question 30

Unfair, or fair?: Unfair -> war, guilt clause

Answer 30

. Germany was blamed for everything, even though countries were responsible too. So why make her alone sign the war, guilt clause.
. The fact Germany was not allowed to negotiate. They thought the armistice and 14 points would be a basis for the start of negotiations

Question 31

Unfair, or fair?: Unfair -> colonies, and territories

Answer 31

. Germany, lost large amounts of territory, e.g. Danzig and the Polish corridor - this divided Germany into two
. Germany lost all her colonies and they ended up often becoming British or French, and so they built up their colonies and denied the people self-determination
. National self-determination not applied fully to Germany. There were lots of Germans living outside Germany, e.g. in the Polish corridor, Danzig and Austria

Question 32

Unfair, or fair?: Unfair -> demilitarisation

Answer 32

. Unfair that other countries weren’t made it to disarm as well

Question 33

Unfair, or fair?: Unfair -> reparations

Answer 33

. German reparations were too heavy, and tey hit ordinary people, not the people who are responsible for the war, like the kaiser and the military generals.