Treaty of Versailles

• Britain's experience in WW1

  Social:

  -900k empire troops killed

  -2 million wounded

  -Civilian shortages of food and medicine
• Britain's experience in WW1

  Economic:

  -Factories and businesses changed production to meet war needs

  -Lost ground in international trade to USA and Japan

  -Huge loans taken from USA need repaying
• Britain's experience in WW1

  Mental:

  -British newspapers have been running anti-German propaganda

  -emotionally and physically draining

  -Lloyd George won the 1918 general election on a promise to make Germany pay. British voters didn't want moderate peace
• France's experience in WW1

  social:

  -over 1 million killed

  -over 4 million wounded

  -civilian shortages of food and medicine
• France's experience in WW1

  economic:

  -North East France has been destroyed

  -Cost of 40 billion francs

  -Factories and businesses changed their production for the war so they lost their overseas markets
• USA's experience in WW1

  social:

  -100K killed

  -2 million wounded
• USA's experience in WW1

  economic:

  -Some US shipping was sunk by Germans

  -trade with Germany was disrupted by British Blockade

  -Made huge loans to France and Britain which will be repaid after the war

  -America took the lead in several industries
• USA's experience in WW1

  mental:

  -most American's initially wanted to stay out of the war

  -Germany's plotting with Mexico and the sinking of US ships by submarines convinced them to fight
• Britain attitude towards Germany +ve

  -Before the war, Germany were their largest training partner

  -Trade with Germany creates jobs

  -British economy will resume

  -Germany may turn to Communism if they are too poor

  -They may seek revenge and cause another war
• Britain's attitude towards Germany -ve:

  -Popular opinion in Britain for harsh peace terms

  -Germany treated Russia harshly in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk showing how aggressive Germany is and they would've done the same had they won the war

  -Germany threatened the British empire in the build up by challenging their naval dominance
• Britain's attitude towards France +ve:

  -France has been Britain's ally for four years and they suffered in the war together

  -They don't want to see Germany dominate Europe in the future

  -They want to have their losses compensated
• Britain's attitude towards France -ve:


  -Clemenceau wants to be too harsh on Germany preventing Britain's economic recovery and could lead to another war

  -Britain doesn't want France to become too powerful and dominate Europe
• British tactics for Versailles

  -Should play off Clemenceau and Wilson so that Germany is punished but not too harshly
• France's attitude towards Germany -ve:

  -Germany remain threatening. They invaded France twice and there are no mountains or rivers to mark the borders between the nations.

  -Alsace-Lorraine are highly important to France

  -German land was nowhere near as badly damaged as France. France's population is falling whereas Germany's is rising.

  -Germany enforced a harsh terms on Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

  -Newspapers helped mobilise public opinion against Germany during the war
• USA attitude towards Germany +ve:

  Lloyd George understands that being too harsh on Germany would cause them to want revenge and invade France again
• France attitude towards Britain -ve:

  He wants to make sure that Germany lost their Navy and Empire so the British Empire is protected

  -Britain did not suffer as badly as France
• USA attitude towards France -ve:

  -America suffered much less than France during the war

  -Wilson doesn't understand how much Germany has hurt France in the past

  -Wilson is an idealist who has impractical ideas
• French tactics for Versailles

  -French suffering gives them a high moral ground to get what they want

  -Lloyd George is more sympathetic towards France than America so he hopes to get him on his side
• USA attitude towards Britain +ve:

  They recognise that German recovery would boost trade and employment
• USA attitude towards Britain -ve:

  -They have selfish motives, wanting to be paid and to expand their empire

  -Lloyd George opposes some of the 14 points that threaten British naval dominance and the Empire
• USA attitude towards Germany +ve:

  -They need to be careful with Germany as they don't want a communist revolution

  -They don't want them to want revenge
• USA attitude towards Germany -ve:

  They accept that there should be some punishment and that France must feel reassured
• France attitude towards German -ve

  -They have selfish motives, wanting to gain money and territory and to keep Germany weak

  -Clemenceau is stubborn and wants to see Germany get humiliated and financially ruined

