PPT Slides For History WWI

7/29/2019 PPT Slides For History WWI

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Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?

The Treaty of Versailles, between the Allies andGermany, was signed in June 1919

It was the most complicated, and had the harshestconditions

One of the problems with the Treaty was that thevarious Allies who came to discuss it had widely

different aims

Most importantly, Germany was left out of thediscussions and made to take the whole blame


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What did the Big Three want?


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The Fourteen Points

Drawn up by President Wilson before USA entered the war

Points 1-5: dealt with international relations

Points 6-8: dealt with Germanys land gains during the war

Points 9-14: dealt with the specific issues of self-determination raised by World War I


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Making Compromises

The Treaty was only agreed with everyone making

compromises

Wilson had to compromise on decision-making process as it

would be too slow for all nations to take part in all decision-

making

Council of Four

Clemenceau, Wilson, Lloyd George and Orlando to meet

daily to make decisions

Other countries divided into committees that advised the

Council


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Secret Treaties

During the war, Britain and France made secret treaties to

pull other countries into the war

The countries now wanted what had been promised to

them

This meant giving German colonies to them

This went against Point 5 of the Fourteen Points and brokethe principle of self-determination

While not all the promises were honored, many of them

were


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Early self-determination

Austro-Hungarian and Turkish Empires begun collapse at

end of the war

Some areas of western Europe and the Balkans decided to

become independent states

States that announced independence:

Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland,

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia

The Treaty might shift the borders of these new states; it

could not tell them to break up


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US isolation

Wilson badly wanted USA to be a part of the League and

to be involved in international politics

However, most of the US senate were in favour of

isolationism

Did not want to risk making treaties with European

countries and getting involved in their politics

Feared it would lead to another war

In the end, USA refused to join the League


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What were the terms of the Treaty of

Versailles?

Territorial terms


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What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?

Military terms

The German army was restricted to 100,000 men and

conscription was not allowed

Its navy was restricted to 15,000 men, six battleships and

some smaller ships

It could not have any submarines, tanks or planes

It had to accept full blame for the war under the war guilt

clause


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Economic terms

Germany had to pay reparations money to the Allies for

war damage

In 1921, the reparations were set at 6,650 million

What were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles?


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Other treaties signed

There were other treaties that were signed between the

Allies and the defeated countries Austria, Bulgaria,

Turkey and Hungary

All of the treaties had common elements:

The losing country had land taken away

The losing country had military restrictions placed it

The losing country had to agree to pay reparations

Allies insisted that the most important aim of the treaties

was to make sure that war never broke out on such a scale

again


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How did Germany react to the Treaty?

Germany was not allowed to take part in the peace

negotiations and was forced to accept all the terms of the

Treaty

Saw the Treaty as a Diktat a piece of dictation

Count Ulrich, the new foreign minister, was unwilling to

sign the Treaty, hence he resigned; Weimar government

sent another delegate to sign it

Felt they could break the Treaty since it had been

forced on them


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How did the League of Nationsbring hope?


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The League of Nations

Set up as part of the Treaty of Versailles

The hope was that a truly international organisation would

be able to maintain world peace and security by actingtogether to prevent war

Idea of collective security was one that people placed a

lot of faith in after the war


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What were the aims of the League?


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What were the strengths of the League?

Most successful when dealing with social and health issues

worldwide

Improved working conditions through the International

Labour Organisation

Set up commissions that improved living conditions in

poorer countries

Targeted the treatment of specific diseases significantlyreduced outbreaks of leprosy worldwide


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What were the weaknesses of the League?

