THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

28 June 1919

“This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years”French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch

Legacy of World War OneWar deaths

Russia 1750000Germany 1750000France 1500000Austria-Hungary 1250000Great Britain 900000Italy 600000Turkey 300000USA 114000

Why the need for a treaty?• To make Europe and especially France, safe from the danger of another attack by Germany• Make Europe a safer and better place by making more land ruled over by governments of the same nationality as the people who lived there (self determination)• Get back some of the cost of the war from the country that caused it to start, and punish the people who actually started it• Stop any more wars from starting

The Big Three• French president Georges Clemenceau• Great Britain prime minister David Lloyd George• US president Woodrow Wilson

Perspective exercise

Consider the followingHow did Germany affect you?Key terms you want in the Treaty of Versailles?

Keep this in mindClemenceau wanted a tough treaty

Wilson wanted a lenient treaty and self determination

Lloyd George wanted to “make Germany pay”

“If I am returned [to office] Germany is going to pay... and I personally have no doubt that we will get everything that youcan squeeze out of a lemon and a bit more.” Sir Eric Geddes

Orlando of Italy wanted believed Italy should be rewarded forjoining the winning side

Key termsDiktat – A decision forced on a group without consultation

Demilitarisation – Taking away the means of making war or providing defence

Disarmament – Doing away with military weapons

Self determination – The power of people to decide its own future

What did the main players want? France - Keen for revenge and guaranteeing French people that Germany could not invade again• Needed to keep the Rhine area as a barrier to Germany

Britain – Safeguard for Britain – weaken German army• Lloyd George trapped by election promise to ‘squeeze’ Germans and reparations was the way of doing this

Italy - Wanted territory from being on the side of the victor

USA – Wilson a tough negotiator who likes to get his way• Dictated the terms of the conference• Self determination for a number of countries• Poland gets Danzig• Establish a League of Nations to keep world peace

What they got• War guilt – Pleases everyone• Disarmament – Pleases Britain and France who are worried about another war and are close by• Demilitarisation of Rhineland, bordering Belgium and France – Pleases France because they’re less vulnerable to attack• Reparations – Germany to pay Allies for all war damage. Pleases everyone because their economies are struggling and it will weaken Germany further• Lose colonies to Allies – makes Danzig a free city, they lose Alsace Lorraine to France• Saar put under League of Nations trusteeship for 15 years. So they can’t make any money from it• Anschluss forbidden. No deals with Austria undermining peace and security •Sudetenland taken from Austria and Germany and given to the Czechs. Undermining any concept of Anchluss• Italy renounced claims for Dalmatia and instead pursued Fiume,(in Croatia) and got neither – Italians not too happy•League of Nations established – Pleases USA•Self determination for the likes of Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland and Latvia – Pleases USA

What is your country happy about?

Reactions

The Victors v The Vanquished

France

• Germany had lost and had to suffer the consequences• The Treaty was no more severe than the 1871 Treaty enforced on France by Germany• Germany was still potentially strong and had to be weakened by disarmament and reparations to keep the peace

Germany• It was a ‘diktat’ . They had no say in the Treaty• They were given all the blame• Only the losers were forced to disarm• Only the losers lost territory• They were bound to pay whatever the Allies found convenient to charge• The territorial losses (13.5% of territory and 7 million subjects) were far too harsh• Germans hated to accept the blame for the war• Many believed Germany should never have surrendered in the first place

“Today in the Hall of Mirrors a disgraceful treaty is being signed. Never forget it. There will be vengeance for the shame of 1919.”

“The Allies are driving the knife into the living body of the German people.... The proposed Peace means the miserable enslavement of children.”

Was it too harsh?

The Treaty as a cause of World War II• A bitter, humiliated Germany

• Reparations will financially cripple Germany

• Angry citizens looking for scapegoats

• Perfect opportunity for extremists to undermine the government

• Hitler will use this as ammunition for his later campaign

• Revenge