Peace of Paris

• The Peaces of Paris are characterized by these exigencies
  • German War question: did they start it and did they loose it?
  • Looming threat of Communism
  • Economic Debt issues
• Specific issues included
  • The decomposition of the rotten corpses of the former empires of Russia, A-H, and Ottomans forming new states that are vulnerable to the spread of Communism, along with the rest of Eastern and Central Europe
  • Also the question of the German Colonial Possessions looms as well as fate of the Arabian portion of the Ottoman empire (Sykes-Picot agreement)
  • What to do with Russia and lands of Russia per Brest-Litovsk?
  • What should everyone do about the 14 points of Woody Wilson? Will they accept some or all or none of the points?
    • Disarmament and public diplomacy with no secret treaties
• On January 1919 40 Nations and other nationalities convene in Paris
• Proceedings will be dominated by 5 Countries, that are eventually whittled down to 3
  • US Representatives
    • Woodrow Wilson is the leader of the conference; he often makes decisions for himself
    • Wilson refuses to bring any Republicans on consult with them over the peace negotiations much to the discontent of Henry Cabot Lodge
    • Wilson is the last Virginian president, who was born before the Civil War, and enjoys making racist jokes but is a progressive liberal.
    • His 14 points have established the bans for the pace talks, especially for Germany.
    • Wilson is received as a hero all across Europe much to the dismay of western leaders.
    • He was the President of Princeton, Governor of New Jersey
    • Invented the Income tax, IRS and Federal Reserve, anti-trust, moral issues against suffrage and prohibition.
    • Wilson is brilliant, stubborn, and convinced of his own infallibility. Wilson's pet project above all else was the League of Nations
    • He also brought General Pershing, Secretary of State Robert Lansing, and confidante Colonel Edward House.
  • French Representatives
    • Georges Clemenceau, "The Tiger," when France was at its lowest and on the verge of dropping out personally holds France steady
    • he was born in 1841 (78 years old). He fought at Paris with the communards in 1871, journalist and close friend of Emil Zola, who wrote J'accuse about the Dreyfus affair.
    • Liberal politically, but tenacious in war. He had a running feud with the president Raymond Poincaré.
    • The French and Clemenceau are extremely Revanchist: Focus is
      • Alsace-Lorraine
      • Reparations
      • Security in the "next war"
        • make Germany smaller and break it up into its Constituent States, make a bunch of Independent Buffer states.
        • The Rhineland is annexed, but is made a DMZ.
        • France wants a guarantee of Great Britain and US in case of a future German attack
        • The French are very insecure
      • The public feel as though they have "won" the war and deserve something for winning
  • British position
    • Led by a conservative Prime Minister David Lloyd George
    • He is one of the first PMs not from the aristocracy
    • used to be the chancellor of the Exchequer, so he is very finance oriented
    • reorganized the entire British economy to fund the war
    • Lloyd George had to deal with the labor party during his election campaign that also coincided with the peacemaking treaties
    • The British want these things
      • High Seas Fleet
      • German colonies in Africa because of their Capetown to Cairo plan, and also in Arabia because it has oil
      • War costs of future Germans pay for pensions of vetrans
  • Italy's Issues
    • The Italians become allied with the Triple Entente in 1915 with the Treaty of London, which was a secret treaty promising irredenta.
    • They got South Tyrol, Trieste, and Istria, but not the Dalmatian Coast or Fiume.
    • Wilson refuses to recognize some irredenta because of the secret treaty, but awards others on the grounds of self determination.
    • The Italians are furious because they believe the treaty has been broken. 600,000 were killed in the war, and Fiume becomes the center of nationalist agitation
    • An Italian delegation led by Vittorio Orlando, a college professor, walks out in April 1919.
    • Italian irregular military occupy Fiumé under the leadership of Poet Gabriele D'annunzio.
    • The Italians are revisionist over the peace treaty, which leads to an overthrow of the Italian government by the right wing Fascisti of Benito Mussolini in 1922.
  • Japan's Desires
    • led by Prince Matsuoka and Prime Minister Ishii. Japan wants to be treated as an equal
    • Japan wants confirmation of their expanded position in Manchuria gained in 1916 through the 21 Demands, which they extorted from China and their de facto possession of the former German concession on Shantung Peninsula.
    • Japan also wants German possessions in Oceania: the Mariana and Caroline Islands (which they get) and the Solomans, Samoas, Bismarck Archipelago, and Kaiser Wilhelm land (which they don't get).
    • Japan also wants written into the Covenant of League of Nations a condemnation of racism by all member states.
