History

THE PEACE TREATIES AFTER THE FIRST WORLD WAR- Were they fair?

The Paris Peace Conference 1919-1920
The leaders of the victorious powers met in Paris to decide how to deal with the defeated powers, but no one from the defeated powers were invited. It lasted for 12 months. The Treaty of Versailles dealt with Germany and the others with Germany´s allies.
The mood in 1918
1. Countries wereexhausted. 2. Economies and industries were in a bad state. 3. Shortage of food and medicine. 4. Loss of family members. 5. Devastation of towns and villages. 6. A lot of casualties. 7. USA didn’t suffer the same consequences as the rest of the countries. 8. Britain and France: Treat Germany harshly (Treaty of Brest Litovsk 1918: Germany stripped Russia of huge amounts of land and 25% of itspopulation) Clemenceau and Lloyd George had public pressure to treat Germany harshly

The aims of the leaders at the Paris Peace Conference
|Leader |Country |Aim, attitude towards Germany and characteristics |
|Georges Clemenceau (prime |France |To weaken and cripple Germany as much as possible sothat it could not attack France again as they felt under|
|minister) | |threat. He was uncompromising; he was determined not to allow such devastation ever again. Georges was a |
| | |realist. He knew they had different aims, but France had suffered a lot and wanted a harsh punishment. |
|Woodrow Wilson(president) |USA |To punish Germany but not too harshly because it will recover and want revenge. He was an idealist; he wanted|
| | |to build world peace. It´s a long time issue, so nations would have to cooperate 14 points: 2 free |
| | |access to sea, 4 disarmament, 5 colonies to have asay in their own future, 8 France to regain Alsace and |
| | |Lorain, 10 self determination (rule themselves) in Eastern Europe |
| | |People ruled by other groups, 14 League of Nations to be set up |
|David LloydGeorge (prime |Britain |To punish Germany but not too harshly to avoid revenge. He was a realist; he wanted Germany to lose its navy |
|minister) | |and colonies because it threatened the British Empire. He wanted Germany to go on trading with Britain. |

The Treaty of Versailles
War guilt: Germany had to accept the blame for starting the warGermans thought blame should be shared
Reparations: Germany has to pay $6600 million for the damage caused by the war German economy was already in tatters and they thought reparations would cripple them
Territories and colonies: Germany´s overseas Empire was taken away. Their former colonies became mandates controlled by the League of Nations (=Britain and France). Germany was forbidden tojoin together with Austria. Germany lost 10% of its land, all the overseas colonies, 12.5% of its population, 16% of its coalfields and 48% of its iron and steel industry blow to German pride and economy
Armed forces: it restricted German armed forces to a level well below that they had before the war. Army was limited to 100.000 people. Conscription was banned. Germany wasn’t allowedarmoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft. Navy was reduced to 6 battleships. Rhineland had to be a demilitarized zone.
League of Nations: international police force. Germany was not invited to the League until it showed it was a peace loving country Germany felt insulted
The overall reaction of Germans was horror and outrage. They didn’t feel they had started the war, not even felt they had...