Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Lebanon. They hoped a democratic Germany, accepting its defeat, would concede that the settlement was just and execute the treaty. This text T.E. Wilson insisted that the Covenant of the League of Nations be the first priority and its twenty-six articles the first chapter of all the Paris treaties. Millions more died in the inter- and intra-state wars that continued after 1918. Yet it took more than two months after the armistice before the conference opened, partly delayed by a general election in Britain in which Lloyd George sought to turn victory into political capital to consolidate his position as the Liberal leader of a predominantly Conservative coalition. 111-44; Clements, Jonathan: Wellington Koo, China. Germanys forces were restricted to an army of 100,000 long-term volunteers and a tiny navy of 15,000 men without submarines or dreadnoughts.
): The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. The Indian National Congress, originally established to promote dialogue with Britain, was already pressing for home rule before the war, radicalised by Curzons attempt to partition Bengal. Seymour, Charles (ed. Clemenceau spoke for many when he declared, "There is an old system of alliances called the Balance of Power this system of alliances, which I do not renounce, will be my guiding thought at the Peace Conference. Lansing recorded in his diary for 22 January 1919, "all the races of Central Europe and the Balkans in fact are actually fighting or about to fight with one anotherthe Great War seems to have split up into a lot of little wars. He secured a plebiscite on the fate of Upper Silesia but little else. Lowry, Bullitt: Armistice 1918, Ohio 1996, pp. The peacemakers knew their main responsibility was to integrate Germany into an international framework permitting it appropriate power and influence without overwhelming its neighbours. Concerning the latter treaty, the Italians and the Yugoslavs quarreled over the partition of Austrias former possessions on the Adriatic Sea. Sharp, Alan: Dreamland of the Armistice, in: History Today 58 (2008), pp. Steiner, Zara: The Lights That Failed.
Wilson expected resistance from his colleagues in Paris, but he was also aware of another threat. In Egypt three years of widespread anti-British violence began in March 1919, before Britain imposed partial independence in 1922, under which it retained control of defence and the Suez Canal. The concluding stage of peacemaking, following the collapse of Svres, witnessed the only real negotiations with a former Central Power, ending with the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey on 24 July 1923. 64-70; Willis, James F.: Prologue to Nuremberg. 128-31 and 121-24.
Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924, Oxford 1993, pp. / Mango, Andrew / McNamara, Robert: The Makers of the Modern Middle East, London 2011. From 1900 to 1920, tug-of-war was an official event at the Summer Olympics. There is also a tendency to highlight the dynamics of treaty clauses and the novel aspects of the Versailles order, which also made it into a new phase for international law through the LN, the ILO (International Labour Organization) and minority rights. MacMillan, Margaret, Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (London: J. Murray, 2001). Lobbied for the establishment of a Jewish state in, This page was last edited on 5 May 2022, at 07:17.
Its real debt, under the A and B bonds, was therefore about 2.5 billion, well within British and American estimates of its capacity to pay. Lloyd Georges arrival in Paris was followed on January 12, 1919, by a preliminary meeting of the French, British, U.S., and Italian heads of government and foreign ministersrespectively, Georges Clemenceau and Stephen Pichon; Lloyd George and Arthur James Balfour; Woodrow Wilson (who fell ill at the conference, probably having contracted the flu as the influenza pandemic of 191819 raged) and Robert Lansing; and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Sidney Sonninoat which it was decided that they themselves, with the Japanese plenipotentiaries, would constitute a Supreme Council, or Council of Ten, to monopolize all the major decision making. Lobbied for the independence of Tripolitania from Italian Libya.
39-87. Early attempts to persuade Germany to comply culminated in the Franco-Belgian invasion of the Ruhr in 1923. Lloyd George, however, prompted by disquiet in the British delegation, sought amendments, much to Wilsons disgust and Clemenceaus apprehension. Yet in November 1918, with clear German victory in the east and its troops still occupying Northern France and Belgium, defeat was a difficult concept to grasp and it is arguable that no treaty based on such a premise would ever have been acceptable to Germany, even had the Allies been more amenable to negotiation. 170-88, 184. The Council of Ten had not lacked diligence; it had met seventy-two times, initially twice, more recently once a day, and established fifty-eight subcommittees; but it had not reached conclusions.[17]. "[19] Nonetheless the conference found the League helpful in side-stepping the principle of self-determination to provide France with coal from the Saar and Poland with the use of Danzig as a port without awarding either state sovereignty over the respective inhabitants. Britain and France were left to execute a settlement that the Americans had heavily influenced but now reneged upon. After final German assaults from March to June 1918 and the pressure on all the belligerents becoming critical, the tide turned inexorably in August 1918. The finalisation of the treaties of Trianon with Hungary, signed on 4 June 1920, and of Svres with the Ottoman Empire on 10 August 1920, together with increasing problems of enforcement, were handled with some confusion by peripatetic meetings of Allied heads of government held in various capitals and spas. Around 9.5 million young servicemen died. This suggested Belgium and France would receive most of the payments since Britain had suffered little direct damage and the Dominions none. Updates? The plan was disregarded and no alternative advanced. 127-34, 139-46; Feldman, Gerald: The Great Disorder. Held in February 1919 in order to petition the allies on African issues. [33]Greece increased from 42,000 square miles and 4,800,000 people in 1914 to (at least temporarily) 60,000 square miles and 7,500,000 inhabitants by 1921. Within six weeks all the European great powers, excepting Italy, were at war. Pramowska, Anita: Ignacy Paderewski, Poland.
