The+World+Re-made+InNo.+Part+1+Ho+Yun+Cheon+Dec.+1st+2010

Part One – Making Peace

1. Great Suffering…

• Background info o Treaties made in Paris after the World War I was to prevent future world wars from happening. o The allies had won, and was expecting great gain, because they have suffered a lot during the war, and was willing to make the **Central Powers** (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) pay. o The U.S. was more lenient towards the losers of the war. • France o France had suffered many losses, because many battles were fought in France. o Farms, livestocks, shelters were ruined. o 23,000 factories were destroyed, and so were the railways and road all around France. o The casualties: 1.4 million French soldiers died, and 2.5 million French soldiers were injured. • Belgium o Germany had swept through Belgium during the Great War. o Belgium was mostly occupied by Germany during the Great War. o There were several damages, including the crops and rationed food. o A city in Belgium, **Ypres** was destroyed, and 50,000 Belgian soldiers were dead. • Great Britain o Britain was lucky, as its land was never been invaded by the Germans. o However, 750,000 British soldiers died, and 1.5 million was wounded. o The British government was deeply in debt, especially to the U.S.A. • Italy o Italy had joined on the allies’ side, because the allies had promised Italy that it could have some of Austro-Hungarian land when the war was over. o It had fought for over three years, and 600,000 Italian soldiers died. • Russia o Russia had surrendered to Germany before. o 1.7 million soldiers dead, and the whole country in serious hunger, with revolutions breaking out, Russia had no choice but to forfeit the war. o The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that Russia had signed with Germany cost them greatly, and one-third Russians were now under German rule. • The U.S.A. o The United States had the least casualties and damages. o Their land had not been invaded, therefore was not damaged. o They had lost 116,000 men, a very small figure compared to other allies. • Germany o Germany did not have many battles in its own soil, therefore it was not as heavily damaged as France. o However, about 2 million soldiers were killed, and the country itself was very exhausted from the long battle. o In addition, Germany had to go through a revolution, and even after the war had ended, the British had blocked German ports, therefore supplies could not get in. o Many Germans had to face starvation, because no supplies were getting in Germany. • The suffering of war o Austria-Hungary lost 1.2 million soldiers, while Turkey lost 0.3 million, and Bulgaria lost 0.1 million. o After the war, the Spanish Influenza hit Europe hard. o World wide, 25 million people died because of the Influenza. o The leaders of the winners of the war wanted to make sure that nothing bad like this would ever happen again.

2. Great Expectations…

• The Paris Peace Conference o After the war was over, leaders from thirty-two nations gathered in Paris. o ‘**Big Three**’ took control of the Paris peace talks, U.S.A, Woodrow Wilson, France, George Clemenceau, and Britain, David Lloyd George. o **Clemenceau** wanted harsh punishments for Germany. o He demanded that Germany pay 200 billion gold francs. o He also wanted Germany to become so weak that they could never dare attack another country again. (confiscating industries, armed forces, and land). o **Wilson** was aiming to have a fair treaty so that no one was dissatisfied, causing further wars. o He wanted each countries to have open, non-secretive treaties, and reduce armies. o National self-determination, for colonies to get their freedom was also Wilson’s important point. o Wilson also wanted to make **League of Nations**, to keep peace around the world. o He thought that Germany was not the only one to start the war; therefore __Germany should not pay the cost of war.__ o George, the British prime minister, had similar political views as Wilson. o However, the British nation wanted Germany to pay dearly, and so **Lloyd George** had to follow his countries’ views. • Making the peace o Wilson led the peace talks, because he was the only one who actually cared about settling peace. o There were several stories from each different countries, for example, Italy wanted regions of Austria-Hungary with Italians to be reunited with Italy. o The Poles wanted their own nation, and Yugoslavs were after as much land as they could. o Germany, Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey, the defeated countries could not take part in the re-shaping of the continent. o Russia was also not allowed to take part due to communist reasons.

