The Beginning of The End
The toll of the war was starting to dawn on the nations that participated in it. There were internal revolts, food riots and a breakdown of military discipline. Germany was also exhausting it human and material means to wage war.
Surrenders and Armistices
The Central Powers at this time were starting to break down. After a failed gamble by the Germans after taking the risk of throwing its remaining might at the western front in thespring of 1918, their allies were crumbling as well. On September 30, 1918, Bulgaria capitulated to the invading Allies. The Ottomans concluded an armistice on October 30 that same year and Austria-Hungary surrendered on November 4, 1918. At last, Germany accepted an armistice, which took effect on November 11, 1918. The guns were put at rest.
Off to Paris
Meeting at Paris
Meeting At Paris
After the guns finally fell silent, the world turned its attention to Paris. There, in 1919, the victorious powers convened to arrange a post-war sttlement and set terms for the defeated nations. Despite the high hopes on both sides, the twenty-seven nations (excluding Germany, Austria and Hungary because they were the defeated nations as well as the Soviet Union, who negotiated a seperate peace treaty with Germany) represented at Paris had different and often conflicting aims, deteriorating the meeting in a pandemonium.
Peace Treaties
It was hard to negotiate a peace treaty to satisfy all nations because all nations had different motives and aims. After multiple recessions by other nations because of the almost impossible task of seeking peace for everyone, Geoges Clemenceau, Lloyd Gerige and Woodrow Wilson - the representative leaders of France, Great Britain and the United States -dominated the deliberations. The final form of the treaties represented a serires of compromises among the victors.
French Aims
As the only major allied power sharing a land border with Germany, France was chiefly concerned with weakening Germany as much as possible. France was the country that originated the hardest terms, and desired the destruction or the permanent weakening of German power. Thus, in additon to requiring Germany to accept sole responsibility and guilt for causing the war, the victors demanded a reduction in the military potential of the former Central Powers. They denied the Germans a navy and an air force and limited the size of the German army to 100,000 troops. They also prohibited Germany and Austira from entering into any sot of policital union.
British Aims
Britain had suffered little land devastation during the war and Prime Minister David Lloyd George supported reparations to a lesser extent than the French. Britain began to look on a restored Germany as an important trading partner and worried about the effect of reparations on the British economy. Lloyd George was also worried by Woodrow Wilson′s proposal for "self-determination" and, like the French, wanted to preserve his own nation's empire. Like the French, Lloyd George supported secret treaties and naval blockades. Lloyd George managed to increase the overall reparations payment and Britain's share by demanding compensation for the huge number of widows, orphans, and men left unable to work as a result of war injuries.
United State's Aims
One year before the opening of the Paris Peace Conference in January 1918, U.S president Woodrow Wilson forwarded a proposal for a just and enduring postwar peace settlement. His vision had subsequently prompted the defeated Central Powers to announce their acceptance of his Fourteen Points at the basis for the armistice.The Fourteen Points included open aggrements of peace, absolute freddom of navigation on the seas on peace and war, the removal of all economic barriers and the establishment o an equality of trade conditions among all nations, adequate guarantees for a reduction in national armaments, adjustments of colonial disputes to give equal weight to the intersts of the controlling government and the colonial population, and a call for "a general association of nations".
Wilson was concerned with rebuilding the European economy, encouraging self-determination, promoting free trade, creating appropriate mandates for former colonies, and above all, creating a powerful League of Nations that would ensure the peace. He opposed harsh treatment of Germany but was outmaneuvered by Britain and France.
After the guns finally fell silent, the world turned its attention to Paris. There, in 1919, the victorious powers convened to arrange a post-war sttlement and set terms for the defeated nations. Despite the high hopes on both sides, the twenty-seven nations (excluding Germany, Austria and Hungary because they were the defeated nations as well as the Soviet Union, who negotiated a seperate peace treaty with Germany) represented at Paris had different and often conflicting aims, deteriorating the meeting in a pandemonium.
Peace Treaties
It was hard to negotiate a peace treaty to satisfy all nations because all nations had different motives and aims. After multiple recessions by other nations because of the almost impossible task of seeking peace for everyone, Geoges Clemenceau, Lloyd Gerige and Woodrow Wilson - the representative leaders of France, Great Britain and the United States -dominated the deliberations. The final form of the treaties represented a serires of compromises among the victors.
French Aims
As the only major allied power sharing a land border with Germany, France was chiefly concerned with weakening Germany as much as possible. France was the country that originated the hardest terms, and desired the destruction or the permanent weakening of German power. Thus, in additon to requiring Germany to accept sole responsibility and guilt for causing the war, the victors demanded a reduction in the military potential of the former Central Powers. They denied the Germans a navy and an air force and limited the size of the German army to 100,000 troops. They also prohibited Germany and Austira from entering into any sot of policital union.