He was successful in moving the Italian frontier to the Brenner with the acquisition of South Tyrol from Austria, which consigned some 250,000 German-speakers to Italian rule. After the 1920 war with Russia, Poland established this new frontier far to the east of the Curzon line recommended by the conference, creating a state where only 69 percent of the population was Polish and whose neighbours all had grievances against it. ): A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, vol. 7f. II, London 1970 onwards, pp. Although Lenin had pragmatically sacrificed territory for the survival of his new regime in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany in March 1918 and made hinted offers to the Allies to extend trade and other opportunities in return for the withdrawal of their various interventionist forces in 1919, many doubted whether co-existence represented his real objective. It was "solved" by a classic short-term fix replete with unintended consequences Articles 231 and 232 of the treaty which asserted the Allied moral right to compensation from Germany (and its allies) for all their losses because Germany (and its allies) were responsible for the war. On 22 June 1919, the German government was given an ultimatum agree to sign within twenty-four hours or face war. Romania and Hungary also had disputes with Czechoslovakia, typical of the problems that prevented the new states from cooperating. Lawrence acted as the delegation's translator. "[30] After an abortive attempt to assemble the warring factions for negotiations on the Prinkipo Islands in the Sea of Marmara, the peace conference dismissed one-sixth of the earths surface in Articles 292 and 293 of the Treaty of Versailles. The Russian SFSR was not invited to attend, having already concluded a peace treaty with the Central Powers in the spring of 1918. Man of Secrets, vol. On the other hand, Germanys unwillingness could be punished by prolongation of the occupation period. He was willing to back the Dominion premiers in their quests to control neighbouring former German colonies though, as he warned Australian Premier Billy Hughes (1862-1952), not to the extent of quarrelling with the United States over the Solomon Islands. Djoki, Dejan: Pai and Trumbi. The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals, Princeton 2000, pp. 56-65. Sharp, Alan: Britain and the Protection of Minorities at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, in: Hepburn, A.C. As far east as Germanys boundaries with Poland the peacemakers could decide. Lansing, Robert: The Peace Negotiations. Makers of the Modern World, London 2008, pp. Their discussions emphasised the differences between them and, recalling the havoc wrought between the victors in 1815 by the wily French diplomat, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord (1754-1838), the Allies gradually and tacitly accepted that they would not negotiate directly with the Germans, but their original terms often entered the treaty unaltered. Mango, Andrew: From the Sultan to Atatrk, Turkey. Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Latvia. Reparations would both deny Germany that victory and spread the pain of undoing the damage done." Italy made further gains in Trieste, Trentino and Dalmatia but its additional demand for the Adriatic port of Fiume met Wilsons adamant opposition. France and European Economic Diplomacy 1916-1923, New York 1980, pp. [29], The Russian revolutions created a dilemma that the peacemakers never resolved. Pre-la-Victoire (Old Man Victory) sought this in a number of ways. It considers the outcomes of the five Parisian treaties (Versailles, Saint-Germain and Neuilly in 1919 and Trianon and Svres in 1920) together with the renegotiated settlement with Turkey at Lausanne in 1923. As Germanys leaders discovered the following June, there was no possibility that they could renew hostilities. Accepting that Germany could not meet the full bill, they limited their actual claims in an Annex to certain categories of civilian damage but, at Britains insistence, these included the costs of pensions and allowances paid to servicemen and their families. It was forbidden union with the rump state of Austria. 578f; Alston, Charlotte: Antonius Piip, Zigfrds Meierovics and Augustinas Voldemaras. President Calvin Coolidges (1872-1933) response was typically laconic: "Well, they hired the money, didnt they?
[44], In Paris, with Clemenceau and Lloyd George now adamant that they were entitled to full compensation and Wilson insistent that they were not, a crisis loomed. The conferences programme was the largest ever known, for unlike the Congress of Vienna in 1815, everything had to be reconstructed. Clout, Hugh: After the Ruins. Makers of the Modern World, London 2009, pp. Makers of the Modern World, London 2009, pp. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which formulated the legal foundation for the reparations that Germany had accepted to pay, was also seen in Berlin (contrary to its real meaning and its finality) as a moral condemnation, and as a guilty verdict to be assumed for the war. Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Lithuania. It was not the short decisive encounter expected but in 1918 its equally rapid denouement took the victors by surprise. Di Scala, Spencer: Vittorio Orlando, Italy. Lentin, Antony: Lloyd George and the Lost Peace. Paris Peace Conference, (191920), the meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I. [34] Romania more than doubled its pre-war size and population from 53,661 square miles and 7,500,000 people to 113,941 square miles and 16,000,000 people. Attempted to gain international recognition of the independence of Belarus. It was also passed responsibility for minority protection for some national groups left on the wrong side of the new frontiers. Stevenson, David: With Our Backs to the Wall. These were then referred to territorial commissions in which different types of experts (geographers, military representatives, economists, historians, etc.) Germany defaulted on its reparation liabilities in 1932, after paying about 1.1 billion including deliveries in kind. [38], Czechoslovakia, based upon the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, with the addition of Slovakia and Moravia, owed much to the efforts of two men, Tom Masaryk (1850-1937), whose father was Slovak, and Eduard Bene (1884-1948), a Czech. The German delegation, led by Brockdorff-Rantzau, saw the treaty clauses presented on May 7, 1919 as humiliating measures, and violations of this Pre-Armistice Agreement. 90-164; MacMillan, Peacemakers 2001, pp. Torn between the principles of self-determination and the need to offer Czechoslovakia secure frontiers and economic prosperity, they allocated the area to the Czechs.
