The Legacy of War
The First World War
• Known as the ‘the war to end all wars’
• Hostilities of WW1 ended with the signing of
an armistice on Nov.11, 1918
– Agreement amongst warring countries to stop
fighting and move to a peace conference
Legacy of War
• Early next year, delegates from the belligerents
(countries who participated in the war) met in
Paris to discuss the terms of peace
• Victors of the war set the terms of peace
Legacy of War
• The task was daunting
• Peacemakers wanted to design an
international system to make another war
unlikely
Building the Peace
• Fourteen Points
– President Woodrow Wilson of the US, released a
document called the fourteen points
– Originally released to convince the American
public that the sacrifices made during the war
were justified
Woodrow Wilson
Fourteen Points
• President Wilson then took these same
fourteen points to the Paris Peace Conference.
• Tried to convince the Europeans that these
points could be the foundation for a lasting
peace.
• The points were organized into two categories
Group One
• Points 1 - 5 were a new idea about how
countries should work together.
• Idea was called Internationalism
– For internationalism to work countries would have
to put aside selfish feelings (nationalism)
– Ethnic groups would be allowed to create new
countries based on nationalist desires
Group 2
• Points 6 - 8 explained how the lands that
Germany conquered should be dealt with
• Points 9 - 14 referred to the ethnic desires
of the people living in Central and Eastern
Europe.
– Would give Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and
Poles a homeland.
– These people given their own country, and must
be fair to avoid more conflicts.
– Austria-Hungary empire would no longer exist
The Paris Peace Conferences –
The Treaty of Versailles
• Treaty of Versailles
– Possibly most important international
agreement of the 20th century
– Representatives from Allied Powers met at
the Paris Peace Conferences to decide what
would happen to the defeated countries
– Very difficult to do, wanted to prevent
another war from occurring
Paris Peace Conference
• Realism vs. Idealism
• Realists believed Germany should be dealt
with very harshly so they would physically not
be able to go to war again
• Idealists argued that punishing Germany
would cause the Germans to become bitter
and may cause them to seek revenge
Realism vs Idealism
• President Woodrow Wilson (US) was an idealist
• Prime Minister Georges Clemensceau (France)
was a realist
• These two represented the two sides at the
conference
Realist France
• Because France was located next to
Germany, they wanted Germany to be
crippled/dismantled.
• France wanted Germany to pay for all the
damage they caused during the war
• Paying for these damages was called
reparations
Neutral Britain
• Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Britain
fell between idealism and realism
• Wanted revenge on Germany
• But didn’t want to cripple them because they
wanted to trade with them in the future
The Treaty of Versailles
• In the end, the treaty that was signed was a
compromise between both sides.
• Arguably the worst of both
• Two very important ideas emerged
– 1. Self-determination
– 2. The War Guilt Clause
Self-Determination
• Self-Determination meant that ethnic
groups could vote on the issue of whom
they would prefer to live with or be
governed by
• To implement self-determination each
ethnic group in Europe had to have their
own homeland
Self-Determination
• Finding land for each ethnic group was
extremely difficult, and the borders of
European countries already existed, making it
much harder
• Two new states (countries) were created
– Czechoslovakia
– Yugoslavia
Self-Determination
Self-Determination
• President Wilson didn’t expect that German
people would have right to self-determination
• Many significant groups were not given a
homeland, but were forced to live in another
country
Self-Determination
• Unfulfilled self-determination led to
future conflict (as we will see)
• Some exceptions were
– Sudetan Germans in Czechoslovakia
– 1 million Poles in Czechoslovakia
– Germans in Polish corridor
– 50-50 split of Germans and French people in
Alsace-Lorraine
– The Irish
Polish Corridor
The War Guilt Clause
• The War Guilt Clause stated that Germany
alone must accept responsibility for causing
the war
• Included to justify the punishments the allies
wanted to place against Germany
The War Guilt Clause
The War Guilt Clause
• Caused
– Germans to protest
– German Chancellor to resign
– German sailors scuttled (sank) the German fleet
so the Allies couldn’t have them
• No protests worked
– Germans had to sign the Treaty of Versailles or the
Allies would resume hostilities (fighting)
The War Guilt Clause
Summary of Terms of the Treaty of
Versailles
• 1. The War Guilt Clause
• 2. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France
• 3. Poland was given a strip of land (from
Germany) to give them access to the sea - called
the Polish Corridor
• 4. Germans and other central powers had to
surrender all of their colonies to the League of
Nations
Alsace-Lorraine
Europe 1914
Europe 1919
Summary of Terms of the Treaty of
Versailles
• 5. German army was limited to 100,000 men,
navy also very restricted in size
• 6. Germany also forced to surrender entire
merchant fleet to compensate for Allies shipping
losses during the war
Summary of Terms of the Treaty of
Versailles
• 7. West bank of Rhine River Valley (on border
of France and Germany) was to be
demilitarized.
• Allied armies occupied this bank for 15 years
after WW1.
• Rhineland area known as a ‘buffer zone’
since Germany was not allowed to have
military activity in this area
Europe 1919
Summary of Terms of the Treaty of
Versailles
• 8. Union between Austria and Germany was
forbidden
• 9. The constitution of the League of Nations
was to be included as part of the treaty
Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
• Treaty of Versailles had many shortcomings
• These problems helped cause WW2
Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
• Examples
– groups left without a homeland kept a strong
feeling of nationalism that can lead people to war
– Germans were angry that they were blamed for the
war, and left so crippled after the Treaty of
Versailles.
– Forced to pay extreme penalties for ‘starting the
war’
Failures of the Treaty of Versailles
– Hitler will use his view point of the treaty to gain
support and to get help overthrowing the German
government.
– Treaty that ended WW1 was a major cause of WW2