Cards (65)

  • Paris Peace Conference
    1919
    meeting of "victors"
    delegates of 27 nations
    main decisions -> council of 4 (UK, USA, Fr, It)
    no Ger/AH delegation
    no Russia (excluded)
  • Context of countries during Paris Peace Conference 1919
    (russia, new republics, central europe, germany, western europe)

    - Russia (bolsheviks) - excluded
    - new republics - Baltic Coast, - Poland, Danube (iffy)
    - central europe chaos (threat rev)
    - allied blockade of Germany
    - Western Europe devastated
    - europeans "in awe" over USA president
  • The Fourteen Points

    1918 Congressional speech

    - prevent devastating warfare from happening again
    - keep Russia on allied side
    - boost morale
    - undermine central power
  • Content of Fourteen Points
    -1/2 specific territorial issues between countries at war
    - vision for peace
  • 5 big characteristics of Fourteen Points
    - transparency in international relations
    - peace without victory (stability instead of punishment)
    - liberal, free world (freedom of seas + reduction of arms by all)
    - national self-determination
    - international political organisation to prevent war (league of nations + keeping sov but conflict resolution)
  • Explain national self- determination in the Fourteen Points

    grps bound by common language/lines of descent have a right to territorial independence

    -> evacuate occupied territories
    -> self-determ of nationalities
    -> redraw boundaries

    "colonial adjustments" colonisers and colonisees have equal weight
  • Paris Peace Conference: what did France want
    - garantees against renewed German invasions
    - asked that the part of Germany west of the Rhine be an independent state under Allied control
  • Paris Peace Conference: what did Britain want

    vetoed the freedom of the seas; sought to preserve British command of the sea
  • Paris Peace Conference: what did Italy want
    wanted to gain "Italian" territories in former Austria-Hungary, Eastern-Europe; sought to manifest itself as one of the great European powers
  • Treaty of Versailles (1919) how was Germany punished?
    - "guilt clause" (accept resonsibility for causing war + reparations)
    - german disarmament
    - enormous war reparations
    - German territorial losses
    - loss of all colonies (awarded to league of nations then redistributed)
  • German Disarmament (Treaty of Versailles)

    no airforce, no tanks, no submarines, army reduced to 100.000 men; navy reduced to coastal defense force
  • Enormous war reparations (Treaty of Versailles)

    (including war pensions; Germany not allowed to repair physical damages themselves)
  • German territorial losses (Treaty of Versailles)
    Rhineland:
    would remain German but demilitarised and under allied control for 15 years

    • Alsace and Lorraine; and the Saar:
    restored to France; coal-rich area of the Saar (W-Germany) would beunder allied control for 15 years (coal would serve as reparation to France)

    • Transfers of small territories to Belgium (Eupen-Malmédy), Denmark and Poland
  • what happened to the Austrian-Hungarian empire after Treaty of Versailles?
    (Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland, Romania)
  • Czechoslovakia then split into two countries in...

    Czech Republic and Slovakia (1992)
  • Yugoslavia was composed of...
    former Serbia
    territories from AH
    (South Slavic ppl)
    disintigrated in early 1990s
  • Soviet Union territories after treaty of Versailles
    lost territory to new Baltic states and Poland
  • Poland territories after treaty of Versailles
    Poland got parts of Germany
  • Italy territories after treaty of versailles
    territorial demands resulted in major conflict; obtained Trieste and some Dalmatian islands from Austria

    • Istria was predominantly Slovene and should have gone to Yugoslavia (principleof self-determination)

    Italian claims for African and Asian territory were not fulfilled
  • Bulgaria territories after treaty of Versailles
    lost territory to Yugoslavia and connection to the Aegean Sea to Greece
  • What happened to the Ottoman Empire after WW1?

    partitioned in 1922; British and French annexation of territories outside Arabian peninsula (Sykes-Picot agreement 1916); left a vast area of the Middle East unsettled ---complex legacy of Ottomon empire and Western mandates continues to shape conflicts up todate
  • what happened to Germany colonies in Africa and China
    France and GB divided up most
    + Belgian Congo enlargened

    Japan received a mandate for German Pacific Islands north of the Equator; claimed rights over German concessions in China but only acquired about half of them
  • German reaction to treaty of Versailles
    first refused to sign - threatened hostilities + blockade

    gov crisis in Berlin - new gov coalition signs
  • Paris Peace Settlement: triumph of Western nationalism and yet...

    - failed to solve minority problems
    - germans in Czechoslovakia complained cut off from Germany
    - german nationalism +++
  • How did the Treaty of Versailles fail
    - too severe - German revanchism
    - too lenient to destroy German power
    - conflict of interests between Great Powers
    - USA never ratified treaty, didn't enter League of Nations (isolationism)
  • Conflict of interests after Paris Peace Settlement between great powers (Italy, China, Russia, France)
    Italy bitter over small territorial gains; China dissatisfied by Japanese gains, Russia objected to cordon sanitaire and loss of territory; France felt duped over Rhineland and Anglo-American guarantee of support against future German aggressions
  • Creation of League of Nations
    1920

    - Council (permanent members + elected members)

    - Assembly (representatives of member states)

    - Secretariat (Geneva) and Court of International Justice (The Hague)
  • Why was the League of Nations not able to prevent WW2?
    - no own army (relied on allied forces)
    - ppl saw as sticking up for GB/Fr
    - USA refused to sign
    - 1935: Abysinnian Crisis: Italy invades Ethiopia
    - Soviet Union (late and brief)
  • Why was the Soviet Union expelled from League of Nations

    invaded Finland 1939
  • The Great Depression
    1930s
    worlwide economic recession, originated in US (1929: crash of Wall Street)
  • Steps of worldwide economic recession
    - war economy
    - "roaring twenties" and post-war optimism (easy credit)
    - production decline, drop in sales, agriculture over production
    - vicious economic cycle
    - 1929: panic on the stock market, no limitations on trading or measures to prevent panic sales; massive devaluation of stock bonds
  • what country was affected the most by the Great Depression
    Germany
    -> war debt prevented investments that could've boosted economy
    -> crash of wall street - USA calls in international loans of germany
    -> german cuts on public spending made things worse
  • How crash of wall street impacted germany economy
    - US calls in loans
    - German industry loses finance, lowers production, lays off workers
    - ppl spend less, prices drop, demain falls
    - industry loses more money, lowers production further, lays more workers off
    - ppl spend less, prices drop
    - depression
  • vacuum of political power
    = collapse of monarchies
  • how was inequality after ww1 and what did this lead to
    - heightened
    - radicalisation and working-class militancy
  • what did labour shortages help the labour unions for (interbellum)
    enhanced negotiation power of labour unions
  • was the left unified during interbellum?
    No
    (communists vs. social-democrats; participation in WWI or not)
    + 1917 Russian Revolution - fear of destabilization
  • comparing russian rev with french rev
    - Fr: liberation against feudalism/despotism
    - Rus: liberation against capitalism/imperialism

    - Fr and Rus: unity to overthrow, conflict over founding new regime

    - Fr and Rus: minority of radicals organised and managed to suppress all opposition to defend rev cause
  • what kind of position did the soviet union occupy vis-a-vis europe and the colonial world
    intermediate position between Europe and the colonial world

    • Feared/admired in Europe and USA for having the last word in social revolution (Rosa Luxemburg - political gap in Germany)

    • Conceived as an alternative pathway to modernity (without being capitalist/Western); a step in a potential world-wide rebellion against European supremacy
  • comintern
    Communist International
    1919

    main focus: how to export revolution to other european countries and colonies?

    sceptic towards moderates (slow down rev)