"[5], Only on 8 October 1918 did he inform his European associates whose cryptographers had, in any case, broken the Swiss codes. "What effect," asked Lansing, "will it have on the Irish, the Indians, the Egyptians and the nationalists among the Boers? They had to deal not only with the problems that had caused the war, but also with the further complications occasioned and exacerbated by it, when the bitterness of loss and destruction was still raw. "[21] He knew, however, that his speeches had created undeliverable expectations subjects of the European empires for whom his words had not been intended, anticipated self-determination as eagerly as aspiring nations in Europe, many of which he had been unaware. Britain favoured modifying the terms in the hope of reconciling Germany, France preferred rigid enforcement to nullify German power.
From 20 November 1922 to 4 February 1923 and again from 19 April until 24 July 1923 there were negotiations at Lausanne between Kemals representatives and the Allies, for whom the British Foreign Secretary, George Curzon (1859-1925), and later the High Commissioner at Constantinople, Sir Horace Rumbold (1869-1941), armed with little else except the secret intelligence gleaned from decoded Turkish communications, played a weak hand well. The Aromanians until World War I", " 19181920 . The date marked the anniversary of the German Empires proclamation in 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, which Clemenceau reserved for the treatys signature. Convened and met from 10 February to 10 April 1919. Cambon, Paul: Correspondance, vol. Clemenceau also obtained a treaty of guarantee from the Anglo-Saxon powers in case of a German attack, as well as ownership over the Saar mines under an international territorial regime, also for fifteen years. On 28 June 1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914), heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo. is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works. Could Wilsons promise of secure access to the Baltic to an independent Poland, made up of indisputably Polish populations be delivered and yet maintain the principle of self-determination? The Paris Peace Conference gathered over 30 nations at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, France, to shape the future after World War I. He likewise attempted to block the extensive definition of reparations presented to him by Lloyd George, who strangely did not include this aspect in his notion of moderation towards Berlin. ", Role in the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation, The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_participants_to_the_Paris_Peace_Conference_(19191920)&oldid=1086279435, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Signed under 'British Empire'. Hankey, Maurice: The Supreme Control at the Paris Peace Conference. Their respective foreign ministers Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), Stephen Pichon (1857-1933), Sidney Sonnino (1847-1922) and Robert Lansing (1864-1928), together with Baron Makino Nobuaki (1861-1949) of Japan - became the Council of Five, which undertook much of the detailed work on the new frontiers of Europe and the treaty with Austria, referring sensitive decisions to the Four. Orlando joined them from 24 March 1919. This he did on 14 December 1918, but the popular perception that his government would secure massive German payments to offset the costs of the war and bring the ex-German Emperor Wilhelm II to trial and execution, represented hostages to fortune. The United States made decisive interventions in the war and peacemaking, but this reversal of a century-old tradition of non-involvement in European affairs now seemed a temporary lapse after the Senates refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Specialized commissions were appointed to study particular problems: the organization of a League of Nations and the drafting of its Covenant; the determination of responsibility for the war and guarantees against a renewal of it; reparations; international labour legislation; international ports, waterways, and railroads; financial questions; economic questions of a permanent sort; aviation; naval and military matters; and territorial questions. We have no geniuss [sic] available. Only later, and with great reluctance, did other states acknowledge the existence of the Soviet Union and the new Baltic nations. The British Treasury estimated that victory cost an astronomical 24 billion British pounds (in 1914 gold values) whilst the effects on world trading patterns and economic power were extensive and long-lasting. Implications for the Third-World Debt Crisis, Princeton 1988. Hungary, which lost two-thirds of its pre-war territory and 58 percent of its population, suffered the heaviest deprivations of any of the defeated powers, losing a third of its Magyar people. This list shows all nations and delegations who signed the Treaty of Versailles. ", "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume IV - Office of the Historian", "Andorra va declarar la guerra a Alemanya el 1914? Attempted to establish an autonomous Aromanian entity.