Attitudes to the League

Signing the peace treaties at the end of the war meant

accepting the League Treaties were unpopular and so

the League was affected by this unpopularity

Countries that agreed to the League did not always take it

seriously

Britain and France saw the League as a place to discussthings

Since USA had insisted on the League, but was not a

member, many nations did not take the League seriously


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Membership

Not an organisation ofall nations

USA did not join

Germany, Austria and Hungary not allowed to join

Exclusion of defeated nations in WWI did not make it seemvery focused on peace

Little control over members

Possible for people to join and leave the League easily

Resulted in a constant shift of member states

Nations left when they felt the League was not helping

them or objected to their actions


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Mandates

Mandate: the legal right to govern under the control of

the League

League took over most of Germanys old colonies Allowed different member nations govern them under

mandates

Aim: to move the countries towards self-government as soon

as possible

But by 1939, none of these areas were self-governing Countries that had been in favour of the League now

turned against it they felt it had let them down


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Difficulties in resolving disputes

Leagues articles stressed the need for cooperation

between nations

Nations expected to accept Leagues decisions in disputes Members could punish other members for not obeying the

League by applying sanctions

Could also ask members to contribute troops to an

international fighting force to keep peace

However, members were very unwilling to do so

Authoritarian regimes less willing to listen to League

Knowing that League would not resort to force gave them

boldness to expand by conquest


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Political successes and failures of the League


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How far did hopes fordisarmament succeed?


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Collective or individual security?

Disarmament: the dismantling of armies and breaking up

of weapons, putting oneself in the position where war is

not possible

A key part of collective security if nations cut down theirweapons, the world would be safer

Nations did care about collective security, but their main

focus was the individual security of their nation

Big problem: trust


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Reasons for not disarming


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German disarmament

A League of Nations commission was to supervise the

disarmament

Germany disarmed slowly and took advantage of loopholes

in the Treaty

Allowed only an army of 100,000 troops

However, the government was secretly training people to be

ordinary soldiers


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Disarming the rest of the world:

naval disarmament

Difficult to get nations to agree to limit their navies

Targets were set by agreeing to a ration of shipbuilding

between nations, to keep the number of ships built byeach nation in balance

Significant tensions between USA and Japan, and Italy and

France

By 1939 some targets had been set:

Same proportions were applied to smaller warships

Everyone could build submarines, but at a low level


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Disarming the rest of the world:

military disarmament

In 1923, a Treaty of Mutual Assistance was suggested

Countries would limit their arms, but the League would

come to their defence if they were attacked

Few countries agreed to it

League decided to work toward military disarmament via

agreements on not going to war

Geneva Protocol (1924): nations would bring disputes to

arbitration at the League and not go to war while this was

going on

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928): proposed no war over next five

years except in self-defence


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How were reconstructionand recovery worked out?


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What hindered recovery and reconstruction?


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Germany a special case?

Insisted that the reparations set by the Treaty made

Germanys economic problems worse than the rest of

Europe

Between 1919 and 1923, the economic situation inGermany was very bad

Failed to make reparation payments, so France invaded

the Ruhr

Strikes that followed in the Ruhr by German workers

made the economic situation worse


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Stresemanns reforms in Germany

In August 1923, Gustav Stresemann became chancellor,

then foreign minister of Germany. He improved the

economy by:

Introducing a new currency the Rentenmark

Reducing government spending

Encouraging workers in the Ruhr, Germanys most

industrialised area, to go back and work properly(France occupied the Ruhr in 1923; the workers had

responded by striking or working slowly)


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Back into Europe?

Stresemann managed to improve Germanys relationships

with other countries

Got the rest of the world to talk about reducing

reparations, not just demand them

Steps toward better relations:

Locarno Pact (1925) - Germany, Britain and France agreed

to respect each others borders

Germany joined the League of Nations in 1926

Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928)


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Pacts with other countries

The Dawes Plan, 1924 (drawn up by Parker Gilbert)

Germany was to pay less money

The USA would lend Germany money

French troops would leave the Ruhr Germany would give Gilbert several million pounds of gold

which was to be invested

The Young Plan, 1929

German reparations were cut to a quarter of originalamount

Gave Germany 59 more years to make payments


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Pacts with other countries

Despite these measures, Germany still did not meet the

requirements of the Plan

By 1932, it had made only a small payment

Germany had borrowed over 4,000 million and its

repayments amounted to only 370 million

Some surplus had gone into economic recovery plans

A significant amount went into secret rearming

By mid-1930s, the Young Plan was abandoned


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Summary

Documents

PPT Slides For History WWI