Treaty of Versailles

1. Treaty of Versailles “A Peace Built Upon Quicksand”

2. Treaty of Versailles • Conference January -June 1919 • Settlement drafted by delegates of victorious nations in WWI: Britain, United States, France, and Italy • “We were preparing not Peace only, but Eternal Peace. There was about us the halo of some divine mission….For we were bent on doing great , permanent and noble things.” Participant of conference at Versailles, World History: Continuity & Change, p. 612

3. A representative of the new German government met with Marshal Foch. • In a railway car in a forest near Paris, the two signed an armistice (an agreement to stop fighting). • On November 11, 1918, World War I came to an end. • Leaders of the victorious nations gathered outside Paris to work out the terms of peace, but the peace settlement left many feeling bitter & betrayed.

4. Why Germany Fell Kaiser Wilhelm II • Failure of German surge • German troops mutinied and deserted • British naval blockade • Food & supplies in short supply • Riots on streets of Germany • Kaiser fled abroad • New government prepared to discuss peace terms---Weimar Republic • Get rid of the monarchy

5. GERMAN EAGLE (to German Dove): "Here, carry on for a bit, will you I'm feeling rather run down."

6. Peace at Last · At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918, Germany agreed to the armistice, ending World War I.

7. The armistice was signed in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne. How and why are these two images of the same event so different?

9. News of the Armistice brought great relief. • On both sides of no-man’s land, trenches erupted, they threw their helmets in the air, discarded their guns, waved their hands, then the two groups of men all up and down the fronts began edging toward each other, hesitantly at first, but when they met up, they began hugging each other, dancing, jumping, passing out cigarettes and chocolate. • The French & the Germans were not only hugging each other but kissing each other on both cheeks as well. • The final toll of the war was staggering. • It lasted 4 years, involved more than 30 nations & was the bloodiest war in history to that time. • Deaths numbered over 30 million, half of them civilians who died as a result of disease, starvation or exposure. • In addition, 20 million more people were wounded & an additional 10 million became refugees. • Historians estimate the direct economic cost of the war to have been about $350 billion. Total casualties:Russia = 9,300,000 Germany = 7,209,413 France = 6,220,800 Austria-Hungary = 4,650,200 Britain = 3,428,535 U.S. = 325,236

10. Aftermath of World War I: Consequences Social: • almost 10 million soldiers were killed and over 20 million are wounded • millions of civilians died as a result of the hostilities, famine, and disease • the world was left with hatred, intolerance, and extreme nationalism.

11. Aftermath of World War I: Consequences Continued Economic: • the total cost of the war: over $350 billion. How was this paid for??? • heavy taxes: causes lower standard of living for the European people. • international trade suffers: nations raise the tariffs on imports and exports. • Russia: communist seize power and introduce a new economic system. • economic collapses bring on the Great Depression of the late 1920’s and 1930’s.

12. Aftermath of World War I: Consequences Continued Political: • U. S. emerges as a world power because of the assumption of international responsibilities. • 3 major European dynasties are taken out of power: Romanovs--Russia, Hohenzollerns--Germany, Hapsburgs--Austria-Hungary. • New states are created in central Europe, some containing several different nationalities, especially in Poland and Czechoslovakia. • The League of Nations is created to solve international problems and maintain world peace. Will be a failure. • Many nations turn to military dictatorships—primarily Russia, Italy, and Germany, to control their political problems.

13. Does this information help you to understand why so many people wanted revenge after the war? Why or why not? Respond on Left Side. • Around 8 million people had been killed • The cost of the war was roughly nine thousand million pounds • The destruction of land, homes, farms and factories was huge • Millions more people died after the war due to famine and disease “In France and Belgium, where most of the war was fought, 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway, 2,000 breweries and 112 coal mines were destroyed…In some ways, mankind has never recovered from the horrors of the First World War.” John D. Clare, First World War (1994)

14. Impact in Europe The effects of World War I in Europe were devastating. • European nations lost almost an entire generation of young men. • France, where most of the fighting took place, was in ruins. • Great Britain was deeply in debt to the U.S. and lost its place as the world’s financial center. • The reparations forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were crippling to its economy. • World War I would not be the “war to end all wars,” as some called it. • Too many issues were left unresolved. • Too much anger and hostility remained among nations. • Within a generation, conflict would again break out in Europe, bringing the United States and the world back into war.

15. The Mood in 1919 • Most countries felt Germany should pay for the damage and destruction caused by the War. • The countries of Europe were exhausted. • Their economies and industries were in a poor state. • Millions had died. Almost every family had lost a member in the fighting. • Ordinary citizens faced shortages of food and medicine.

