The Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference took place in 1919 following the 1918 Armistice. Over 30 nations convened to decide the fait of the defeated nations. The resulting treaties came to be known as victor’s treaties, meaning the peace, boundaries, and other negotiated settlements were determined by the Allies. Harsh reparations and punishments burdened the former Central Powers. The five major treaties formed- Versailles, Nueilly, Saint-Germain, Trianon, Sevres (eventually revised as the Treaty of Laussane- affected the nations of Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, and Turkey (Ottoman Empire).

The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28^th1919, was the surrender conditions given to Germany after World War I had ended and the “Big Three” finished discussions over terms of surrender. France, Britain, and America attempted to achieve different goals in the conference resulting in conflicts and a poorly choreographed treaty. The terms of the Versailles treaty consisted of territorial, military, financial, and general terms the Germans must agree to or be invaded¹.

The territorial part of the treaty concerned disputable territories, lands gained by the Bret-Litovsk Treaty, and other lands for various reasons. The territories given away to other countries include Alsace-Lorraine to France, Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, Northern Schleswig to Denmark, Hultschin to Czechoslovakia, and West Prussia, Posen, and Upper Silesia to Poland. The treaty put Saar, Danzig, and Memel under the League of Nation’s control until the people decided to which country they wished to belong. The treaty also took away all of Germany’s colonies.

The remaining terms crippled Germany. Under heavy supervision of the IMCC the army reduced to 100,000 without tanks, air force, poison gas, submarines, heavy artillery, and only a few ships.Under article 235, Germany had to pay the equivalent of 20,000,000,000 gold marks by the fourth month of 1921, but ultimately the entente had not made up their minds on how much Germany should be paid, but the amount was to cover war costs and damages.The more general terms included Germany taking all the blame for the war and the set up of the League of Nations.

On November 27^th in 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly was signed in Neuilly, France. The treaty dealt with Bulgaria and its role as a one of the Central Powers in World War. The terms of the treaty required Bulgaria to reduce its army to 20,000 men, pay reparations, recognize the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and relinquish Western Thrace to the Entente, which would cut Bulgaria off from the Aegean Sea. The treaty also forced Bulgaria to return captured land, Southern Dobruja, and restore borders set in the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913.

The St. Germain Treaty was signed on September 10, 1919 between Austria and the Allied Powers. The treaty divided Austria into smaller independent countries including: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the State Sloveness. Austria shrank in size, from 116,000 square miles to 32,400 square miles. Along with losing land in the agreement it also lost the ability to become a political power forgoing any alliances with Germany.

To ensure Austria would remain neutral and not try to rebuild and rebel against the League of Nation their armed forces were restricted to only 30,000 volunteer soldiers out of a population of six million people which was reduced from the previous 30 million population size. In 1936, however, Austria broke the treaty by forming an enlarged army. Austria was taken over by Germany in 1938 and the broken treaty was never punished.

The treaty also demanded Austria pay reparations for the war for the thirty years following the treaty. However, due to the unstable economy of Austria the reparations were never determined.

The Treaty of Trianon was signed on the 4th of June, 1920, by the Allies, save the United States, and a protesting Hungary, in the Trianon Palace at Versailles in France. The Allies divided the nation in such a manner as to reduce the ethnically Hungarian, Magyar, population by over two-thirds, over three million people. Nations such as Yugoslavia and Romania gained pieces of the divided nation under the treaty’s provisions. Key economic locations were usurped, and, along with the displacement of minority groups, caused unbalances in the economy as well as discrepancies in politics. The Hungarian Army saw its numbers reduced to a mere 35000. The treaty served as a confirmation to self-determination and the idea of a nation-state, but, while satisfying the needs of some ethnic groups, caused the mass displacement of others.

The shortest-lived peace treaty ending The Great War, the Treaty of Sèvres failed to execute most of its terms before its displacement by the Treaty of Lausanne three years later. Signed in August 1920 during the Paris Peace Conference and orchestrated by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the Treaty of Sèvres officially dissolved the Ottoman Empire, created the states of Turkey and Arabia, and rendered the sultan a puppet-leader. The division of the Middle East ensued, initiating American backlash at this display of imperialism. Though intended to assume eventual independence, the mandates of Palestine and Mesopotamia were placed under British control and Syria and Lebanon under French authority. Not a direct signatory of the treaty, the U.S. drew up the borders of Armenia. Under the treaty, the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits and Constantinople were placed under international control. Sèvres’ most important term involved the annexation of European Turkey by the Kingdom of Greece. This, coupled with the placement of the Ottoman finances into British and French hands, incited resistance among Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal and the Greco-Turkish War of 1920-1922. Kemal’s troops triumphed over the Greeks and captured lost lands. Kemal requested a new treaty, resulting in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 between the participants of Sevres. Lausanne reinstated Turkish right of full sovereignty over its territories, abolished foreign financial; influence, and restored territories. Military limitations and reparations were not imposed. In return, Turkey agreed to its new boundaries and exchanged minority populations with Greece.

List of Sources

Trianon

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0849391.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Treaty_of_trianon_negotiations.jpg

Sevres/ Luassane

http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/sevres1.html

http://www.bitsofnews.com/images/graphics/Sevres_large.jpg

Versailles

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_brest-litovsk.htm

http://www.colby.edu/personal/r/rmscheck/GermanyD1.html

http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/versa/versa7.html