Impact of the Treaty & Wider Settlement Flashcards
All 13 cards in this deck
How did the American Senate react to the Treaty of Versailles?
It refused to ratify the Treaty.
True or false? The Treaty of Versailles fully followed Wilson's Fourteen Points.
False. It included some, such as the League of Nations, but ignored others — for example disarmament was imposed only on Germany.
Give one German objection to the reparations in the Treaty of Versailles.
The bill was huge while Germans were suffering starvation after the war, making recovery much harder.
Give one problem faced by the new states created by the peace settlement.
They contained large ethnic minorities, such as Germans left inside Poland and Czechoslovakia, who did not want to be ruled by them.
Why did many people in France think the Treaty of Versailles was too lenient?
They feared it left Germany able to recover and threaten France again; for example, the reparations were lower than many French people wanted.
Give one part of the Treaty of Versailles that pleased Lloyd George.
Britain gained former German colonies as mandates, enlarging the British Empire.
Why did many Germans believe their army had not really been beaten in 1918?
The war ended with no Allied troops on German soil, so many felt their army was undefeated; some blamed politicians and 'traitors' at home instead (the 'stab in the back' myth).
Who was John Maynard Keynes, and what did he think of the Treaty of Versailles?
A British Treasury economist at the Paris peace talks who resigned in protest and in 1919 published a book attacking the treaty, arguing the reparations were more than Germany could pay and would damage Europe's economy.
Give one argument that the Treaty of Versailles was not too harsh.
Germany itself had imposed the far harsher Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on Russia in March 1918, stripping it of huge areas including Poland, the Baltic lands and Ukraine.
What was the Treaty of St Germain (1919)?
The peace treaty with Austria: the Austro-Hungarian empire was broken up, Austria lost land such as South Tyrol to Italy and Bohemia to the new Czechoslovakia, and its army was capped at 30,000.
What was the Treaty of Trianon (1920)?
The peace treaty with Hungary: it lost around 70% of its territory, for example Transylvania to Romania and Slovakia to Czechoslovakia, and its army was capped at 35,000.
What was the Treaty of Neuilly (1919)?
The peace treaty with Bulgaria: it lost Western Thrace, its Aegean coastline, to Greece, had to pay reparations and cut its army to 20,000.
Why was the Treaty of Sèvres (1920) replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)?
Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal rejected Sèvres and drove out the Greek army; Lausanne let Turkey keep Anatolia and Eastern Thrace and pay no reparations.