16. The Paris Peace Conference • President Wilson led American negotiators attending the peace conference in Paris in January 1919. • His attendance of the Paris Peace Conference made him the first U.S. President to visit Europe while in office. • Republicans criticized Wilson for leaving the country when it was trying to restore its economy. • Wilson’s dream of international peace, though, required him to attend the conference as a fair and unbiased leader to prevent squabbling among European nations. • The Paris Peace Conference began on January 12, 1919, with leaders representing 32 nations, or about three-quarters of the world’s population. • The leaders of the victorious Allies—President Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French premier Georges Clemenceau, and Italian prime minister Vittorio Orlando—became known as the Big Four. • Germany and the Central Powers were not invited to attend.

17. “Der Tail Alvays Sticks Oudt" The San Antonio Express November 3, 1918

18. General Purpose • To maintain a balance of power in Europe like the Congress of Vienna • To prevent another war • Unfortunately, nations had differing aims

19. David Lloyd-George [Great Britain] Woodrow Wilson [USA] Orlando [Italy] Georges Clemenceau [France]

20. The Four Major Leaders

22. End of the War Continued • Eventually five treaties emerged from the Conference that dealt with the defeated powers. • The five treaties were named after the Paris suburbs: • Versailles (Germany), • St Germain (Austria), • Trianon (Hungary), • Neuilly (Bulgaria) • and Serves (Turkey). • These treaties imposed territorial losses, financial liabilities and military restrictions on all members of the Central Powers.

23. Woodrow Wilson • President of the USA. • Wilson was an idealist and reformer, who wanted to build a better and more peaceful world. • He didn’t want the Treaty to be too harsh as he believed this would lead to revenge. • He wanted to set up a peace keeping body – The League of Nations • Wilson did not understand the deep feelings of hatred in Europe.

24. America (Wilson) • Fourteen Points including self-determination, reduction in militaries, and the League of Nations • American public preferred not to entangle itself with Europe (ex. Henry Cabot Lodge)

25. America’s View: A Peace of Justice • Woodrow Wilson of America had been genuinely stunned by the savagery of the Great War. • He could not understand how an advanced civilization could have reduced itself so that it had created so much devastation. • In America, there was a growing desire for the government to adopt a policy of isolation and leave Europe to its own devices. • In failing health, Wilson wanted America to concentrate on itself and, despite developing the idea of a League of Nations, he wanted an American input into Europe to be kept to a minimum. • He believed that Germany should be punished but in a way that would lead to European reconciliation as opposed to revenge.

26. America’s View Continued • He had already written about what he believed the world should be like in his "FourteenPoints" The main points in this document were: • no more secret treaties • countries must seek to reduce their weapons and their armed forces • national self-determination should allow people of the same nationality to govern themselves and one nationality should not have the power to govern another • all countries should belong to the League of Nations.

27. The Fourteen Points • In a speech to Congress before the war ended, President Wilson outlined a vision of a “just and lasting peace.” • His plan was called the Fourteen Points, and among its ideas were • Open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, the removal of trade barriers, and the reduction of military arms • A fair system to resolve disputes over colonies • Self-determination, or the right of people to decide their own political status and form their own nations • Establishing a League of Nations, or an organization of countries working together to settle disputes, protect democracy, and prevent future wars • The Fourteen Points expressed a new philosophy that applied progressivism to U.S. foreign policy. • The Fourteen Points declared that foreign policy should be based on morality, not just on what’s best for the nation.

28. What does this source tell you about the British public’s feelings towards Germany in 1918? Respond to this on your Left Side. “The Germans, if this government is elected, are going to pay every penny; they are going to be squeezed, as a lemon is squeezed, until the pips squeak.” (Sir Eric Geddes, December 1918) Sir Eric Geddes was Minister of Munitions in Britain, Controller of the Navy and First Lord of the Admiralty at different points during The First World War.

29. Siegfried Sassoon, the poet, wrote in his diary on November 6, 1918: • “Saw Winston Churchill for a few minutes at the Ministry. Full of victory talk…One feels that England is going to increase in power enormously. They mean to skin Germany alive. ‘A peace to end peace!’”

30. “The British General Election in December 1918 was punctuated by bellowings that the Kaiser should be hanged, that Germany should pay up….Few realised the harmful effects of uniformed and aggressive public opinion which had been aroused by years of war propaganda, and whipped up by the popular press…” Martin Kitchen, Europe Between The Wars, 1988. Discuss how difficult must it have been for the Allies to get the right balance between punishment and creating a lasting peace? Do with your partner and write on Left Side.

