Paris Peace Treaties and the League of Nations, to 1933

The Paris Peace Treaties officially ended WWI. The Treaty of Versailles was disliked on all sides,
particularly in Germany. The League of Nations was set up to improve international cooperation and
avert further wars. Its impact was limited.

The League of Nations

The League of Nations was set up by the Treaty of Versailles.

The League was Wilson's dream for a new world order - a new way of conducting foreign affairs
that would abolish war and keep the world safe, but less than a quarter of a century later Wilson's
dream lay in ruins.

Its aims
 to stop wars
 to encourage disarmament
 to make the world a better place by improving people's working conditions and by
tackling disease

Its organisation
 an assembly, which met once a year
a council, which met more regularly to consider crises
a small secretariat to handle the paperwork
a Court of International Justice
a number of committees such as the International Labour Organisation and the Health
Committee to carry out its humanitarian work

Its main strengths

 set up by the Treaty of Versailles, which every nation had signed.
 58 nations as members by the 1930s.
 to enforce its will, it could offer arbitration through the Court of International Justice, or
apply trade sanctions against countries that went to war.

Its main weaknesses

 set up by the Treaty of Versailles (which every nation hated)
 aims were too ambitious
  Germany, Russia and the USA were not members
 no army
 organisation was cumbersome
 decisions had to be unanimous

The Covenant of the League of Nations

The League of Nations was set up by the first 26 clauses of the Treaty of Versailles - called 'The
Covenant of the League of Nations'. The table below is a summary.

Article Details

42 countries were members (rising to 58 in 1934). The

3. Set up the assembly - a meeting of all
USA, USSR and Germany - the three greatest powers
members of the League.
in the world - were not members.

Allowed the League to respond quickly to crises.

4. Set up the council (Britain, France,
However, the council members were not the most
Italy and Japan, plus four other countries
powerful countries in the world, and were not prepared
elected by the assembly) which met four
to use their armies. Also sometimes council members
to five times a year and in times of crisis.
were involved in the trouble.

5. Said that agreements of the assembly

Made it very hard to get anything done.
and council had to be unanimous.

6. Set up the Secretariat. Too small to handle the vast work of the League.

8. Promised to seek disarmament. Conferences in 1923 and 1932-33 failed.

11. "The League shall... safeguard the

Over-ambitious?
peace of nations."

13. Planned for the arbitration of

Only worked if both sides agreed.
disputes.

14. Set up the Court of International Could advise on international law and arbitrate in
Justice. disputes, but had no power to enforce its decisions.

15. Planned for trade sanctions against Trade sanctions damaged the countries of the League as
any country that went to war. well as the country that had gone to war.

22. Set up the Mandates Commission to The mandates were administered by France and Britain,
 Article Details

look after the former colonies of

two council members.
Germany and Turkey.

23. The League promised to improve

conditions for workers, stop drug Over-ambitious?
trafficking, help trade and control disease.

Successes of the League of Nations

The League of Nations has been commonly regarded in history as a dismal failure. Although it
did suffer major failures during the 1920s and 1930s, its successes must not be overlooked and
its drive to wipe out world disease was taken on by the United Nations and continues today.

In the 1920s, the League was very successful in its work for a better world:

 took half a million PoWs home

 helped Turkish refugees
 attacked slave traders and drug sellers
 supported measures against leprosy and malaria
It was also quite successful in settling border disputes:

 settled a dispute between Sweden and Finland over the Aaland Islands
 stopped a war between Greece and Bulgaria
However, when it was faced with a strong nation prepared to ignore it:

 Italy in 1923 over Corfu - the League could do nothing

League of Nations - Successes and

failures in the 1920s
Name Date Description Outcome

1. Prisoners of The League took home half a million prisoners of war from
1920 Success
war World War One.

2. Aaland Sweden and Finland accepted the League's arbitration to

1921 Success
Islands give the Aaland Islands to Finland.

The Poles invaded Vilna (the capital of Lithuania). The

3. Poland 1921 League ordered Poland to withdraw. Poland refused and the Failure
League could do nothing

4. Turkey 1922 The League set up camps and fed Turkish refugees. Success

Mussolini ignored the League's orders to pull out of Corfu,

5. Corfu 1923 Failure
and made Greece pay money to Italy.
 Name Date Description Outcome

6. 1923 and Disarmament talks failed, because Germany demanded as

Failure
Disarmament 1932 many weapons as everyone else.