3. Germany Re-Made the Treat of Versailles

• Treaty of Versailles o On June 28th 1919, the first of the peace treaty that has been going on for a long time has been signed in **Versailles**, outside of Paris. o The Treaty of Versailles was all about Germany, 200 pages long, with details on what Germany must do, and what they cannot do in the future. • League of Nations, (the first twenty-six clauses were about how to make it work) named the **Covenant of the League of Nations** were set up. • Germany had given up land to five of its neighboring countries. • Afterwards, the country was split into two. • Colonies of Germany was not under the rule of the League of Nations. • Germany also released land that they had taken from Russia; it also was used to set up new nations, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. • Submarines, air-forces were not allowed, and Germany could have maximum hundred-thousand army, with the maximum of six battleships. • Demilitarized Zone was established on the western part of Germany. The allies kept their army there for 15 years. • Germany was not allowed to form with Austria. • War guilt clause: Germany had to accept blame for starting the war. • Germany had to pay for **reparations** (money to repair the damage of war). o The German people, when they heard of the terms in the treaty, became enraged. o Many citizens protested, German armies also disliked this peace treaty. o The government of Germany resigned, and new government was established. o The new German government was forced to sign the treaty.

4. Europe Re-Shaped: The Other Paris Peace Treaties

• Background info o During the war, Austria-Hungary ceased to exist, as its people rebelled and broke the country up into three.

• Austria-Hungary o Austro-Hungarians were dealt with in the treaty that was signed at Saint Germain and Trianon. o Austria-Hungary was split up into Yugoslavia, Poland, and Romania.

• Bulgaria o Bulgaria had to give up their army and a lot of land during the Treaty of Neuilly. o They also had to pay reparations.

• Russia o Russia did not attend the peace conference. o However, Russia was much effected by the outcome of the conference; **Treaty of Versailles** gave back most of the land that Russia lost during Treaty of **Brest-Litovsk.** o However, its provinces on the Baltic Sea all grew to be independent states.

• Poland o Poland was newly created; Its land is taken from Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. o ‘Polish Corridor’ gave Poland rights and free access to open ports in the Baltic Sea.

• The Turkish Empire o The last of the Paris Peace Treaties was about Turkey. o The Treaty of Sevres was very harsh towards Turkey. o Most of Turkey’s land in Europe was confiscated, and was under League of Nations’ control. o The League of Nations decided to let France and Britain govern the land they have in the Middle-East, until it seemed fit that they could run it on their own.

5. The League of Nations

• The organization of the League of Nations o The Covenant of the League of Nations, had the job of keeping peace around the world. o There were specific rules to League of Nations: • If one country had a conflict with another, they would talk it out, instead of going to war. • They set up a League Assembly, sort of like a world parliament to meet every year. • If one country attacks another, all other countries in the League would aid the country attacked, called collective security. • Council of the League was set up, as an answer to crisis. • Many commissions were set up to try and reduce sizes of army in each countries. • **Mandates Commission** had the job of keeping Turkish and German colonies. • There were other organizations, such as heath, international labor, and permanent court of justice, to help better the lives of people all around the world. • Problems for the League of Nations o League of Nations, from the start, had a very weak backbone. o The U.S.A, although created the league, did not want to join. o Russia and Germany did not join either, because they were not allowed. o League also did not have the army to back up their powers.

Summary: After the war, the countries around the world began a peace treaty in Paris. The countries that dominated the peace treaties were the “Big Three”, which were the Great Britain, France, and the U.S. The U.S was concerned with making sure that everyone is happy so that peace could be kept, while France and the Great Britain was concerned with making Germany and other enemies pay reparation for damages they have done. They also created the League of Nations, sort of like the modern U.N, built for peacekeeping, but also to improve and better the lives of average citizens. However, many major countries, such as the U.S., Germany, and Russia did not join the League.

Questions How did the U.S., influence the peace treaty talks? Why did France especially want Germany to pay for what it did? What was the reason for the League of Nations, and was it affective? In what ways did Treaty of Versailles anger the German people? Why did the U.S., Russia, and Germany not join the League of Nations?

Awesomeness:

Self Made This is a Venn-diagram that I made. This shows the concerns of U.S., compared with the concerns of France and Britain, after the Great War. They did have one similar interest, that was to make sure that Germany would not start up any troubles ever again. (Which failed immensely, if World War II was any indication..)

Found I found this photo of the Paris peace conference. This was a very grave situation, because every country there each had an agenda… However, the most gain was by France, and the most loss was suffered by Germany. They had no say in what went on in the Paris Peace Conference, because they were the defeated country, to blame for the World War.