British Aims
Britain had suffered little land devastation during the war and Prime Minister David Lloyd George supported reparations to a lesser extent than the French. Britain began to look on a restored Germany as an important trading partner and worried about the effect of reparations on the British economy. Lloyd George was also worried by Woodrow Wilson′s proposal for "self-determination" and, like the French, wanted to preserve his own nation's empire. Like the French, Lloyd George supported secret treaties and naval blockades. Lloyd George managed to increase the overall reparations payment and Britain's share by demanding compensation for the huge number of widows, orphans, and men left unable to work as a result of war injuries.
United State's Aims
One year before the opening of the Paris Peace Conference in January 1918, U.S president Woodrow Wilson forwarded a proposal for a just and enduring postwar peace settlement. His vision had subsequently prompted the defeated Central Powers to announce their acceptance of his Fourteen Points at the basis for the armistice.The Fourteen Points included open aggrements of peace, absolute freddom of navigation on the seas on peace and war, the removal of all economic barriers and the establishment o an equality of trade conditions among all nations, adequate guarantees for a reduction in national armaments, adjustments of colonial disputes to give equal weight to the intersts of the controlling government and the colonial population, and a call for "a general association of nations".
Wilson was concerned with rebuilding the European economy, encouraging self-determination, promoting free trade, creating appropriate mandates for former colonies, and above all, creating a powerful League of Nations that would ensure the peace. He opposed harsh treatment of Germany but was outmaneuvered by Britain and France.
The Results
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Numerous Treaties
The Paris Peace conference resulted in several additinal treaties. Bulgaria accepted the Treaty of Neuilly (1919), crediting only small portions of territory because the Allies feared that major territorial changes in the Balkans would destabilize the region.
Austria-Hungary's imperial unity disintegrated under the impact of the war, and the peacemakers recognized the territorial breakup of the former empire in two separate treaties: The Treaty of St. Germain (1919), between the Allies and the Repubic of Austria, and the Treaty of Trianon (1920), between the Allies and the kingdom of Hungary. Both Austria and Hungary suffered severe territorial losses, which the Allies claimed were necessay in order to find territorial boundaries that accorded closel with the principle of self-determination. The peace settlement redued Hungarian territory to one-third of its prewar size and decreased the nation's population from 28 to 8 million people.
Arrangements between the defeated Ottoman Empire and the Allies proved to be a more complicated and protracted affair. The Treaty of Sevres (1920) effectively disolved the empire, calling for the surrender of Ottoman, Balkan and Arab provinces and the occupation of eastern and southern Anatolia by foreign powers. Mohammed VI agreed with the terms, but Turkish nationalist and war hero Mustafa Kemal did not. He set out to defy Allied terms and organized a national army that dove out Greek, British, French and Italian occupation forces. He abolished the sultanate and replaced it with the Republic of Turkey. The Allied powers officialy recognized the Republic of Turkey in a final peace agreement, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).
The Paris Peace conference resulted in several additinal treaties. Bulgaria accepted the Treaty of Neuilly (1919), crediting only small portions of territory because the Allies feared that major territorial changes in the Balkans would destabilize the region.
Austria-Hungary's imperial unity disintegrated under the impact of the war, and the peacemakers recognized the territorial breakup of the former empire in two separate treaties: The Treaty of St. Germain (1919), between the Allies and the Repubic of Austria, and the Treaty of Trianon (1920), between the Allies and the kingdom of Hungary. Both Austria and Hungary suffered severe territorial losses, which the Allies claimed were necessay in order to find territorial boundaries that accorded closel with the principle of self-determination. The peace settlement redued Hungarian territory to one-third of its prewar size and decreased the nation's population from 28 to 8 million people.
Arrangements between the defeated Ottoman Empire and the Allies proved to be a more complicated and protracted affair. The Treaty of Sevres (1920) effectively disolved the empire, calling for the surrender of Ottoman, Balkan and Arab provinces and the occupation of eastern and southern Anatolia by foreign powers. Mohammed VI agreed with the terms, but Turkish nationalist and war hero Mustafa Kemal did not. He set out to defy Allied terms and organized a national army that dove out Greek, British, French and Italian occupation forces. He abolished the sultanate and replaced it with the Republic of Turkey. The Allied powers officialy recognized the Republic of Turkey in a final peace agreement, the Treaty of Lausanne (1923).