    • The West embracism: Great Britain and the US are the main members. Prime Minister Billy Hughes supported racism because South Africa and Australia are still British possessions where racism would be "useful"
    • Japan gets pissed and goes home. This results in the embarking on the journey towards an independent foreign policy.
  • Other countries
    • Other Countries and nationalities come to Paris in 1919 "with a handle of gimmie and mouthful of much obliged."
    • Belgium wants reparations worth the entire value of their country in 1912
    • Also the Dominions want more autonomy. The U of SA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
    • Some countries in Eastern Europe are already surreptitiously formed. The Poles, Yugoslavs, and Czechoslovakians all claim territory from neighbors. They ask for adjudication from the Big 3.
    • Nationalities ask for independence for example India. China wants a rejection of concessions and unequal treaties, which is denied.
    • Koreans, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Indonesians and Arabs especially, demand colonial independence and are also denied, this time for financial reasons
    • The Big 3 are responsible not only the Peace for World War, but also the redrawing of world maps.
• The Peace of Paris is made up of 5 treaties
  • Versailles with the Germans
    • Territory
      • Alsace Lorraine is given to France
      • Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium
      • Saar Basin is internationalized as a free city and administered by the League. The League leases it to France for 15 years, after which the city will hold a plebiscite to determine nationality.
      • Rhineland is DMZ
      • N Schleswig Holstein is given to Denmark
      • Danzig, a Polish Port, is Internationalized as a free city and governed by the League
      • West Prussia to Poland
      • Upper Silesia to Poland
      • Memel to Lithuania
    • Disarmament
      • The German army is limited to work with 12 year enlistments, which severely constricts the training of reserves.
      • High Seas Fleet is supposed to be turned over to the British, but the German sailors scuttle it (sink it on purpose).
      • They have arms limitations: no planes, or Zeppelins, tanks, submarines, or poison gas.
      • Moreover the French, who are concerned with security, get a guarantee from the British and US called the Anglo-American Guarantee promise to aid France if they are attacked.
    • Reparations
      • The War Guilt Clause in Article 23 means that Germany "agrees" to pay reparations, but the amount is undecided.
      • The Germans disagree, but the British blockade continues.
      • Eventually the Allied Reparations Commission in 1920 will set the cost at $27 Billion. John Maynard Keynes, a British expert disagrees because he thinks it will cause another war.
    • League of Nation
      • The charter/covenant of the League of Nations is a part of the treaty of Versailles.
      • Was the League an anti-German organization? The Germans were not allowed to join because Wilson said they were on "probation."
      • Germans do not wish to sign but eventually do. They call it the Diktat, which means a slave treaty, and they probably plan to circumvent it in the future.
      • Versailles never is tenable since
        • the Germans hate it
        • the US fails to ratify it because of the Cabinet war with Henry Cabot Lodge
        • the League lacks statute since the US, Germany, and Russia are not in.
        • The League appears to be a Franco-British policy front.
        • US failure to ratify also torpedoes the Anglo-American Guarantee to France, who seeks allies against Germany like Poland and Czechoslovakia.
  • St. Germaine with the Austrians
    • Disarmament
    • Reparations
    • Austria is stripped of territory
      • 80% territory loss
      • Bohemia and Moravia are given to Czecholslovakia
      • Galciia to Poland
      • Bukonina to Romania
      • Bosnia to Yugoslavia
      • Part of Austrian Slovenia goes to Yugoslavia
      • Italy gains South Tyrol, and Istria/Trieste
      • Transylvania to Romania from Hungary
      • Croatia to Yugoslavia from Hungary
      • Banat to Yugoslavia and Romania from Hungary
    • They are forbidden to unite with the Germans, which Hitler does later with the Anschluss.
    • Post-treaty Austrian government is a "democracy" dominated by aristocracy and the church
    • Basically they are right-wing, anti-semitic, and clerical fascists.
  • Trianon with Hungary
    • Reparations
    • Disarmament
    • They also faced territorial losses (65% of their territory) there are more Magyars outside than in Hungary. This makes them bitter revisionists.
    • Hungary is denied a King, going from a dual monarchy to an Empty Monarchy. Basically is a monarchy that agrees not to have a king, so they are permanently ruled by a regent named Admiral Horthy
    • Hungary is dominated by landed aristocracy, who eventually gravitates towards a right-wing, capitalist (fascist).
  • Poland
    • also gravitates to Right Wing government that is dominated by the Army. The Big 3 (Wilson, Clemenceau, and Lloyd-George) are trying to establish democracies in place of Divine Right Rulers east of the Rhine.
