The Treaty of Versailles
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In other cases, refusal to assimilate to the dominant culture led to the expulsion of entire ethnic groups. Between 1922 and 1923, the Turks organised the deportation of Armenian and Greek populations in exchange for Turkish nationals during the conflict that set them against each other.
Many more examples could be cited, but it is clear that by associating nations’ independence with the sole criteria of a common language and a territory with borders imposed by a treaty, the victors of Versailles incited the frustration of the populations, who continued to fight to defend borders and territories that everyone wanted to be ethnically homogeneous.
Fragile economic reconstruction
In November 1918, the war that had just come to its conclusion had left Europe in tatters. In four years, the continent’s intensive mobilisation for war had seriously weakened its populations and led to significant material damages, valued in 1921 at nearly £4 billion for Belgium and the North of France alone.
The destruction due to the war led to a large budget deficit for many countries, and made Europe dependent on the United States, who became its creditor thanks to its economy that had been boosted by the war effort.
The conference was the opportunity for some states to organise a proper communications campaign to convince Washington to intervene in their economic recovery. Thus, on 18 June 1919, King Albert I of Belgium took advantage of Wilson’s visit to show him the damages caused by the Germans in the towns of Ypres, Leuven and the industrial mining area of Charleroi. The news relayed these images of desolation to the United States, which allowed the establishment of an aid fund (the Commission for Relief in Belgium), which was necessary for the country’s reconstruction.
The United States’ economic involvement did not last long. Scared by Europe’s debt, the three presidents, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) and Herbert Hoover (1874-1964), revived the isolationism that had existed before the war, hoping to thus keep their country on the path of economic growth. But this policy would only make the global economy even more fragile, as European stock exchanges were already too dependent on the whims of Wall Street.
In this context of economic fragility, the Allies struggled to overcome their hatred towards Germany, which was at the source of much of the damage. While they unilaterally proclaimed the Reich’s legal responsibility, Poincaré, who wanted to humiliate the Germans even further, entrusted the occupation of the coal basins in the Saarland and the Ruhr to the colonial troops of West Africa. This provocation was too much for Germany, and the population was outraged.
Realising the danger that the rise of resentment represented in Germany, the League of Nations arranged for them to pay their war debt back in instalments so that economic recovery might be possible. Initially, the move failed. Germany in fact suffered a serious financial crisis between 1919 and 1923, which forced it to stop paying war reparations altogether after 1924.
The situation deteriorated in 1929 following the Wall Street Crash which devastated European economies, apart from that of the Soviet Union which experienced unprecedented growth from 1928 thanks to the development of a planned state economy. In retaliation, several countries decided to preserve their stability by turning towards dictatorial regimes: Italy with fascism (1924), Germany with Nazism (1933) and Spain with Francoism (1936).
At the end of the 1930s, the only solution available to Europe to attempt to regain the principle of freedom for its people, so extensively defended in Versailles, was to get involved in a new world war.
Summary
At the end of the First World War, the 1919 Paris Peace Conference aimed to restore relations between states by weakening the power of the former Central Powers, essentially for the benefit of France and the United Kingdom.
The peace treaty settled the fate of Germany and accused Wilhelm II and his accomplices of war crimes. As well as incurring an enormous debt, Germany lost an eighth of its territory and had its army limited. In the West, Alsace-Lorraine was given back to France, while in the East, Germany lost Upper Silesia to Poland and part of East Prussia to Lithuania.
The treaty also tried to oversee the political transition of Austria-Hungary and Russia’s former possessions to democratic regimes. But the very new nature of mass democracy, along with the forced coexistence of different national groups within borders imposed by the victors, made Central and Eastern Europe very unstable.
Despite the severity of the treaty’s terms, Germany and Russia recovered quickly and reformed themselves around authoritarian and ideological regimes that won over their populations.
In Africa and the Middle East, the victors also furthered their interests by strengthening their hold over their colonies. Through the intermediary of the League of Nations, they reduced the countries of Africa and the Middle East to the status of mere protectorates whose mandates were mainly shared between France and Britain.
Designed to re-establish peace, the Treaty of Versailles only managed to reorganise the world according to the power ratios of the winners of the First World War. The states’ inability to give up a small amount of their sovereignty for the benefit of collective security explains the failure of the League of Nations to fulfil its role as a mediator when faced with the excessive frustration of the states, who continued to see war as a legitimate option for ridding themselves of the injustices incurred by the treaties. Thus, instead of guaranteeing peace, the Treaty of Versailles only led to “eternal war”.
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Further reading
Bibliography
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Bennett, E. M. and Graebner, N. A. (2014) The Versailles Treaty and its Legacy: The Failure of the Wilsonian Vision. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Iconographic sources
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. © Le Petit Journal.
President Wilson asking Congress to declare war on Germany. Royalty-free reproduction picture.
Picture of Georges Clemenceau. Royalty-free reproduction picture.
Picture of Thomas Woodrow Wilson. © Pach Brothers.
Picture of David Lloyd George. © Library of Congress.
Picture of Vittorio Orlando. Royalty-free reproduction picture.
Signing the Treaty of Versailles. Royalty-free reproduction picture.
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