13-33; Mazower, Mark: Two Cheers for Versailles, in: History Today 49 (1999); MacMillan, Peacemakers 2001, I am grateful, as always, for the comments, suggestions and encouragement of Professors Tom Fraser, Tony Lentin and Sally Marks together with those of Professor, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914), Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord (1754-1838), Charles I, Emperor of Austria (1887-1922), Wilhelm II, German Emperors (1859-1941), still occupying Northern France and Belgium. [26] Their attempts to negotiate by correspondence, after forensically dissecting its clauses, failed. In France and Belgium an area the size of Holland was devastated.
Makers of the Modern World, London 2011, pp. Both subjects raised expectations that were impossible to satisfy. 28-34. The Makers of the Modern World, London 2008, pp. 43-57; Bass, Gary J.: Stay the Hand of Vengeance. 725-63; Lentin, Antony: The Last Political Law Lord. "[51] He was correct, not least because the Europeans had dealt their own image of moral superiority a terrible blow in four years of brutal warfare.
He wished, for sentimental as well as pragmatic motives, to create a new major British sphere of interest in the Middle East, an important source of the oil on which the Royal Navy now depended.
They capitulated. Yet the responsibility for this new catastrophe cannot be attributed to the peacemakers alone as they sought to remedy the ills that drove Europe to war in 1914. "[25], The offer of Anglo-American support should Germany launch an unprovoked attack upon France, together with an agreement to occupy the Rhineland for fifteen years and to demilitarize it permanently, persuaded Clemenceau to drop his demands for its separation from Germany. James Headlam-Morley (1863-1929), a British expert in Paris, observed: "In the discussions everything inevitably leads up to Russia. The Americans rejected the argument that some had paid for victory with blood and others with treasure. Corrections? "[50], Self-determination had implications far beyond Europe. They believed, however, that their 5 November 1918 pre-armistice agreement with the Allies guaranteed that the treaty would be based upon Wilsons principles.[7].
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Four great empires that for centuries had dominated eastern and central Europe and the Middle East had collapsed. Wilson arrived in Europe to scenes of adulation in Paris, London and Rome and the various delegations gathered. What Really Happened at Paris?
Makers of the Modern World, London 2010, pp. Beyond that, deprived of any reliable means of enforcing their will, the new map depended more upon the outcome of wars and armed struggles as the Chief of the British Imperial General Staff, Sir Henry Wilson (1864-1922), observed, "The root of evil is that the Paris writ does not run. Basingstoke 2001, pp. [27], Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, northern Schleswig to Denmark, Danzig to the League, and the Polish corridor (which split East and West Prussia), Posen and half of Upper Silesia to Poland, and, eventually, Memel to Lithuania.
First Bulgaria accepted an armistice on 29 September 1918, then the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary began negotiations leading to their respective armistices on 30 October 1918 and 3 November 1918. III, Paris 1946, p. 311; Nicolson, Harold: Peacemaking 1919, London 1933, p. 242. Did Canada fight on the side of Britain in World War I? [46], Faced, unlike Germany, with heavy reconstruction costs and sizeable external debts of 3.7 billion, of which 2.96 billion was owed to the United States,[47] the Allies suggested an all-round cancellation of inter-allied debt in return for reducing Germanys liabilities. It is not one continent that is engaged every continent is engaged. The Allied Powers refused to recognise the Bolshevik government of Russia, and instead invited representatives of the Russian Provincial Council (chaired by Prince Lvov), the successor to the Russian Constituent Assembly and the political arm of the Russian White movement. The Ottoman Empire, shorn of its Middle Eastern territories, continued to exist, at least nominally, until, after a rebellion and a successful campaign against the occupying Greek forces, Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) expelled the Sultan and created the new secular state of Turkey in 1922. The Treaty of Lausanne proved to be the longest-lasting of the post-war settlements, testimony to the virtues of negotiation between participants willing to work within the same parameters and accept the need for compromise. Organisation and Procedure, Oxford 1944; Sharp, Alan: The Versailles Settlement.
Despite not signing the treaties, other delegations were sent to the Paris Peace Conferences, some uninvited, in order to represent their national interests. Both proselytised hard in exile, eventually gaining Allied endorsement in 1918. It was at this exact moment when the German enemy arrived at Versailles. 49-86. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Paris-Peace-Conference, United States History - Paris Peace Conference, Jewish Virtual Library - Pre-State Israel: Zionist Organization Statement on Palestine at the Paris Peace Conference, Paris Peace Conference - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Meanwhile Wilson, for whom the mid-term elections had given his rival Republicans control of the Senate, wished to address Congress on 2 December 1918 before he departed for Europe, where he was determined to be Americas main negotiator. At the end of March, Lloyd George and his advisors drafted the famous Fontainebleau memorandum intended to warn his counterparts about the dangers of too hard a peace with respect to Germany. Czechoslovakias reputation for tolerance towards its minorities has been questioned by: Orzorff, Andrea: Battle for the Castle. On 28 June 1919 Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, the first and most significant of the five Parisian treaties. The Politics and Diplomacy of Punishing War Criminals of the First World War, Westport 1982, pp. 67-146; Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste: Clemenceau, Paris 1988, pp. There had been wrangling among the Allies over both the treaties with Germany and those with Austria. His original draft included an automatic sanction of war against any member that broke its covenants but the dictates of national sovereignty undermined this revolutionary commitment by all members to defend their mutual political independence and territorial integrity against unprovoked aggression. The current view of the Council indeed of the whole conference has been heavily coloured by John Maynard Keyness (1883-1946) coruscating attack in The Economic Consequences of the Peace, one of the most influential polemics of the 20th century.
): The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, vol. The Indian National Congress, originally established to promote dialogue with Britain, was already pressing for home rule before the war, radicalised by Curzons attempt to partition Bengal. Seymour, Charles (ed. Clemenceau spoke for many when he declared, "There is an old system of alliances called the Balance of Power this system of alliances, which I do not renounce, will be my guiding thought at the Peace Conference. Lansing recorded in his diary for 22 January 1919, "all the races of Central Europe and the Balkans in fact are actually fighting or about to fight with one anotherthe Great War seems to have split up into a lot of little wars. He secured a plebiscite on the fate of Upper Silesia but little else. Lowry, Bullitt: Armistice 1918, Ohio 1996, pp. The peacemakers knew their main responsibility was to integrate Germany into an international framework permitting it appropriate power and influence without overwhelming its neighbours. Concerning the latter treaty, the Italians and the Yugoslavs quarreled over the partition of Austrias former possessions on the Adriatic Sea. Sharp, Alan: Dreamland of the Armistice, in: History Today 58 (2008), pp. Steiner, Zara: The Lights That Failed.
Wilson expected resistance from his colleagues in Paris, but he was also aware of another threat. In Egypt three years of widespread anti-British violence began in March 1919, before Britain imposed partial independence in 1922, under which it retained control of defence and the Suez Canal. The concluding stage of peacemaking, following the collapse of Svres, witnessed the only real negotiations with a former Central Power, ending with the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey on 24 July 1923. 64-70; Willis, James F.: Prologue to Nuremberg. 128-31 and 121-24. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924, Oxford 1993, pp. / Mango, Andrew / McNamara, Robert: The Makers of the Modern Middle East, London 2011. From 1900 to 1920, tug-of-war was an official event at the Summer Olympics. There is also a tendency to highlight the dynamics of treaty clauses and the novel aspects of the Versailles order, which also made it into a new phase for international law through the LN, the ILO (International Labour Organization) and minority rights. MacMillan, Margaret, Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War (London: J. Murray, 2001). Lobbied for the establishment of a Jewish state in, This page was last edited on 5 May 2022, at 07:17.
Its real debt, under the A and B bonds, was therefore about 2.5 billion, well within British and American estimates of its capacity to pay. Lloyd Georges arrival in Paris was followed on January 12, 1919, by a preliminary meeting of the French, British, U.S., and Italian heads of government and foreign ministersrespectively, Georges Clemenceau and Stephen Pichon; Lloyd George and Arthur James Balfour; Woodrow Wilson (who fell ill at the conference, probably having contracted the flu as the influenza pandemic of 191819 raged) and Robert Lansing; and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Sidney Sonninoat which it was decided that they themselves, with the Japanese plenipotentiaries, would constitute a Supreme Council, or Council of Ten, to monopolize all the major decision making. Lobbied for the independence of Tripolitania from Italian Libya.
39-87. Early attempts to persuade Germany to comply culminated in the Franco-Belgian invasion of the Ruhr in 1923. Lloyd George, however, prompted by disquiet in the British delegation, sought amendments, much to Wilsons disgust and Clemenceaus apprehension. Yet in November 1918, with clear German victory in the east and its troops still occupying Northern France and Belgium, defeat was a difficult concept to grasp and it is arguable that no treaty based on such a premise would ever have been acceptable to Germany, even had the Allies been more amenable to negotiation. 170-88, 184. The Council of Ten had not lacked diligence; it had met seventy-two times, initially twice, more recently once a day, and established fifty-eight subcommittees; but it had not reached conclusions.[17]. "[19] Nonetheless the conference found the League helpful in side-stepping the principle of self-determination to provide France with coal from the Saar and Poland with the use of Danzig as a port without awarding either state sovereignty over the respective inhabitants. Britain and France were left to execute a settlement that the Americans had heavily influenced but now reneged upon. After final German assaults from March to June 1918 and the pressure on all the belligerents becoming critical, the tide turned inexorably in August 1918. The finalisation of the treaties of Trianon with Hungary, signed on 4 June 1920, and of Svres with the Ottoman Empire on 10 August 1920, together with increasing problems of enforcement, were handled with some confusion by peripatetic meetings of Allied heads of government held in various capitals and spas. Around 9.5 million young servicemen died. This suggested Belgium and France would receive most of the payments since Britain had suffered little direct damage and the Dominions none. Updates? The plan was disregarded and no alternative advanced. 127-34, 139-46; Feldman, Gerald: The Great Disorder. Held in February 1919 in order to petition the allies on African issues. [33]Greece increased from 42,000 square miles and 4,800,000 people in 1914 to (at least temporarily) 60,000 square miles and 7,500,000 inhabitants by 1921. Within six weeks all the European great powers, excepting Italy, were at war. Pramowska, Anita: Ignacy Paderewski, Poland.