  -Determined to get control of the Rhineland and Saar coalfields

  -Clemenceau is risking another war
• USA tactics for Versailles

  -prevent future war

  -encourage disarmament

  -encourage League of Nations

  -encourage self-determination

  -slight punishment on Germany but not too harsh

  -Aim to get Britain on their side

  -high ideals such as the 14 points are better than selfishness

  -Britain and France owe them huge debts
• Territorial terms of the Treaty of Versailles

  -Demilitarised Rhineland

  -Saar Coal Mines given to France

  -Germany hands over the Saar to the LoN and a vote shall take place in 15 years

  -Anschluss is forbidden

  -Sudetenland given to Czechoslovakia

  -Allied powers establish Danzig as a Free City

  -East Germany and East Prussia separated by Polish corridor

  -German colonies became confiscated and became League of Nations mandates

  -Return of Alsace-Lorraine to France
• Military terms of Treaty

  -Importation of German war material prohibited

  -prohibited construction of submarines

  -army limited to 100k people

  -no air force

  -navy was limited to 15k and 6 battle ships
• compensation

  -6.6 billion pounds in reparation

  -war guilt clause
• Clemenceau

  reasons why satisfied

  -Germany were harshly treated

  -France received land and Saar coal fields
• Clemenceau

  reasons why dissatisfied


  -France lost money from colonial income due to independence of the Baltics
• Wilson

  reasons why satisfied

  -creation of league of nations

  -self determination of some states eg Baltics
• Wilson

  reasons why dissatisfied

  -harsh treatment of Germany

  -wanted to keep a good relationship with Germany to prevent future war and boost their own economy
• Lloyd George

  reasons why satisfied

  Germany's military and navy was weakened, resumed domination of the seas

  Some German colonies were handed to Britain
• Lloyd George

  reasons why dissatisfied

  Lloyd George believed and predicted that the harsh treaties would cause them to have to fight another war in 25 years
• Impacts of ToV on Germany

  Political Violence:

  -Right-wing opponents of Elbert's government hated the Treaty and in 1920, they attempted a revolution

  -This was called the Kapp Putsch and it was defeated by a strike by Berlin workers which paralysed essential services such as power and transport

  -The Kapp was defeated but political violence remained a threat

  -There were numerous political assassinations

  -In 1922, German foreign minister was assassinated

  -In 1923, Hitler lead an attempted rebellion, the Munich Putsch
• Impacts of ToV on Germany

  Conflict in the Ruhr

  -In 1923, French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr to extract unpaid reparations in the form of raw materials. This was legal due to the ToV

  -German government ordered the workers to go on strike

  -The French killed 100 workers and expelled 100k protestors

  -The strike meant Germany had no goods to trade and no money to buy things with leading to hyperinflation
• Impacts of ToV on Germany

  Hyperinflation

  -Government tried to solve the problem of not having enough money by simply printing more money

  -Money was worthless so prices shot up

  -Government were able to pay off their debts with worthless marks

  -Middle class Germans suffered as their life savings could not even afford simple items
• Spartacist rising


  -January 1919

  -Spartacists captured the government's newspaper headquarters

  -The uprising was badly prepared

  -They did not get the support of the left wing groups

  -Freikorps defeated them

  -The Spartacist leaders were murdered
• How did Freikorps deal with Spartacist uprising


  -Many demobbed soldiers simply joined the Freikops

  -Defeated the Spartacist uprising

  -Murdered Spartacist leaders

  -Crushed left-wing uprisings in many cities

  -Killed thousands of Communists

  -Elbert had succeeded with dealing with the threats to the Weimar Republic
• Kapp Putsch

  -Western governments were concerned about the number of unofficial troops and put pressure on the German government to disband them

  -When they tried to do this, Freikorps units lead by Wolfgang Kapp marched into Berlin and declared a new nationalist government

  -army didn't stop them

  -Elbert's government had returned to Berlin after success in the elections

  The government turned to workers to help them and a general strike was successful in collapsing the Kapp Putsch
• ToV was fair

  -Treaty of Brest Litovsk in 1918 (loss of valuable natural resource reserves, third of its population)

  -France believed it wasn't harsh enough and wanted Rhineland independence so that they have a buffer of protection due to Germany's threatening pressure