The Middle East After the War
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After Mustafa Kemal (now known as Ataurk) made Turkey a republic, he made himself president and instituted an ambitious program of modernization that emphasized economic development and secularism. Substantial long-term economic progress resulted from governmen support of critical industries and businesses and other forms of state intervention in the economy designed to ensure rapid economic development. The government's policy of secularism dictated the complete separation between the existing Muslim religious establishment and the state. It resulted in the replacement of religious with secular institutions of education and justice, the emancipation of women (including their right to vote), the adoption of European-derived law, Hindu-Arabic numerals, the Roman alphabet and Western clothing.
Turkey's postwar transformations and its success in re-fashioning terms of peace proved to be something of an exception. The peace settlement was weak because too few participants had a stake in maintaining it and too many had an interest in revising it.
Turkey's postwar transformations and its success in re-fashioning terms of peace proved to be something of an exception. The peace settlement was weak because too few participants had a stake in maintaining it and too many had an interest in revising it.
More Results
The League of Nations
Fearing future conflicts and hoping to try to prevent destructive wars, the diplomats in Paris created the League of Nations. The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Initialy, the League seemed to be a sign of hope, suggesting that it transcended European interests. However, the League had two major flaws, rendering it ineffective. First, through designed to solve international disuputes, it had no power to enforce its decisions. Second, it relied on collective security as a tool for the preservation of global peace. The collective security-participation by all the great powers - never materialized because at any given time one or more of the major powers did not belong to the League. The United States never joined the organization because the U.S senate rejected the idea. Germany viewed the League as a club of Allied victors. Japan saw it as an instrument of imperialism. Italy withdrew in 1937. The Soviet Union joined the organization in 1934, but faced expulsion in 1940. However, the League did serve as a model for its successor, the United Nations.
Treaty of Versailles
In 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, admitting guilt for the war, disarming itself, giving up much of its territory, returning territory it had seized and surrendering its overseas colonies. The giving up of territory meant many German speaking people were now citizens of new countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. Germany was also required to make economic reparations for the war. Since Germany was in deep debt due to the cost of waging war, these demands for reparation were nearly impossible to meet.
Casualties
The human cost of WWI was staggering. Approximately 10 million soldiers died in battle. It is estimated another 20 million soldiers and civilians died of war-related causes, including starvation, disease and exposure to chemical nerve gas. Millions more were critically wounded during the war, which left 6 million crippled. The Allies suffered the most losses. The United States entered the war late, and its losses weren't nearly as great as the other Allied Powers, such as Russia and France, who lost millions upon millions of young men.
Fearing future conflicts and hoping to try to prevent destructive wars, the diplomats in Paris created the League of Nations. The League was the first permanent international security organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Initialy, the League seemed to be a sign of hope, suggesting that it transcended European interests. However, the League had two major flaws, rendering it ineffective. First, through designed to solve international disuputes, it had no power to enforce its decisions. Second, it relied on collective security as a tool for the preservation of global peace. The collective security-participation by all the great powers - never materialized because at any given time one or more of the major powers did not belong to the League. The United States never joined the organization because the U.S senate rejected the idea. Germany viewed the League as a club of Allied victors. Japan saw it as an instrument of imperialism. Italy withdrew in 1937. The Soviet Union joined the organization in 1934, but faced expulsion in 1940. However, the League did serve as a model for its successor, the United Nations.
Treaty of Versailles
In 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, admitting guilt for the war, disarming itself, giving up much of its territory, returning territory it had seized and surrendering its overseas colonies. The giving up of territory meant many German speaking people were now citizens of new countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. Germany was also required to make economic reparations for the war. Since Germany was in deep debt due to the cost of waging war, these demands for reparation were nearly impossible to meet.
Casualties
The human cost of WWI was staggering. Approximately 10 million soldiers died in battle. It is estimated another 20 million soldiers and civilians died of war-related causes, including starvation, disease and exposure to chemical nerve gas. Millions more were critically wounded during the war, which left 6 million crippled. The Allies suffered the most losses. The United States entered the war late, and its losses weren't nearly as great as the other Allied Powers, such as Russia and France, who lost millions upon millions of young men.
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New Countries
The borders of the world map were drastically altered by WWI, mainly in Europe. What was formerly a collection of nations of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires before the war became a group of independent countries after. Now Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary existed where the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been. Poland now existed on what used to be Austrian, German and Russian territory. Also new to the map were the countries of Yugoslavia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland.
The borders of the world map were drastically altered by WWI, mainly in Europe. What was formerly a collection of nations of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires before the war became a group of independent countries after. Now Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary existed where the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been. Poland now existed on what used to be Austrian, German and Russian territory. Also new to the map were the countries of Yugoslavia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland.