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= **__ The World Re-Made Part 1 __** =

** AWESOME PART: **
= = *Georges Clemenceau (Left), Woodrow Wilson (Middle), and David Lloyd George (Right) were known as the 'Big Three'. They took control of the talks in the Paris Peace Conference.



*This chart shows the sufferings of different countries after the Great War of 1914-18.

 Great Suffering

 * Every nation which fought in the Great War suffered greatly
 * Allies expected to get something in return for winning

France


 * Worst fighting took place in France
 * Farm lands ruined, farm animals disappeared, countless French soldiers killed and wounded

Belgium


 * The Great War started in Belgium when the German armies swept through it to attack France
 * Occupied by Germany for four years, they stripped machinery from the factories, took crops and rationed food, etc
 * Flanders was one part of Belgium not occupied but was ruined by fighting
 * Over 50,000 Belgian soldiers were dead

Britain


 * British suffered less than France and Britain
 * No part of their country was ever occupied by the enemy
 * 750,000 British soldiers were dead, and 1,500,000 were wounded
 * British government was deeply in debt

Italy


 * Italians joined the war in 1915 because the Allies promised to give them land
 * 600,000 soldiers were dead and north-east Italy was devastated

Russia


 * Only Allied country that surrendered
 * Revolutions broke out, a communist government withdrew Russia's armies from the war
 * They had to pay a heavy price for surrender
 * They signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany
 * One-third of the country was under German rule

The United States


 * USA suffered least of all the countries involved in the war
 * Their soldiers started fighting in late 1917
 * They lost 116,000 men

Germany


 * Very little fighting took place on their land
 * Nearly two million soldiers were killed
 * By 1918, the country was exhausted
 * Revolution then swept through Germany
 * Even after the fighting, British Navy blockaded Germany's ports to stop supplies getting in
 * This made sure that the Germany army could not renew the war, but many ordinary people suffered
 * Millions of Germans faced starvation

The suffering of war


 * The empire of Austria-Hungary lost 1,200,000 men
 * The Turkish empire lost 325,000 men
 * Bulgaria lost just over 100,000 men
 * Mid-1918, many exhausted people of Europe suffered by an epidemic of Spanish influenza - greatest killer of war

 Great Expectations
The Paris Peace Conference


 * World's leaders wanted to make a peace that would last
 * 1919, they met in Paris to talk about how this could be done
 * The Paris Peace Conference was the biggest peace conference ever held in the world's history
 * Hundreds of politicians gathered in Paris
 * Three of them took control of the talks - known as the 'Big Three'
 * 'Big Three' - David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Britain), Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France), Woodrow Wilson (President of USA)
 * They had different ideas and expectations about what needed to be done
 * Clemenceau's aim: Germany must pay for the damage done to France, Germany must be made so weak that she could never attack (taking their land, industry and armed forces), he was called 'The Tiger'
 * Woodrow Wilson's aim: Make future wars impossible by creating a fair peace, described fourteen ways in which he thought this could be done
 * No secret agreements between countries
 * Countries must reduce their armed forces and weapons
 * People living under the rule of foreign empires must be allowed to form their own nations and their governments - this idea is known as national self-determination
 * All countries should belong to a new organization for keeping peace, League of Nations
 * David Lloyd George's aim: Agreed many of Wilson's Fourteen Points, saw that defeated nations should not be treated too harshly

Making the peace


 * Woodrow Wilson was the only one of the Big Three who had detailed ideas
 * Politicians spent first two months of the Conference setting up the League of Nations
 * They turned to the problem of national self-determination
 * Peace Conference became a free-for-all in which the victors competed with each other to gain something from the defeated powers

 Germany Re-Made the Treaty of Versailles

 * 28 June 1919, politicians left Paris and went by train to Versailles
 * They signed the first of the treaties in the royal palace in Versailles
 * It was a very long document (contained more than 400 separate sections, or clauses)
 * First twenty-six clauses described how League of Nations worked - Covenant of League of Nations
 * Germany: colonies were taken away, armed forces were reduced, western part was made into a demilitarized zone, had to accept the blame for starting the Great War (war guilt clause), had to pay reparations (cost of repairing war damage) to the Allies
 * Germans complained that the treaty was too harsh (captains of German fleet protested)
 * The Allies threatened to invade if they would not sign
 * As the 'Big Three' went out after the signing was over, Clemenceau, with tears in his eyes, said 'It's a beautiful day'

 Europe Re-Shaped: The Other Paris Peace Treaties

 * The Paris Conference also had to deal with Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey
 * Austria-Hungary rebelled against the Emperor, trying to gain their independence
 * Before the Paris Conference, they were practicing Woodrow Wilson's idea of self-determination

Austria-Hungary


 * Austria-Hungary was dealt with by two treaties signed at Saint Germain and Trianon (two royal palaces near France)
 * This made Austria and Hungary into independent states
 * They also had to pay reparations and give land to their neighbors
 * Serbia took over huge areas of land to become the new state of Yugoslavia

Bulgaria


 * Treaty of Neuilly: give away land, pay reparations, and reduce armed forces

Russia


 * Russians did not attend the Peace Conference
 * 1917, Germans forced Russia to surrender
 * Treaty of Versailles gave them back land

Poland


 * Poland gained their independence by taking land from their conquerors (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia)
 * 'Polish Corridor' gave them free access to ports on the Baltic Sea

The Turkish Empire


 * Treaty of Sevres took away most of their land in Europe

 The League of Nations
The organization of the League of Nations


 * The Covenant of the League of Nations described how peace was to be kept:
 * Member of the League that quarrels with another member should talk about their differences instead of going to war
 * If this does not work, all other members should help them - collective security


 * Much of the work of the League was done by commissions
 * Disarmament Commission worked to persuade member countries to reduce the size of their armed forces
 * Mandates Commission kept and eye on the German and Turkish colonies
 * The League also aimed to improve the world through specialized agencies, the International Labor Organization, the Health Organization, etc

Problems for the League of Nations


 * Two big problems:
 * USA refused to join, they were not interested in getting involved with the problems of other countries
 * Russia and Germany were not in the League
 * League did not have an army, did not have the force to make countries stop fighting

 Summary
Every nation which fought in the Great War of 1914 suffered greatly. Their land was ruined and countless people were killed. World's leaders wanted to make a peace that would last after experiencing this great suffering of war. The president of USA, Woodrow Wilson had specific ideas for making peace. Accordingly, the League of Nations was set up and this had an important role in keeping peace in the world.

 Questions
1. What were Woodrow Wilson's aims? How did his aims change the world?

 2. Who were the 'Big Three'? Why were they called like that?  3. Which country had the greatest suffering after the Great War?  4. Why did captains of the German fleet, which was being kept by the British in Scapa Flow, sank their ships in protest?  5. Why did French call Clemenceau 'The Tiger'?