He was successful in moving the Italian frontier to the Brenner with the acquisition of South Tyrol from Austria, which consigned some 250,000 German-speakers to Italian rule. After the 1920 war with Russia, Poland established this new frontier far to the east of the Curzon line recommended by the conference, creating a state where only 69 percent of the population was Polish and whose neighbours all had grievances against it. ): A History of the Peace Conference of Paris, vol. 7f. II, London 1970 onwards, pp. Although Lenin had pragmatically sacrificed territory for the survival of his new regime in the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany in March 1918 and made hinted offers to the Allies to extend trade and other opportunities in return for the withdrawal of their various interventionist forces in 1919, many doubted whether co-existence represented his real objective. It was "solved" by a classic short-term fix replete with unintended consequences Articles 231 and 232 of the treaty which asserted the Allied moral right to compensation from Germany (and its allies) for all their losses because Germany (and its allies) were responsible for the war. On 22 June 1919, the German government was given an ultimatum agree to sign within twenty-four hours or face war. Romania and Hungary also had disputes with Czechoslovakia, typical of the problems that prevented the new states from cooperating. Lawrence acted as the delegation's translator. "[30] After an abortive attempt to assemble the warring factions for negotiations on the Prinkipo Islands in the Sea of Marmara, the peace conference dismissed one-sixth of the earths surface in Articles 292 and 293 of the Treaty of Versailles. The Russian SFSR was not invited to attend, having already concluded a peace treaty with the Central Powers in the spring of 1918. Man of Secrets, vol. On the other hand, Germanys unwillingness could be punished by prolongation of the occupation period. He was willing to back the Dominion premiers in their quests to control neighbouring former German colonies though, as he warned Australian Premier Billy Hughes (1862-1952), not to the extent of quarrelling with the United States over the Solomon Islands. Djoki, Dejan: Pai and Trumbi. The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals, Princeton 2000, pp. 56-65. Sharp, Alan: Britain and the Protection of Minorities at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, in: Hepburn, A.C. As far east as Germanys boundaries with Poland the peacemakers could decide. Lansing, Robert: The Peace Negotiations. Makers of the Modern World, London 2008, pp. Their discussions emphasised the differences between them and, recalling the havoc wrought between the victors in 1815 by the wily French diplomat, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord (1754-1838), the Allies gradually and tacitly accepted that they would not negotiate directly with the Germans, but their original terms often entered the treaty unaltered. Mango, Andrew: From the Sultan to Atatrk, Turkey. Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Latvia. Reparations would both deny Germany that victory and spread the pain of undoing the damage done." Italy made further gains in Trieste, Trentino and Dalmatia but its additional demand for the Adriatic port of Fiume met Wilsons adamant opposition. France and European Economic Diplomacy 1916-1923, New York 1980, pp. [29], The Russian revolutions created a dilemma that the peacemakers never resolved. Pre-la-Victoire (Old Man Victory) sought this in a number of ways. It considers the outcomes of the five Parisian treaties (Versailles, Saint-Germain and Neuilly in 1919 and Trianon and Svres in 1920) together with the renegotiated settlement with Turkey at Lausanne in 1923. As Germanys leaders discovered the following June, there was no possibility that they could renew hostilities. Accepting that Germany could not meet the full bill, they limited their actual claims in an Annex to certain categories of civilian damage but, at Britains insistence, these included the costs of pensions and allowances paid to servicemen and their families. It was forbidden union with the rump state of Austria. 578f; Alston, Charlotte: Antonius Piip, Zigfrds Meierovics and Augustinas Voldemaras. President Calvin Coolidges (1872-1933) response was typically laconic: "Well, they hired the money, didnt they?
[44], In Paris, with Clemenceau and Lloyd George now adamant that they were entitled to full compensation and Wilson insistent that they were not, a crisis loomed. The conferences programme was the largest ever known, for unlike the Congress of Vienna in 1815, everything had to be reconstructed. Clout, Hugh: After the Ruins. Makers of the Modern World, London 2009, pp. Makers of the Modern World, London 2009, pp. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which formulated the legal foundation for the reparations that Germany had accepted to pay, was also seen in Berlin (contrary to its real meaning and its finality) as a moral condemnation, and as a guilty verdict to be assumed for the war. Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Lithuania. It was not the short decisive encounter expected but in 1918 its equally rapid denouement took the victors by surprise. Di Scala, Spencer: Vittorio Orlando, Italy. Lentin, Antony: Lloyd George and the Lost Peace. Paris Peace Conference, (191920), the meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I. [34] Romania more than doubled its pre-war size and population from 53,661 square miles and 7,500,000 people to 113,941 square miles and 16,000,000 people. Attempted to gain international recognition of the independence of Belarus. It was also passed responsibility for minority protection for some national groups left on the wrong side of the new frontiers. Stevenson, David: With Our Backs to the Wall. These were then referred to territorial commissions in which different types of experts (geographers, military representatives, economists, historians, etc.) Germany defaulted on its reparation liabilities in 1932, after paying about 1.1 billion including deliveries in kind. [38], Czechoslovakia, based upon the ancient kingdom of Bohemia, with the addition of Slovakia and Moravia, owed much to the efforts of two men, Tom Masaryk (1850-1937), whose father was Slovak, and Eduard Bene (1884-1948), a Czech. The German delegation, led by Brockdorff-Rantzau, saw the treaty clauses presented on May 7, 1919 as humiliating measures, and violations of this Pre-Armistice Agreement. 90-164; MacMillan, Peacemakers 2001, pp. Torn between the principles of self-determination and the need to offer Czechoslovakia secure frontiers and economic prosperity, they allocated the area to the Czechs.
