The First World War (Part 4)

       The First World War (1914-1918)

4. The Peace Treaties

 On January 18, 1919, representatives of the victorious countries met at the Conference of Paris, under the direction of the Committee of Four: U.S. President Wilson, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Clemenceau, and Italian Chief Executive Orlando. 

Representatives of the defeated countries were not invited to the peace conference. The victorious countries negotiated the treaty and they demanded strict penalties against the defeated countries. Since the defeated countries did not participate in the negotiation, it was presented to them as a fait accompli. In other words, they had no choice but to accept and they could not make any changes. The German representatives of the fledgling democratic Weimar Republic, signed the treaty on 28 June 1919, under threat of a total invasion of their country if they did not sign. In Germany, there was talk of diktat, the imposition of Versailles

The victorious countries signed different peace treaties with each of the various defeated nations: the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, the Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria, the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary, the Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria and on the treaty of Sevres and later Lausanne treaty with Turkey.

The Treaty of Versailles 

The position of the victors following the end of the war was different. Clemenceau personified a harder stance with Germany. Clemenceau, the French leader, insistently claimed that "Germany will pay". British and Americans were willing to punish Germany, however, they opted for a more conciliatory attitude. Finally, Italy, who were less interested in the fate of Germany, tried unsuccessfully to obtain new territory. 

Territorial clauses: 

● France regained Alsace and Lorraine 

● Eupen and Malmedy passed into the hands of Belgium 

● Eastern territories were annexed by Poland which caused East Prussia to become territorially isolated. 

● Danzig and Memel, former Baltic German cities were declared free cities 

● Denmark annexed northern Schleswig-Holstein 

● Germany lost all of its colonies and the victors annexed them 

Military clauses: 

● Drastic limitation of the German navy. 

● Dramatic reduction of the Army (only 100,000 troops, prohibition of having tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery).

War Reparations: 

The treaty declared Germany and its allies responsible for all 'loss and damage' suffered by the Allies and as a consequence they were forced to pay war reparations to the victors.

The London Conference of 1920, established the total amount of repairs that had to be paid by Germany: 140.000 million gold marks, an enormous amount for the time.  

At the Spa Conference, also in 1920, the 140.000 million gold marks were divided into a fixed percentage and given to each country: France received 52%, Britain 22%, Italy 10%, and Belgium 8%.

Other Treaties

The Treaty of Neuilly, signed with Bulgaria.

The small Balkan country suffered several territorial losses, in the benefit of Romania, Greece and a brand-new country: Yugoslavia. 

The Treaty of Sevres (1920), signed with Turkey, and then fixed in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923

The Treaty of Sevres was extremely hard and led to the Turkish national rebellion, which was led by Kemal Ataturk. This also lead to the war against Greece, which occupied large areas of Anatolia. After the Turkish victory in the Greek-Turkish war, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. This treaty was much more benign, but concentrated the distribution of Turkish possessions in the Middle East between France (Syria, Lebanon) and Britain (Palestine, Iraq, Jordan). 

The Treaty of Saint Germain, signed with Austria.

This treaty led to the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The break-up of this old empire resulted in the creation of new states, such as Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. On top of that, several sections of the former empire were annexed by new states such as Poland and Yugoslavia.

The Treaty of Trianon, signed with Hungary

Hungary was probably treated the worst after the war. Large Hungarian minorities (3 million people, equivalent to one third of the Hungarian population total) were left outside of the Hungarian state, living as minorities in Czechoslovakia, Romania (Transylvania) and Yugoslavia

All the defeated countries, like Germany, were forced to pay damages and to limit the strength of their armies. 

5. The Consequences of the War

The world that emerged after the catastrophe of 1914-1918 was very different from the prewar. The most obvious were the terrible loss of life: eight million dead, millions wounded people, maimed, widows and orphans, and the material destruction suffered especially by Europe. 

However, the war also brought other important social and ideological changes.

● The U.S., which had won the war but had not experienced the conflict on its territory, became a first world power. 

● The mass mobilization of men led to the incorporation of women into the work force, which was a major step forward for women's rights. 

● The triumph of the Soviet Revolution and the social crisis that followed the war encouraged workers in many countries to protests, creating a pre-revolutionary climate. 

● The extreme nationalism experienced during the war, coupled with fear of a Communist revolution, encouraged the middle-class populations of some countries to move to the extreme right. This created a hotbed of fascist movements.