Impact of the treaty and wider settlement

• Britain's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles

  • Throughout the war propaganda had portrayed the Germans as barbarians, so there was little sympathy toward the Germans now that they had lost the war
  • There was barely a single family in Britain who had not lost someone to the war, and civilians had suffered food shortages too
  • Headlines such as 'Hang the Kaiser' were common, and newspapers whipped the population up even more in the 1918 general election, where politicians based campaigns on their promises to be harsh on Germany
  • When the Treaty was signed the British thought that it was fair, but could have been much harsher
  • However, on his return from Versailles Lloyd George was greeted as a hero - the streets outside the railway station were lined with people waving and cheering
  • The British press proclaimed that Britain would never again be threatened by the Germans but Lloyd George was unsure
• Britain's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles pt. 2

  • There were parts of the treaty that Lloyd George was pleased with; the British Empire gained extra colonies and now covered a third of the globe
  • Also, the German navy was restricted so that Britain could 'rule the waves' without competition
  • However, Lloyd George was concerned that the loss of German land and people to Poland would cause huge problems in the future, especially if those people were determined to be part of Germany once again
  • Lloyd George also felt that the reparations were too harsh
  • Britain would lose an important trade partner and the people of Germany would resent the Treaty so much that it could lead to another war in years to come
• France's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles

  • Most of the fighting took place in France and the country was very badly affected by the war
  • As a result, the French people were determined that Germany should be punished severely
  • Indeed, there were elements of the Treaty that the people of France were satisfied with
  • They were pleased that they were no longer threatened by the German army in the Rhineland and that they would be receiving reparations
  • They were given control of the Saar area, Germany's rich coal fields, for 15 years, which would help them financially
  • However, many people were furious about the Treaty
  • They felt that their suffering during the war had been far greater than the German's suffering would be, so thought the Treaty should be much tougher
• France's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles pt. 2

  • Clemenceau was angry that Germany was allowed to retain an army, even a small one, and felt that the Rhineland should have been completely taken away from Germany and made into a small, powerless, independent state
  • He also felt that France should have been given the Saar permanently rather than being lent it
  • When the reparations were settled at £6,600 million, Clemenceau felt this sum was too small
  • He had wanted to see Germany financially crippled
  • Shortly after the Treaty was signed Clemenceau faced an election
  • He was shocked when he was voted out
  • Many ordinary French people clearly felt that their great enemy, the Germans, had been left off too lightly
• The USA's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles

  • America only joined the war in 1917 and, not being near the battle sites, many people in America felt that the Treaty was unfair on Germany and that Wilson had helped Britain and France become more powerful and rich at Germany's expense
  • They also favoured isolationsim
  • They felt that the US should not get involved in affairs in Europe as it did more harm than good
  • They had wanted a fair treaty that guaranteed peace in the future, but felt that they had got the opposite
• The USA's satisfaction with the Treaty of Versailles pt.2

  • In American politics, the Treaty was used to criticise Wilson by his rival party, the Republicans
  • The Republicans argued that since the Treaty had not been based on the Fourteen Points it was not in America's best interests and they refused to ratify it, which meant that America could not join the League of Nations
  • Wilson was devastated. He feared that a harsh treaty would result in America being dragged into another war
  • He was happy that the League of Nations had been created and that countries in Eastern Europe would, largely, have self-determination, but the rest of his Fourteen Points were ignored
  • Wilson desperately toured America, campaigning for America to join the League of Nations
  • However, his efforts tired him; in 1924 he died from a stroke, leaving the Republicans to dominate American politics for the next decade, based on policies of isolationism
• Germany after the war

  • The German people hoped that the Treaty of Versailles would be fair to them and try to guarantee future peace
  • A British blockade had prevented food being imported to Germany throughout the war and people were starving - the Germans needed compassion and help to rebuild a country that lay in tatters
  • The Allies had blamed the German Kaiser for the start of the war and said that he needed to abdicate before the armistice could be signed
  • When the Kaiser had fled to Holland, many Germans felt that the person responsible had been punished, so no further punishment was needed
• The German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles

  • The German people were shocked by the severity of the Treaty
  • Germany had not been allowed to negotiate the terms of the Treaty and people felt that this Diktat was neither fair nor justified
  • Many wanted to reject the Treaty, but they knew that the alternative was to start fighting again and nobody wanted that
  • The German government knew that they had no choice but to agree to the Treaty of Versailles, but they were promptly hated by the population when they signed it
  • The government became known as the 'November Criminals' and it was said that Germany been 'stabbed in the back'
• Politics in Germany

  • The abdication of the German Kaiser left no one to run the country
  • A new, democratic government known as the Weimar Republic was set up, but some people said that it was not strong enough to run the country
  • They wanted one, strong leader
  • Other felt that the new government wasn't helping people fast enough
  • Many revolts broke out and the first five years after the war were unstable and violent
• Hatred for the Treaty of Versailles

  • The part of the treaty that many Germans hated the most was Article 231, the war guilt clause, where Germany and its allies had to accept full responsibility for starting the war and pay reparations
  • The German government claimed that 763,000 civilians had died of starvation
  • They had to give up the rich coal fields of the Saar and their overseas colonies
  • The Germans lost 16 percent of their coal, 48 percent of their steel, and 13 percent of its land
  • Nearly six million German nationals were now living in different countries, often under the control of governments who resented Germany
  • Germany was also humiliated by the reduction of their army to 100,000 men - a huge source of national pride before and during the war
  • Germany felt vulnerable against France and the newly established Communist Russia
• Negative consequences of the Treaty of Versailles