"[5], Only on 8 October 1918 did he inform his European associates whose cryptographers had, in any case, broken the Swiss codes. "What effect," asked Lansing, "will it have on the Irish, the Indians, the Egyptians and the nationalists among the Boers? They had to deal not only with the problems that had caused the war, but also with the further complications occasioned and exacerbated by it, when the bitterness of loss and destruction was still raw. "[21] He knew, however, that his speeches had created undeliverable expectations subjects of the European empires for whom his words had not been intended, anticipated self-determination as eagerly as aspiring nations in Europe, many of which he had been unaware. Britain favoured modifying the terms in the hope of reconciling Germany, France preferred rigid enforcement to nullify German power.
From 20 November 1922 to 4 February 1923 and again from 19 April until 24 July 1923 there were negotiations at Lausanne between Kemals representatives and the Allies, for whom the British Foreign Secretary, George Curzon (1859-1925), and later the High Commissioner at Constantinople, Sir Horace Rumbold (1869-1941), armed with little else except the secret intelligence gleaned from decoded Turkish communications, played a weak hand well. The Aromanians until World War I", " 19181920 . The date marked the anniversary of the German Empires proclamation in 1871 in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, which Clemenceau reserved for the treatys signature. Convened and met from 10 February to 10 April 1919. Cambon, Paul: Correspondance, vol. Clemenceau also obtained a treaty of guarantee from the Anglo-Saxon powers in case of a German attack, as well as ownership over the Saar mines under an international territorial regime, also for fifteen years. On 28 June 1914 Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914), heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo. is licensed under: CC by-NC-ND 3.0 Germany - Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works. Could Wilsons promise of secure access to the Baltic to an independent Poland, made up of indisputably Polish populations be delivered and yet maintain the principle of self-determination? The Paris Peace Conference gathered over 30 nations at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, France, to shape the future after World War I. He likewise attempted to block the extensive definition of reparations presented to him by Lloyd George, who strangely did not include this aspect in his notion of moderation towards Berlin. ", Role in the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation, The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_participants_to_the_Paris_Peace_Conference_(19191920)&oldid=1086279435, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Signed under 'British Empire'. Hankey, Maurice: The Supreme Control at the Paris Peace Conference. Their respective foreign ministers Arthur Balfour (1848-1930), Stephen Pichon (1857-1933), Sidney Sonnino (1847-1922) and Robert Lansing (1864-1928), together with Baron Makino Nobuaki (1861-1949) of Japan - became the Council of Five, which undertook much of the detailed work on the new frontiers of Europe and the treaty with Austria, referring sensitive decisions to the Four. Orlando joined them from 24 March 1919. This he did on 14 December 1918, but the popular perception that his government would secure massive German payments to offset the costs of the war and bring the ex-German Emperor Wilhelm II to trial and execution, represented hostages to fortune. The United States made decisive interventions in the war and peacemaking, but this reversal of a century-old tradition of non-involvement in European affairs now seemed a temporary lapse after the Senates refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. Specialized commissions were appointed to study particular problems: the organization of a League of Nations and the drafting of its Covenant; the determination of responsibility for the war and guarantees against a renewal of it; reparations; international labour legislation; international ports, waterways, and railroads; financial questions; economic questions of a permanent sort; aviation; naval and military matters; and territorial questions. We have no geniuss [sic] available. Only later, and with great reluctance, did other states acknowledge the existence of the Soviet Union and the new Baltic nations. The British Treasury estimated that victory cost an astronomical 24 billion British pounds (in 1914 gold values) whilst the effects on world trading patterns and economic power were extensive and long-lasting. Implications for the Third-World Debt Crisis, Princeton 1988. Hungary, which lost two-thirds of its pre-war territory and 58 percent of its population, suffered the heaviest deprivations of any of the defeated powers, losing a third of its Magyar people. This list shows all nations and delegations who signed the Treaty of Versailles. ", "Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume IV - Office of the Historian", "Andorra va declarar la guerra a Alemanya el 1914? Attempted to establish an autonomous Aromanian entity.
13-33; Mazower, Mark: Two Cheers for Versailles, in: History Today 49 (1999); MacMillan, Peacemakers 2001, I am grateful, as always, for the comments, suggestions and encouragement of Professors Tom Fraser, Tony Lentin and Sally Marks together with those of Professor, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este (1863-1914), Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Prigord (1754-1838), Charles I, Emperor of Austria (1887-1922), Wilhelm II, German Emperors (1859-1941), still occupying Northern France and Belgium. [26] Their attempts to negotiate by correspondence, after forensically dissecting its clauses, failed. In France and Belgium an area the size of Holland was devastated.