31. David Lloyd George • The prime minister of Great Britain. • He was a realist. • An experienced politician who realised there must be compromise. • The people of Britain wanted revenge. • He knew this would lead to war but he represented the people.

32. Lloyd George (UK) • Germany to be justly punished, but not too harshly • Germany to lose its navy and colonies as these were a threat to Britain's own navy and empire • Germany and Britain to become trading partners BUT Overall, Lloyd George did not want to punish Germany too harshly as he did not want Germany seeking revenge in the future

33. Britain • Protect overseas territory and naval superiority • Germany can remain a major power • Public opinion wanted Germany to pay • Represented by David Lloyd George

34. Great Britain’s Peace of Vengeance • David Lloyd George of Great Britain had two views on how Germany should be treated. • His public image was simple. • He was a politician and politicians needed the support of the public to succeed in elections. • If he had come across as being soft on Germany, he would have been speedily voted out of office. • The British public was after revenge and Lloyd George's public image reflected this mood. • "Hang the Kaiser" and "Make Germany Pay" were two very common calls in the era immediately after the end of the war and Lloyd George, looking for public support, echoed these views.

35. “The Children” by Rudyard Kipling 1917 • These were our children who died for our lands: they were dear in our sight. • We have only the memory left of their home-treasured sayings and laughter. • The price of our loss shall be paid to our hands, not another’s hereafter. • Neither the Alien nor Priest shall decide it. That is our right. • But who shall return us the children? • At the hour the Barbarian chose to disclose his pretences, • And raged against Man, they engaged, on the breasts that they bared for us, • The first felon-strike of the sword he had long-time prepared for us, • Their bodies were all our defence while we wrought our defences. • They bought us anew with their blood, forbearing to blame us, • Those hours which we had not made good when the Judgement o’ercame us. • They believed us and perished for it. Our statecraft, our learning • Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning • Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour--- • Not since her birth has our Earth seen such worth loosed upon her. • Nor was their agony brief, or once, only imposed on them. • The wounded, the war-spent, the sick received no exemption: • Being cured they returned and endured and achieved our redemption, • Hopeless themselves of relief, till Death marvelling, closed on them.

36. “The Children” continued • That flesh we had nursed from the first in all cleanness was given • To corruption unveiled and assailed by the malice of Heaven--- • By the heart-shaking jests of Decay where it lolled on the wires--- • To be blanched or gay-painted by fumes---to be cindered by fires--- • To be senselessly tossed and retossed in stale mutilation • From crater to crater. For this we shall take expiation. • But who shall return us our children? • What stance does this poem take towards the peace process? • How can you tell?

37. Lloyd George’s Private Views • He was very concerned about the rise of communism in Russia . • He feared that it might spread to western Europe. • After the war had finished, Lloyd George believed that the spread of communism posed a far greater threat to the world than a defeated Germany. • Privately, he felt that Germany should be treated in such a way that left her as a barrier to resist the expected spread of communism. • He did not want the people of Germany to become so disillusioned with their government that they turned to communism.

38. Private Views of Lloyd George Continued • Lloyd George did not want Germany treated with lenience but he knew that Germany would be the only country in central Europe that could stop the spread of communism if it burst over the frontiers of Russia. • Germany had to be punished but not to the extent that it left her destitute. • However, it would have been political suicide to have gone public with these views.

39. Lloyd George (UK) • There was pressure at home to make Germany pay – if he had been too soft he would have been voted out as PM. • Lloyd George hated the Treaty. • However "Hang the Kaiser" and "Make Germany Pay" were two very common calls in the era immediately after the end of the war and Lloyd George, looking for public support, echoed these views. • He liked the fact that Britain got German colonies, and the small German navy helped British sea-power. • But, although many British people wanted to ‘make Germany pay’, Lloyd George thought that the Treaty was too harsh, and that it would start another war in 25 years time. What did Lloyd George like and dislike about the Treaty?

40. “For the Apostles of ‘No Humiliation’ by Owen Seaman in Punch on Oct 23, 1918 • Rumours arrive thick as swarming bees; • Our evening rags announce with raucous clamour • The latest wire, the semi-final wheeze • Transmitted by the fertile Rotterdammer, • Giving a local version • Of William Two’s spontaneous dispersion. • They leave me cold. I care not how he pays • The heavy debt his deeds of wanton fury owe--- • Whether he puts his orb to bed, or stays • On exhibition like an antique curio; • The reckoning we charge • Has to be settled by the Hun at large. • Here and elsewhere his advocates impute • Innocence to the Bosch---a gentle creature, • Too prone perhaps to lick the tyrant’s boot. • But otherwise without a vicious feature; • They’d have our wrath abated; • Poor child, ‘he must not be humiliated.’ • Why not? Against his army’s bestial crimes • He never lifted one protesting finger • The wrongs of Belgium drew his jocund rhymes; • Over the Hymn of Hate he loved to linger. • Pressing the forte pedal • And wore---for luck---the Lusitania medal.

41. “For the Apostles” continued • He took a holiday for children slain, • And butchered women set his flags a-flutter; • Our drowning anguish served for his light refrain • To beery patriots homing down the gutter; • On prisoners he spat, • The helpless ones, and thanked his Gott for that. • Had he but fought a decent nations fight, • Clean-handed, then we must have spared his honour; • But now, if Germany goes down in night, • ‘Tis he, not we, that puts the shame upon her, • Shame not of mere defeat, • But such that never our hands again can meet. • Why should his pride of race be spared a fall? • Let him go humble all his days for sentence. • Why pity him as just a Kaiser’s thrall, • This beast at heart---though fear may fake repentance? • For me, when all is said, • I save my pity for the murdered dead. • What arguments are made to deal with Germany harshly in this poem?

42. George Clemenceau He was seeing red…wanted revenge • President of France. • Clemenceau had seen France invaded by Germany in 1870 and 1914, he wanted to make sure this would never happen again. • France had suffered greatly during the War they wanted compensation and revenge. • Uncompromising.

43. France • Bitter over French and Prussian War • Permanently weaken Germany to protect France (after two invasions) • Some wanted Germany divided • Represented by Premier Georges Clemenceau

44. France’s Views: A Peace of Vengeance • Georges Clemenceau of France had one very simple belief - Germany should be brought to its knees so that she could never start a war again. • This reflected the views of the French public but it was also what Clemenceau himself believed in. • He had seen the north-east corner of France destroyed and he determined that Germany should never be allowed to do this again. • "The Tiger" did not have to adapt his policies to suit the French public - the French leader and the French public both thought alike.

45. Clemenceau (France)Clemenceau liked the harsh things that were in the Treaty, especially reparations, because they would weaken Germany while helping France to recover. • He had one very simple belief - Germany should be brought to its knees so that she could never start a war again (France had been invaded by Germany before in 1871). • He liked the idea of a small German army, and the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland, because he thought that this would protect France from attack in the future. • Also, he was pleased that France received Alsace-Lorraine as this had been taken off France by Germany in 1871. • In truth though, he wanted the Treaty to be harsher. What did Clemenceau like and dislike about the Treaty?

46. Vittorio Orlando • Italian Prime Minister. • Wanted land and territory for Italy. • Self determination stopped Italy getting the lands especially Fiume. • Walked out of the meeting when he didn’t get his way in April 1919. • Returned to sign the Treaty in May.

47. Italy’s Views: Obtain Land • Linked to the "Big Three" was Italy led by Vittorio Orlando. • He was frequently left on the sidelines when the important negotiations took place despite Italy fighting on the side of the Allies. • Why was Italy treated in this manner? 1)At the start of the war in 1914, Italy should have fought with Germany and Austria as she had signed the Triple Alliance which dictated that if one of the three was attacked, the other two would go to that country's aid. 2)Italy did not join in on Germany's side but waited until 1915 and joined the side of Britain and France. 3)This association with Germany was enough to taint Italy in the eyes of the "Big Three".

48. Treatment of Italy Continued • Why was Italy treated in this manner? 4)Also Italy had not played an overwhelming part in the war. • Her army had been beaten at the battles of Caporetto. 5)Her strategic importance to central Europe was minimal whilst Britain dominated the Mediterranean with naval bases in Malta and Gibraltar. • Italy's potential military clout in 1919, should the need arise to put pressure on Germany and Austria, was limited.

49. Respond on your Left Side: What do you think is the point of this political cartoon? What do you think the caption for this political cartoon should be? Political Cartoon on Futile Attempts of America

50. After reading this source, how do you think the Germans felt at the end of World War One? Respond to this prompt on your Left Side. “Through the doors at the end…come four officers of France, Great Britain, America and Italy. And then, isolated and pitiable, come the two Germans, Dr. Muller and Dr. Bell. The silence is terrifying…They keep their eyes fixed away from those two thousand staring eyes, fixed on the ceiling. They are deathly pale…There is general tension. They sign. There is general relaxation…We kept our seats while the Germans were conducted like prisoners from the dock.” (Harold Nicolson, Peacemaking, 1919.) Peace