Introduction:
The Treaty of
Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in
1918 and in hundreds of people was involved in the process and the final
signing ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors could accommodate hundreds of
dignitaries. Many wanted Germany, now led by Friedrich Ebert, smashed - others,
like Lloyd George, and were privately more cautious.
It is the end of
World War I (WWI). Germany has just been involved in, and lost, a war that
would change the world forever. The countries that defeated Germany are
furious. They blame Germany for starting the war and causing so much harm to
their countries. They want and seek revenge. Finally, they come up with a way
to get back at Germany. They write a treaty that says Germany is responsible
for the war. The treaty takes away Germany’s land, people, money, and
belongings. This is that story, the inside story of the Treaty of Versailles.
The shadow of the
Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the
vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence its title - between Germany and the
Allies. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George,
Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson. The Versailles Palace was considered the
most appropriate venue simply because of its size – many.
Significance:
This was the first political treaty
signed by Australian officials, and the first negotiated with direct
participation by Australian government delegates. This was a major step in the
recognition of Australia as an independent entity in international law.
At the time, treaties were regarded as
either 'political' (mainly concerning relations between governments) or
'commercial' (mostly concerning the treatment of private persons or interests,
particularly as regards business). Prior to 1919 the Australian Government was
frequently not even consulted regarding political treaties, which were signed by
Britain for its Dominions.
With the other three British Dominions,
Australia was among the 32 signatories of the Treaty, and a founding member of
the League of Nations it established. This newly defined status is indicated in
the list of nations on page 18 of the Treaty, where the names of Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and South Africa are indented under the 'British Empire'.
The Treaty recognized a new status for these nations among all the colonies of
Great Britain, as only fully self-governing nations could be members of the
League of Nations.
History:
The vision of a world organization of
nations had inspired those who sought ways of implementing the ideals of peace
and cooperation in diplomacy for centuries. In the mid-19th century the world
alliances and international meetings for the abolition of slavery and for the
promotion of peace, laid the foundations for a permanent body to deal with such
international issues. The establishment of the League of Nations in 1919, at
the end of 'the war to end all wars', was the first official international
organization of governments formed for this purpose. Delegates from member
nations met annually at the League's headquarters in Geneva, where a skilled
secretariat of 'international civil servants' developed the wide-ranging work
of the League.
The ceremonial signing of the Treaty took
place in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on the outskirts of
Paris, at three o'clock on the summer afternoon of 28 June 1919. More than a
thousand people were crowded into the vast room, with a long velvet-covered
table at one end where the 72 delegates were seated. Although Germany had to be
the first to sign the Treaty, the signatures of Herman Muller and Johannes
Bell, the two German delegates, appear last on the pages (signatures page 11).
As soon as Muller and Bell signed, the great fountains of Versailles, stilled
when war was declared in 1914, were turned on, the spectacle visible through
the wall of windows, and to many of the 50 000 people assembled in the Palace
grounds.
The delegates for the other 31 nations
then lined up to sign the Treaty which lay on a small table raised on a dais.
First in line were the five US delegates led by President Woodrow Wilson
(signatures pages 1–2). Wilson was called the 'father of the League' – his
devotion to the cause of an organization of nations dedicated to securing
peaceful resolution of conflict was one of the most important factors in its
establishment. Ironically, he was to be unsuccessful in persuading Congress that
the United States participate. Then came the five British delegates, including
Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour
(signatures page 2). The Dominions were next, New Zealand, Australia, and South
Africa, followed by Canada. Next in the long line were the delegates for
France, Italy, and Japan, followed by those of the remaining 22 nations, with
Czechoslovakia last in the long line.
The primary significance of the Treaty of
Versailles was to establish the conditions of peace ending World War I, but
Australia's role as a signatory and full member of the League of Nations marked
the first step to recognition of the full national status of the Commonwealth
of Australia. Article 10 binds each member 'to respect and preserve' the 'territorial
integrity and existing political independence' of all other member nations.
While some members saw granting the
Dominions full membership as giving Britain four extra votes, others agreed
with US negotiator Colonel Edward House that 'If Great Britain can stand giving
her Dominions representation in the League, no one should object'. It was clear
in the negotiations over drafts of the Treaty, in the six months the
delegations met in Paris during 1919, that Britain and the Dominions had different
views on important issues. Australia and New Zealand took a strong stand on the
issue of assigning former German possessions in the Pacific to Japan for
instance, with Prime Minister William Morris (Billy) Hughes issuing an
ultimatum that Australia would not be part of Britain's agreement to this.