Makers of the Modern World, London 2011, pp. Both subjects raised expectations that were impossible to satisfy. 28-34. The Makers of the Modern World, London 2008, pp. 43-57; Bass, Gary J.: Stay the Hand of Vengeance. 725-63; Lentin, Antony: The Last Political Law Lord. "[51] He was correct, not least because the Europeans had dealt their own image of moral superiority a terrible blow in four years of brutal warfare. He wished, for sentimental as well as pragmatic motives, to create a new major British sphere of interest in the Middle East, an important source of the oil on which the Royal Navy now depended.
They capitulated. Yet the responsibility for this new catastrophe cannot be attributed to the peacemakers alone as they sought to remedy the ills that drove Europe to war in 1914. "[25], The offer of Anglo-American support should Germany launch an unprovoked attack upon France, together with an agreement to occupy the Rhineland for fifteen years and to demilitarize it permanently, persuaded Clemenceau to drop his demands for its separation from Germany. James Headlam-Morley (1863-1929), a British expert in Paris, observed: "In the discussions everything inevitably leads up to Russia. The Americans rejected the argument that some had paid for victory with blood and others with treasure. Corrections? "[50], Self-determination had implications far beyond Europe. They believed, however, that their 5 November 1918 pre-armistice agreement with the Allies guaranteed that the treaty would be based upon Wilsons principles.[7].
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Four great empires that for centuries had dominated eastern and central Europe and the Middle East had collapsed. Wilson arrived in Europe to scenes of adulation in Paris, London and Rome and the various delegations gathered. What Really Happened at Paris?
Makers of the Modern World, London 2010, pp. Beyond that, deprived of any reliable means of enforcing their will, the new map depended more upon the outcome of wars and armed struggles as the Chief of the British Imperial General Staff, Sir Henry Wilson (1864-1922), observed, "The root of evil is that the Paris writ does not run. Basingstoke 2001, pp. [27], Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, northern Schleswig to Denmark, Danzig to the League, and the Polish corridor (which split East and West Prussia), Posen and half of Upper Silesia to Poland, and, eventually, Memel to Lithuania.
First Bulgaria accepted an armistice on 29 September 1918, then the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary began negotiations leading to their respective armistices on 30 October 1918 and 3 November 1918. III, Paris 1946, p. 311; Nicolson, Harold: Peacemaking 1919, London 1933, p. 242. Did Canada fight on the side of Britain in World War I? [46], Faced, unlike Germany, with heavy reconstruction costs and sizeable external debts of 3.7 billion, of which 2.96 billion was owed to the United States,[47] the Allies suggested an all-round cancellation of inter-allied debt in return for reducing Germanys liabilities. It is not one continent that is engaged every continent is engaged. The Allied Powers refused to recognise the Bolshevik government of Russia, and instead invited representatives of the Russian Provincial Council (chaired by Prince Lvov), the successor to the Russian Constituent Assembly and the political arm of the Russian White movement. The Ottoman Empire, shorn of its Middle Eastern territories, continued to exist, at least nominally, until, after a rebellion and a successful campaign against the occupying Greek forces, Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938) expelled the Sultan and created the new secular state of Turkey in 1922. The Treaty of Lausanne proved to be the longest-lasting of the post-war settlements, testimony to the virtues of negotiation between participants willing to work within the same parameters and accept the need for compromise. Organisation and Procedure, Oxford 1944; Sharp, Alan: The Versailles Settlement.
Despite not signing the treaties, other delegations were sent to the Paris Peace Conferences, some uninvited, in order to represent their national interests. Both proselytised hard in exile, eventually gaining Allied endorsement in 1918. It was at this exact moment when the German enemy arrived at Versailles. 49-86. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/event/Paris-Peace-Conference, United States History - Paris Peace Conference, Jewish Virtual Library - Pre-State Israel: Zionist Organization Statement on Palestine at the Paris Peace Conference, Paris Peace Conference - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Meanwhile Wilson, for whom the mid-term elections had given his rival Republicans control of the Senate, wished to address Congress on 2 December 1918 before he departed for Europe, where he was determined to be Americas main negotiator. At the end of March, Lloyd George and his advisors drafted the famous Fontainebleau memorandum intended to warn his counterparts about the dangers of too hard a peace with respect to Germany. Czechoslovakias reputation for tolerance towards its minorities has been questioned by: Orzorff, Andrea: Battle for the Castle. On 28 June 1919 Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, the first and most significant of the five Parisian treaties. The Politics and Diplomacy of Punishing War Criminals of the First World War, Westport 1982, pp. 67-146; Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste: Clemenceau, Paris 1988, pp. There had been wrangling among the Allies over both the treaties with Germany and those with Austria. His original draft included an automatic sanction of war against any member that broke its covenants but the dictates of national sovereignty undermined this revolutionary commitment by all members to defend their mutual political independence and territorial integrity against unprovoked aggression. The current view of the Council indeed of the whole conference has been heavily coloured by John Maynard Keyness (1883-1946) coruscating attack in The Economic Consequences of the Peace, one of the most influential polemics of the 20th century.