  • Neuilly with Bulgaria
    • Fought with the Central Powers because of their defeat and loss of territory in the 2nd Balkan War.
    • They face reparations and disarmament
    • Looses territory to Greece and Romania
  • The Treaty of Sevres
    • The first four treaties were all concluded by 1919 because of pressure over the threat of communism, and European economics conditions hasten this process.
    • Many countries on the Allied side, for example Italy, felt shorted by the first three treaties.
    • The Treaty of Sevres in 1920 is not concluded until April, which shows that basically there is no rush, and that the big powers see this as an opportunity for land grabs and balancing the power.
    • The division of the Ottoman Empire reflects continuing Imperialism, disdain for non-christians and certainly isn't based on Wilsonian Idealism. The Precursor of Sevres was Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916) that showed that the European powers were already thinking out how to divide up the Ottoman Empire.
    • The treaty meant that the straits and Constantinople are internationalized, and Arab portions of the Ottoman Empire are divided.
    • The territorial terms of Sevre
      • European Turkey and Smyrna were annexed by Greece and there is a Greek sphere of influence north of the straights
      • The region around the straights and Constantinople are internationalized and governed by the League of Nations
      • Italy gets a large sphere of influence in SW and Southern Anatolia adjacent to the Dodecanese Islands (which they gained in 1911 during the Italo-Turkish War)
      • French get a sphere of influence in south central Turkey adjacent to a large area controlled by the French in present day Syria and Lebanon (Arab)
      • There is a joint sphere of influence with France in the west and the British in the east over the eventual country of Kurdistan.
      • British has a sphere of influence in Kurdistan is adjacent to a large Region centered on the Tigris and Euphrates river valley that includes the oil rich city of Mosul in Iraq.
      • Established an independent Armenia under a protectorate of the US, which we never ratify.
      • Britain also get control of two other regions in Arabia: TransJordan under the rule of King Hussein, and Palestine under the 1917 Balfour Declaration which designates Palestine as an eventual Jewish homeland, "with all eights to remain as an Arab native population"
      • The remainder of the Arabian Peninsula will become the Kingdom of Hejaz under the rule of King Faisal Saudi: Saudi Arabia.
    • Reaction to the Treaty
      • the Arabs are unhappy with Hussein because Lawrence of Arabia wanted a Pan-Arab State based out of Damascus.
      • The Turks, under Prime Minister Tewfik sign Sevres but fail to get approval of Turkish Parliament and the largest political party is the Young Turks under Kemal Ataturk (Mistapha Kemal).
      • They revolt and overthrow Tewfik and go to war with the Greeks, Italians, French, British, Arabs, and the Kurds and Americans in 1920-1922. They defeat the West!
      • 1923 Sevres regenerated through the treaty of Lausanne
        • Anatolia is the free representative of Turkey (1923)
        • Arab partition remains the same
• The Mandate System
  • a Franco-British invention to avoid the accusation of post war imperialism.
  • The Territories in Arabia, Africa, and Oceania were not to be formally annexed or colonized
  • Formally, Syria was turned over to the League of Nations who would then help them from their own country.
  • The League, without resources, then turns Syria over the the France as a Mandate so France can help them find the road independence while economically rapin' 'em.
  • Is the League a cover for Anglo-French foreign policy?
  • France has a mandate over Syria, Lebanon, Cameroon, and Toga
  • South Africa has a mandate over Namibia.
  • Brits have a mandate over Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Tanzania
• Evaluation of the first three treatys
  • Do these treaties punish the defeated?
  • Are they acting in spirit of self-determination? The best example of a democracy, which is the only true democracy east of the Rhine, is Czechoslovakia.
  • The problem is that the government is dominated by the Czechs and minorities have a restricted role: there are Slovaks, Germans in the Sudetenland, and Magyars.
  • The Czechs and the Poles are allied with France for French security.
• Russia
  • Lastly, Russia undergoes a Revolution after they had abandoned the allied cause in 1917. They lost huge territories from the treaty Of Brest-Liotvsk to the Germans.
  • The allies forced Germany to abandon Brest-Litovsk, so what happens with the territories?
  • Clemenceau want to create a series of Buffer states to insulate Europe from Communism.
  • The Cordon Sanitaire, or the "sanitary cord" is constructed from those forfeited from Germany. FELL stands for Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania who were all newly created countries that were former parts of Czarist Russia.
  • Also, the majority of Poland comes from Russia and added to the Cordon Sanitaire. Lastly, Romania becomes a part of the Cordon Sanitaire and is augmented by a Russian province of Bessarabia.