Creating a “New” Europe

CH 27 Section 5

The Treaty of Versailles After six months of negotiations the delegates to

the peace conference came to an agreement There were separate peace treaties with each of

the defeated nations separating Austria and Hungary

To Wilsons disappointment the treaty dealt harshly with Germany and the Germans complained that it did not follow the 14 points

The Treaty carved large chunks of land from Germany, placed restrictions on the Government and made them pay reparations

Treaty continued The Germans strongly objected to paying

reparations denying that they were alone in starting the war

The Alsace Lorraine region was returned to France, Poland was restored as an independent nation, and Belgium gained some territory

Germany had to stop its military draft and the Navy could only have a few warships and no submarines

Their Military was not allowed to manufacture heavy artillery, tanks or Military airplanes

The allies did not have the ability to enforce this

Fates of former territories

Austria surrendered the southern Tirol and the city of Trieste to Italy

Hungary lost territory to form the new countries of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia

{Yugoslavia consisted of the former Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina}

Hungary also lost territory to Romania, Poland and Russia

This created new problems in all of these regions

Ethnic populations The peace treaties solved many problems but also

created new ones One of them was national self-determination, often

the new boundaries did not match natural ethnic divisions

For example the new division of Germany left 3 million Germans in Czechoslovakia, and also left Hungarians in Romania

Poland gained access to the Baltic sea through land inhabited by Germans. It was predicted that Poland would be the “root of the next war”

Ethnic populations Continued

Some ethnic groups like the Armenians in Turkey were brutally oppressed

During WWI the Turks had tried to systematically exterminate the Armenians (genocide)

When the war ended the foreign outcry against the atrocities but they resumed in 1920

In 1915 the Armenian population had been around 2 million

1.5 million were killed the rest deported and by 1923 the Armenians in Asia Minor were almost nonexistent

Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Russia

In 1919 the Bulgarians were punished by losing territory to Greece losing their outlet to the Aegean sea

Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq were all made from lands of the Ottoman empire

Although it had fought for the allies Russia lost land to the Baltic states of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

In addition , Russia not only lost land to Poland but also lost the province of Bessarabia to Romania

The League of Nations

During talks Wilson made some compromises in the fourteen points

He thought however that the League of nations would fix any injustices that the treaties created

According to the covenant, the league had two main aims

1 To promote international cooperation and 2 to keep peace among nations

It was supposed to settle disputes and help reduce armaments

Organizations

Three main agencies would conduct league business: an assembly, a council, and a secretariat

The Assembly would be composed of representatives of all member nations and regardless of size each nation would have one vote

The Council would consist of 9 member nations (later increased to 14) 5 were permanent GB, France, Italy, Japan and the US

The other seats would be member countries that rotate in annually

The members of the League would not go to war over disagreements

Mandates The league of nations provided a way to deal with

the defeated powers overseas colonies The league would take care of the colonies until

the people “were ready for independence” The league set aside the colony as a mandate to

be ruled by an “advanced” nation German possessions in In Africa and the Pacific

and Ottoman territories in the Middle East were given to GB, France, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium or Japan

South West Africa was given to South Africa

The Start of the League

Though the league was strongly promoted by Wilson the US was never a member

Americans were cautious over the Leagues power and others wanted changes in the treaty which included the League of nations

Mostly they were afraid that the peacekeeping commitments would drag the US into another war

As a result of this strong opposition the Senate did not ratify the Versailles treaty

Instead the US had a separate peace treaty with Germany

Start of the League continued

Despite the absence of the US the first meeting of the leagues 42 members was a hopeful one

{Germany joined the league in 1926} and the Soviet Union in 1934

By the 1940’s 59 nations had joined the League of nations

Review Questions

Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina all made up what former country?

Who finally joined the league in 1926?