Membership of the first official
international organization guiding the relations of nations was a definitive
step in the recognition of sovereign status, reinforced with granting Australia
mandates over Papua New Guinea and Nauru, authorizing Australia as an 'advanced
nation' to administer the territories on behalf of the League.
Australia's Treaty of Peace (Germany)
Act, assented to on 28 October 1919, provided for domestic implementation of
the Treaty. For 20 years the League engaged not only in attempts to achieve
disarmament and peaceful resolution of international disputes, but also in work
to promote advancement in health, scientific, cultural, economic and
humanitarian fields. While the outbreak of war in 1939 marked the failure of
the primary aim of the League, its achievements in many other fields were
outstanding, and provided the foundation for the work of the United Nations in
these fields after it was established in San Francisco in 1945.
The Big Four and the Allies:
At the end of WWI,
Allied representatives met in Paris at the Palace of Versailles to discuss and
make peace treaties with the Central Powers. Woodrow Wilson (President of the
United States), David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom),
Georges Clemenceau (Premier of France), and Vittorio Orlando (Prime Minister of
Italy), were known as the Big Four. These men were the leaders of the major
Allied countries, and they were the four main people involved in deciding the
fate of the Central Powers.
Even before The Treaty
of Versailles was written, many of the Allied governments, including Italy and
Japan, had already made secret treaties with each other, dividing up certain
parts of Germany and its colonies. The Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) and other
Central Powers, were also to be divided up. In fact, Italy joined the Allies
because of Allied promises to divide the Central Powers and give some of the
land to Italy if it joined in the war against Germany.
President Wilson
didn’t like the idea of the secret treaties that were made. He didn’t want any
terms of the secret treaties to be carried out, but he still felt that Germany
should be punished for what it had done. He also wanted to help Germany form a
democratic government. He felt that this would help rebuild Europe and prevent
future wars.
Main Points of the Treaty:
1. Germany had to accept the blame for
starting the war.
2. Germany was forbidden to have
submarines or an air force. She could have a navy of only six battleships, and
an army of just 100,000 men. In addition, Germany was not allowed to place any
troops in the Rhineland, the strip of land, 50 miles wide, next to France.
3. Germany had to pay £6,600 million,
called reparations, for the damage done during the war.
4. Germany lost land in Europe (see map,
below). Germany’s colonies were given to Britain and France.
5. Germany could not join the League of
Nations.
6. Germany could never unite with
Austria.
Treaty of Versailles Consequences:
The main consequences of treaty was as follow
The creation of international
organizations
Part I of the treaty was the
Covenant of the League of Nations which provided for the creation of the League
of Nations, an organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and thereby
avoid future wars.[23] Part XIII organized the establishment of the
International Labor Organization, to promote "the regulation of the hours
of work, including the establishment of a maximum working day and week; the
regulation of the labour supply; the prevention of unemployment; the provision
of an adequate living wage; the protection of the worker against sickness,
disease and injury arising out of his employment; the protection of children,
young persons and women; provision for old age and injury; protection of the
interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own;
recognition of the principle of freedom of association; the organization of
vocational and technical education and other measures"[24]Further
international commissions were to be set up, according to Part XII, to
administer control over the Elbe, the Oder, the Niemen (Russstrom-Memel-Niemen)
and the Danube rivers.
Which Countries Took Possession of German Land:
France took away:
Provinces of Alsace
Provinces of Lorraine
German coal mines in the Saar Region for 15 years
Belgium took away:
Small areas of Eupen
Small areas of Malmèdy
Small areas of Moresńet
Small areas of St. Vith
Czechoslovakia took away:
Small border area near Troppau (now Opava
Denmark took away:
Northern Schelswig
Poland took away:
Most of West Prussia
Much of the Posen (now Poznan) province
The Allies took away:
Germany’s Rhineland for 15 years
The League of Nations took away:
Danzig, (now Gdansk, Poland)
Violation
The German economy was so weak that only a
small percentage of reparations was paid in hard currency.
Nonetheless, even the payment of this small percentage of the original
reparations (132 billion gold
marks) still placed a
significant burden on the German economy. Although the causes of the devastating post-war hyperinflation are complex and disputed, Germans blamed the near-collapse of their
economy on the Treaty, and some economists estimated that the reparations
accounted for as much as one third of the hyper-inflation.
In March 1921, French and Belgian troops
occupied Duisburg, which formed part of the demilitarized Rhineland, according
to the Treaty of Versailles. In January 1923, French and Belgian forces
occupied the rest of the Ruhr area as a reprisal after Germany failed to
fulfill reparation payments demanded by the Versailles Treaty. The German
government answered with "passive resistance", which meant that coal
miners and railway workers refused to obey any instructions by the occupation
forces. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial
consequences contributed to German hyperinflation and completely ruined public
finances in Germany. Consequently, passive resistance was called off in late
1923. The end of passive resistance in the Ruhr allowed Germany to undertake a
currency reform and to negotiate the Dawes
Plan, which led to the withdrawal of French
and Belgian troops from the Ruhr Area in 1925.
Some significant violations (or avoidances) of
the provisions of the Treaty were:
1. In 1919, the dissolution of the General
Staff appeared to happen; however, the core of the General Staff was hidden
within another organization, the Truppenamt, where it rewrote all Heer (Army) and Luftstreitkräfte (Air Force)
doctrinal and training materials based on the experience of World War I.
2. On April 16, 1922, representatives of the
governments of Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Rapallo at
a World Economic
Conference at Genoa in Italy. The
treaty re-established
diplomatic relations renounced financial claims on each other and pledged
future cooperation.
3. In 1932, the German government announced
it would no longer adhere to the treaty's military limitations, citing the
Allies' violation of the treaty by failing to initiate military limitations on
themselves as called for in the preamble of Part V of the Treaty of Versailles.
4.
In March 1935, under the government of Adolf
Hitler, Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by
introducing compulsory military conscription in Germany and rebuilding the
armed forces. This included a new Navy (Kriegsmarine), the
first full armored divisions (Panzerwaffe), and
an Air Force (Luftwaffe).
6.
In March
1936, Germany violated the treaty by reoccupying the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland.
7.
In March 1938, Germany violated the treaty by
annexing Austria in the Anschluss.
8.
In September 1938, Germany, with the approval of France,
Britain, and Italy, violated the Treaty by annexing
the Sudetenland from
Czechoslovakia.
9.
In March 1939, Germany violated the treaty by
occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia.
10. On 1
September 1939, Germany violated the treaty by invading Poland, thus initiating Iain Europe.
Reactions against treaty:
Reaction of Britain, France and the USA:
1. Most
people in Britain had wanted revenge and so had gained some satisfaction. Lloyd
George was satisfied that Britain had gained most of Germany’s colonies, so
that after 1919, Britain could recover its wealth and power.
2. France,
however, was not satisfied that Germany had been weakened enough. Marshal Foch
of France said in 1919: ‘This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty-one
years’. By this he meant Germany had not been weakened enough and would rise
again in twenty-one years. He predicted Germany’s rise correctly. Britain and
America promised help to France should Germany threaten her in the future.
3. Most
remarkable of all, America refused to ratify the treaty. Wilson was a Democrat.
The republican part in America opposed Wilson’s involvement in Europe, and in
the autumn of 1918, the Republicans had a majority in Congress. Congress
refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles because:-
a. Republicans were against Democrats
b. Republicans wanted ‘isolation’
France still felt insecure, because Britain
would not support France without American aid.
Reaction in Germany:
1. Germany thought the Treaty of Versailles
(28th June
1919) was unfair because it was a ‘diktat’. The ‘Big Three’ had not negotiated
with Germany at Paris from January – June 1919. Germany was given only three
weeks to comment on the vast amounts of peace clauses. Her objections were
largely ignored. Germany resented the attitude of revenge which was summed up
by the British press as:
2. "Make Germany Pay"
and
"Squeeze the German Lemon until the Pips
Squeak!"
3. Germany though the Treaty was unfair
because it was not based fully on Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’. On the 5th November,
1918, Germany had accepted the Fourteen Points as the basis for peace and an
armistice began at 11 o’clock on the 11th November
1918. By the 28th June 1919, when the Treaty of
Versailles was signed, the Fourteen Points had been largely forgotten. (See
table below)
Conclusion:
The financial impact of the Treaty:
The Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for the First World
War. As a result of this Germany was also held accountable for the cost of the
war and the Treaty dictated that compensation would have to be paid to the
Allies. These payments, called reparations, would be paid monthly and would
total some £6,600 million (This figure was agreed by the Allies in 1921). It is
important not to take this figure in isolation though. remember that the
economic might of Germany had been stretched to the limits during the war, and
she would have to reconstruct her own economy at the same time as paying
Reparations. In addition, Germany had lost some of her most precious sources of
Raw materials as her colonies, and some of the areas ceded to other countries,
were rich sources of income. These factors would make it harder for the German
economy to cope. Further to this it is important to note the casualties
suffered during the war. Germany lost some 1.7 million men during the war, and
a further 4.2 million are listed as being wounded.
The Political Impact of the Treaty
The Treaty
triggered a number of political reactions. Firstly the government of the day
resigned, having refused to sign it. The incoming government had no choice but
to sign the Treaty but was accused by some, General Ludendorff for example, of
stabbing the Germany people in the back. This Theory grew in popularity as the
economy suffered and many, former soldiers in particular, believed that the
politicians had lost the war rather than the army.(For some it was hard to
accept that they could have lost the war whilst troops were still stationed in France, having not lost the ground that they had taken in
1914).This, amongst other things, led to a growth in the number of people who
distrusted the Weimar Republic and were unwilling to support it. This manifests
itself in uprisings such as the Kapp Putsch and the Munich
Putsch, though there are other factors which led to these uprising.
Versailles and German expectations:
The Treaty of Versailles is one of the most
controversial international agreements. Many observers -- politicians and
historians -- have tended to blame the rise of the Nazis on Versailles,
following the dictum of an eminent democratic German politician. When asked
about the ultimate reasons for the failure of the democratic Weimar Republic,
he replied: "Versailles and Moscow." By "Moscow" he meant
that subversive communist activity guided by the Russian Bolshevist government
had undermined democracy in tandem with the Nazis. By mentioning "Versailles"
he claimed that the peace treaty had had detrimental effects on the viability
and domestic authority of the German democracy.
The French, on the other side, felt
disappointed by the treaty. They had hoped to weaken Germany more, maybe to
dissolve it. To them, the treaty did not seem harsh enough. In general, it has
seemed that the treaty was either to harsh or too mild. It was too harsh to
reconcile Germany with its former war enemies and to integrate it into a
lasting peaceful postwar order, and it was too mild to weaken Germany so as to
make it impossible for it to ever again become a great power.The picture that
emerges today after more intensive research is more complex and differentiated
than that, but Versailles nevertheless remains both a highly ambivalent and
crucial station in German history. The actual peace terms harshly disappointed
the Germans, who felt that they radically contradicted the promises Wilson had
made to the prerevolutionary German governments.The Germans, for right or wrong,
felt betrayed by Wilson and the United States.
References:
1.
Our Times 1900-1960, Stephen King-Hall,Feber and Feber 24 Russel
Square London.p.p.82-86
2.
Europe in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century,A.J.Grant,Longman green
& co. ltd.(6th edition 1952) p.p572-76
3.
A Short History of Europe,Atony Alcock,Surjeet
Publication,p.p.423-26
Bibliography:
1.
History of
Modern Europe Since 1789,Vidya Dhar Mahajan,S,Chand & Company Ltd.
2.
Modern Europe
to 1876,Carton J.H.Hayes,The Macmillan Company New York.
3.
Contemporary
Europe Since 1870,Carlton J.H.Hayes,Surjeet Publication.
4.
Modern European
History,Ragohubir Dayal,CBS Publisher & Distributers(2nd
edition 1967
5.
Our Times
1900-1960, Stephen King-Hall,Feber and Feber 24 Russel Square
London.p.p.82-86
6.
Europe in
Nineteenth and Twentieth Century,A.J.Grant,Longman green & co.
ltd.(6th edition 1952) p.p572-76
7.
A Short History
of Europe,Atony Alcock,Surjeet Publication,p.p.423-26
Comments
Post a Comment