The League sent economics experts to help Austria when its

7. Austria 1923 Success
government went bankrupt.

Greece obeyed the League's orders to pull out of Bulgaria

8. Bulgaria 1925 Success
in 1925.

The League approved the Slavery convention - altogether,

9. Slaves 1926 Success
the League freed 200,000 slaves.

After more than ten years of work, 26 League nations

10. Drugs 1936 signed an international convention to combat the drugs Success
trade - a law that is still in force.

11. Disease 1920s The League worked to prevent malaria and leprosy. Success

The International Labour Organisation failed to persuade

12. Jobs 1920s Failure
countries to adopt a 48-hour week.

Failures of the League of Nations in the 1930s

The failures of the League in the 1930s were not only because of aggressor nations undermining
its authority, but also down to its own members.
Britain and France, the two most influential members, ignored the League in their efforts to
appease Hitler - actions that arguably led to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Significant failures
In the 1930s, the world economic depression encouraged nations to be more aggressive towards
each other. Fascist dictatorships took power in Germany, Italy and Japan, which were intent on
empire-building and these countries defied the League.

 Japan conquered Manchuria in 1932. The League objected, but could do nothing. When
the League supported China, Japan left the League.
 Hitler announced that Germany was leaving the League in 1932.
 Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935. Although the League officially condemned the Italians,
France and Britain were caught making a secret agreement to give Abyssinia to Italy.
These crises destroyed the authority of the League, and it was powerless to stop Germany after
1935. By the time of the Sudeten crisis of 1938, Britain and France were ignoring the League,
and were trying appeasement instead.

1.

Treaty of Versailles and its impact on

Germany
End of World War One
On 11 November 1918 the Armistice agreed between the Allies and Germany brought an end to
fighting in World War One.

But the war would not officially end until a peace treaty had been signed. This eventually took
place in June 1919.

Expectations of the peace treaty

The people of Europe wanted lasting peace. However, many people felt that Germany should be
made to pay for the damage done.

American President Woodrow Wilson put forward a plan based on Fourteen Points. The six key
principles of the Fourteen Points were:

1. Setting up a League of Nations

2. Disarmament
3. Self-determination for the people of Europe - the right to rule themselves
4. Freedom for colonies
5. Freedom of the seas
6. Free trade
The Germans had expected that the peace treaty would be based on Wilson's plan. However,
neither Britain nor France was willing to base a peace settlement on the fourteen points after
November 1918. As both controlled large Empires, they realised that Wilson’s view of colonies
would cause them problems as well. Instead the treaty was to be much harsher than the Germans
had hoped.

The Treaty was negotiated between the Allied Powers in Paris, between January and June 1919.
Germany had very little say in the negotiations or the terms of the Treaty.

The Paris Peace Conference

Delegates from 32 countries met in January 1919, but the conference was dominated by the Big Three.

Negotiations were difficult as the Big Three had different aims:

Wilson's aims:

 to end war by creating a League of Nations based on his Fourteen Points

 to ensure Germany was not destroyed
 not to blame Germany for the war - he hated the Guilt Clause
Clemenceau's aims:

 to punish Germany and ensure it was too weak to attack France again
 to return the Alsace-Lorraine region to France
 he accepted the League of Nations but believed it would need to be strengthened
to deal with Germany
 an independent Rhineland which would weaken Germany
 huge reparations
 to disband the German army so that Germany would never be strong enough to
attack France again
Lloyd George's aims:

 to please the electors who wanted to make Germany pay

 to leave Germany strong enough to trade with
 to safeguard Britain's naval supremacy
In December 1918 David Lloyd George had won a general election. He was aware that
the people who had voted for him wanted revenge on Germany. Slogans such as Hang
the Kaiser were popular with the British people. His aim was a "just peace" that would
balance the will of voters with economic need to continue trade with Germany.

Fontainebleau Memorandum
On 25 March 1919, Lloyd George issued the Fontainebleau Memorandum. He was
concerned that a harsh peace settlement would result in a hostile Germany. It shows
the divisions between the Big Three at Versailles. Eventually a compromise was
reached which resulted in the Allies occupying the Rhineland for 15 years. This satisfied
Clemenceau as it provided security against a future German attack.

The Germans were shown the proposed Treaty of Versailles, with no option for
negotiation. The Germans published a rebuttal, arguing that the treaty was unfair, but
they were ignored. On 28 June 1919, the delegates met at the Hall of Mirrors in the
Palace of Versailles, near Paris, and forced two Germans to sign the treaty.
Treaty of Versailles - key terms
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 and consisted of 440 articles setting out the
terms for Germany's punishment. The treaty was greeted with shock and disbelief in Germany.

The terms of the Treaty can be classified into four groups:

  territorial - provisions that took land away from Germany
 military - provisions that limited Germany's armed forces
 financial and economic
 punishment

The most important articles of the Treaty are listed below.

Article
Description
number

1-26 The Covenant of the League of Nations - Germany was not allowed to join.

The Rhineland was demilitarised - the German army was not allowed to go
42
there.

45 The Saar, with its rich coalfields, given to France for 15 years.
 Article
Description
number

51 Alsace-Lorraine returned to France.

80 Germany forbidden to unite with Austria.

Lands in eastern Germany - the rich farmlands of Posen and the Polish
87
corridor between Germany and East Prussia - given to Poland.

100 Danzig made a free city under League of Nations control.

119 All Germany's colonies taken and given to France and Britain as 'mandates'.

160 The German army restricted to 100,000 men.

181 The German navy restricted to six battleships and no submarines.

198 Germany not allowed to have an air force.

Germany was responsible for causing all the loss and damage caused by
231
the war.

Germany would have to pay reparations, to be decided later - eventually set

232
at 132 billion gold marks.

Terms of the Paris Peace Treaties

Four other treaties were made with the countries that had helped Germany during the war.

The Treaty of Versailles, however, was the template for these treaties, which were drawn up by
officials (not by the Big Three) and which simply followed the principles of the Treaty of
Versailles:
  the defeated countries had to disarm
 they had to pay reparations
 they lost land to other countries

Germany: Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919)

 Disarmament - Forces limited to 100,000 soldiers, six battleships, no air force
 Reparations -this was eventually set at £6600 million. Afterwards, The Dawes and
Young Plans re-scheduled Germany's payments
 Land lost - Poland gained Posen from Germany, and also gained East Prussia. This
became known as the Polish Corridor. Alsace-Lorraine were returned to France.
Germany lost her colonies

Austria: Treaty of Saint Germain (10 Sept 1919)

 Disarmament - army limited to a force of 30,000 volunteers, no navy or air force
 Reparations - Austria did not pay much in reparations as her economy was so weak
 Land lost - Austro-Hungarian Empire dismantled
o Tyrol lost to Italy
o Dalmatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were lost to Yugoslavia
o Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania all gained land
o Austria’s population fell from 22 million to around 6 million

Hungary: Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920)

 Disarmament - army limited to a force of 35,000 volunteers and three patrol boats
 Reparations - apart from some shipments of coal, Hungary could not meet the demands
for reparations. As a result, the payments were suspended
 Land lost - Austro-Hungarian Empire dismantled.
o Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania all gained land from Hungary.
o The population of Hungary fell from 21 million to around 7.5 million

Bulgaria: Treaty of Neuilly (27 Nov 1919)

 Disarmament - army limited to a force of 20,000 volunteers, four torpedo boats, no air
force
 Reparations - set at £100 million
 Land lost - land lost to Yugoslavia, Romania and Greece

Turkey: Treaty of Sèvres (10 Aug 1920)

  Disarmament - 50,000 soldiers, seven sailboats and six torpedo boats. No air force
 Reparations - the economy was to be controlled by the Allies
 Land lost - the Ottoman Empire was broken up.
o areas such as Iraq and Palestine became British mandates
o Syria became a French mandate
o the Straits of the Dardanelles would be placed under international control
o Armenia became an independent country
The treaty provoked a backlash in Turkey. Turkish nationalists, led by Kemel Attaturk, rebelled
against the Sultan and rejected the treaty. In 1923 a new treaty was signed at Lausanne in
Switzerland. This removed foreign control over the economy. Turkey also regained land and
some control over the Dardanelles.

Opinions on the Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles is often referred to as the hated treaty - this is due to the fact that the
leaders of America, Britain, France and Germany were all deeply unhappy with many different
areas of the final agreement.

Germany
The Germans hated everything about the treaty:
  Theywere angry that they had not been allowed to negotiate. They called Versailles
a diktat or dictated peace
 Deutsche
Zeitung, a German newspaper, vowed: We will never stop until we win back
what we deserve.
 Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, leader of the German delegation at Versailles said Article 231
- the war-guilt clause - was a lie. Germany officially denied the war-guilt clause in
1927.
 There was a revolution (the Kapp Putsch) against the treaty in Berlin in 1920.
 Germany hated reparations, and was forced to begin paying them in 1921. They defaulted
in 1923 and eventually Hitler refused to pay altogether.
The Weimar Government was associated with failure in World War One since it had signed the
Treaty of Versailles that had ended the war. Many nationalists believed the government had sold
Germany out to its enemies by ending the war too early.

The November Criminals and the legend of the Stab in the Back were phrases used in many of
Hitler’s speeches.

Britain
Britain gained some German colonies and the German navy was destroyed but...

 LloydGeorge thought the treaty was too harsh, saying: We shall have to fight another
war again in 25 years time.
 The
British diplomat Harold Nicolson called it neither just nor wise and the people who
made it stupid.
 Theeconomist John Maynard Keynes prophesied that reparations would ruin the
economy of Europe.

France
France got Alsace-Lorraine, German colonies, harsh reparations and a tiny German army but...

 Many French people wanted an independent, not a demilitarised, Rhineland.

 Most French people did not think the League of Nations would protect them against
Germany.

USA
Woodrow Wilson got the League of Nations, and new nation-states were set up in Eastern
Europe but...

 Wilson thought the treaty was far too harsh.

 Self-determination
proved impossible to implement - neither Czechoslovakia or
Yugoslavia survive as united countries.
 ManyAmericans did not want to get involved in Europe, and in 1920 the American
Senate refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles, or join the League of Nations.