  • Around six million Germans found themselves living outside of German territory. They feared persecution, especially since Germany had been forced to accept the war guilt clause
  • Germany lost 13 percent of its land. German families were forced off land they had owned for generations as it was claimed by other countries under the terms of the Treaty
  • Many people said that the Treaty was too harsh and that it would lead to another war. Lloyd George predicted that there would be another war in just 25 years' time
  • Germans felt vulnerable. They worried that the reduced army and navy were not big enough to protect them from attack
  • The causes of the First World War were very complex, yet Germany and its allies were forced to accept full responsibility. Causes such as the arms race, where Britain and Germany competed to have the biggest navy and empires, were not Germany's fault alone
• Negative consequences of the Treaty of Versailles pt. 2

  • The Treaty was a Diktat. Germany was not allowed to send representatives to the conference or to negotiate. They had to accept whatever terms they were given
  • The Germans thought the peace treaty would be based on Wilson's Fourteen Points. These set out to achieve a fair world for everyone. If they had known that so few of these would make it through to the final treaty, they may not have signed the armistice
  • The reparations crippled Germany. It was estimated it would take until the 1980s to pay them
• Negative consequences of other treaties

  • The new, independent countries created and recognised by the Treaties of Saint Germain and Trianon often united groups who did not want to be united. Countries such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia no longer exist today because different groups in these countries fought bloody civil wars
  • The Treaty of Sevres was so harsh on Turkey that the country revolted against it, and it had to be overturned by the Treaty of Lausanne. This showed that these treaties could not be enforced and showed people like Mussolini and Hitler that the Allies would soon ignore such treaties if violence was threatened
• In defence of the peacemakers

  • The Treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of the most devastating war that the world had seen. It was only right that the losing countries should pay for the damage
  • It was normal for the losers of a war to agree to harsh terms. When Russia had withdrawn from the First World War Germany had made them sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which had taken away more than a quarter of their farmland and population. Many said that this was evidence that if Germany had won, they would have treated the Allies even more strictly
  • Europe was falling apart. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires had ruled over most of Eastern Europe, but with the collapse of these empires, politics in the region had become unstable. The peacemakers had to act quickly. Under so much pressure, they did the best job they could
• The Treaty of St Germain

  • 10 September 1919
  • Austria lost land to Italy and Romania
  • Land was taken to created the new states of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia; Poland, which had been divided up between other countries in the 1700s, was re-established as an independent country - it was given land, too
  • The amount was never fixed, but Austria was told to pay reparations
  • 30,000 men in the army; no conscription, no navy
  • Austria was forbidden from uniting with Germany
• The impacts of the Treaty of St Germain

  • Italy had joined the war in 1915. They promised to support the Allies, and in return would be given land when the war was won. However, the Italians did not feel that they were given enough land
  • Much of Austria's industry was in land given to Czechoslovakia, so Austria lost a huge source of income. Their economy collapsed in 1921
  • The new states that were formed were a mix of different nationalities that often clashed
  • Eastern Europe now consisted of lots of new, small states instead of one powerful empire
• The Treaty of Neuilly

  • 27 November 1919
  • Bulgaria lost land to Yugoslavia, Greece, and Romania. However, Bulgaria did gain some land from Turkey
  • £100 million reparations
  • Bulgarian Army limited to 20,000 with no conscriptions
  • No air force; only allowed four battleships
• The Treaty of Trianon

  • 4 June 1920
  • Land in Hungary was lost to Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Austria
  • Agreed that reparations should be set, but the amount was not fixed. The Hungarian economy collapsed so nothing was ever actually paid
  • 30,000 men in the Hungarian army, no conscription, only allowed three patrol boats
• The Treaty of Sevres

  • 10 August 1920
  • Turkey lost land to Greece
  • In Europe, Turkey lost all its land, except a small area around the capital of Constantinople
  • The Ottoman empire was split up
  • Turkish army restricted to 50,000 men, the navy was restricted to seven sailboats and six torpedo boats
  • Turks had controlled the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus straits, important waterways that connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, but the Treaty said that they must open these to other countries
  • The Allies were allowed to keep troops in Turkey
• The impact of the Treaty of Sevres

  • The people of Turkey were so furious about the treaty that they revolted and overthrew the government
  • The new president threatened to fight the Allies over the Treaty. The British were not prepared to fight another war so they agreed to overwrite the Treaty with the Treaty of Lausanne
• The Treaty of Lausanne

  • July 1923
  • Turkey regained some of the land Greece had taken, control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits, and the right to decide how big their armed forces were
  • Reparations were also cancelled and Allied troops were withdrawn
• The significance of Sevres

  • It proved that the other treaties were unenforceable; when a country rebelled against harsh terms, there was very little that other countries could do. People were scared of returning to war, so they were reluctant to use force to deal with broken treaties
  • When the British agreed to make a new, fairer treaty, it looked as if they were accepting that the original treaty was unfair. This undermined all the treaties
  • Seeing this, Mussolini and Hitler realised that they could get away with breaking international law as no one could stop them
• The new states

  • At the end of the First World War lost of new countries were made
  • Some of these worked well; Czechoslovakia, which was rich in natural resources and home to a well-established industry, was a rich country and was politically stable and well respected in European politics
  • However, there were problems with the others
  • The Allies wanted to create a strong buffer zone between Germany and the USSR and re-established Poland as a country between these two
  • However, Poland had no natural barriers, such as rivers or mountains, on its borders so the country was difficult to defend
  • Poland had been given a strip of German land named the Polish Corridor
  • This aimed to weaken Germany by splitting it in half, while giving Poland access to the sea, resulting in lots of Germans living in Poland
  • The USSR also argued about Poland's eastern borders, and Poland was surrounded by enemies who wanted to reclaim its territory