The Peace Settlement

1. The Peace Settlement Woodrow Wilson submitted his 14 Points, a document that he felt justified the struggle. Open covenants of peace vs. secret diplomacy reduction of national armaments self determination of people No more absolutism or militarism League of Nations However, when he arrived, he realized the European nations were guided by other motives.

2. England and France • David Lloyd George, Britain, won re election based on the fact that Germany would pay for the war. • France, Georges Clemenceau, believed the French people deserved revenge and security from Germany since they bore the brunt of German aggression. • Demilitarized Germany • Vast German reparations to pay for the cost of the war • The Rhineland as a buffer state between France and Germany • Wilson viewed these demands as vindictive and contrary to the principle of self determination. • All nations present were worried about the Bolshevik revolution spreading from Russia to the rest of Europe. • This led to the European nations strengthening eastern Europe states as a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe.

3. The Treaty of Versailles • The final peace settlement was made up of 5 different treaties with the defeated nations: Austria, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. • Germany was not invited to the talks • The Treaty of Versailles with Germany was the most important one- June 28th, 1919. The Germans considered it extremely harsh. • War Guilt Clause- declared Germany and Austria responsible for starting the war and ordered Germany to pay reparations for all the damages the Allied powers suffered. • Had to reduce their army to 100,000 men • Lost Alsace and Lorraine to the French and sections of Prussia to the new Polish state. German land in the west went to the new demilitarized Rhineland to serve as a buffer against possible future German aggression.

5. Territorial Changes As a Result of World War I

6. WW 1 Secret Treaties: Sykes-Picot Agreement [1916] • The Sykes–Picot Agreement, officially known as the Asia Minor Agreement, was a secret agreement between the governments of the United Kingdom and France, with the assent of Russia, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East . • Originally they had promised these nations independence, but after the war France took control of Lebanon and Syria, and Britain received Iraq and Palestine. • Ruled them as mandates, where they officially administered a territory on behalf of the League of Nations • Self Determination was ignored.

8. Balfour Declaration [1917] Foreign Office November 2nd, 1917 Dear Lord Rothschild. I have much pleasure to convey to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations {hopes} which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate {assist} the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. Yours sincerely, ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR British Foreign Secretary

9. British Palestine Mandate in 1923

10. The Middle East in the 1920s

11. Eastern Europe • The people groups in Eastern Europe made it impossible to draw boundaries along neat ethnic lines. • Compromised had to be made. • Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia were expanded to serve as barriers between Germany and Communist Russia and the rest of Europe. • Nearly every Eastern European state was left with a minorities problem that would lead to future conflicts. • Germans in Poland, Hungarians, Poles and Germans in Czechoslovakia and Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians and Albanians in Yugoslavia;

12. German Pacific Colonies [1914] Germany’s Pacific colonies went to Japan, Australia and New Zealand as mandates.

13. League of Nations Mandates in Africa Germany deprived of its colonies in Africa and the Pacific, German colonies in Africa given to GB, the Union of SA and France as mandates under the League of Nations. (suppose to watch out for the natives and prepare them for independence)

14. New Nations &Territories After WW I

15. The League of Nations • An association of states that would replace traditional power politics with a commitment to use peaceful means to resolve international disputes. • Created an assembly, which represented all members of the League. • Created a council, a smaller body with the major powers as permanent members of the League along with several other rotating members elected by the Assembly. • A secretariat which was the league’s administrative body. • The Permanent Court of International Justice • Ineffective from the beginning, especially when the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty so the US never joined.