Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s Chapter 24

Paris Peace Conference ► 1919: Allied leaders gather in Paris to negotiate a treaty to officially end WWI ► Big Four:  U.S.  Great Britain  France  Italy

Treaty of Versailles ► Treaty of Versailles: officially ends WWI  Signed June 28, 1919 ► Major Provisions of the Treaty  War Guilt Clause: Germany accepts full responsibility for causing the war  Reparations: Germany pays for damages of the war ► $33 Billion

Treaty of Versailles ► Major Provisions of the Treaty  German Disarmament ► Germany not allowed to have an Airforce ► Severe restrictions in the Germany navy ► Army reduced to 100,000  Germany loses territory ► Loses ALL colonies ► Loses land for the creation of Poland ► Loses Danzig ► A DMZ (demilitarized zone) was created in the Rhineland as a buffer between Germany and France

Responses to the Paris Peace Conference and Treaty ► Some were upset with the Conference due to their harsh treatment of Germany  Woodrow Wilson wanted to be more lenient  John Meynard Keynes (famous economist…Keynesian Economics) was a British delegate. He left the conference in protest of the treatment of Germany ► “Paris was a nightmare…”  Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France: “This isn’t a peace, it’s a twenty year truce!”

League of Nations ► Woodrow Wilson (President of the U.S.) called for the creation of an international peace-keeping organization (14 Points) ► League of Nations created after WWI  Weak, ineffective  The U.S. never joined

Impact on Germany ► Germany crippled by the Treaty of Versailles ► Collapse of the Monarchy  November 9, 1918: Kaiser Wilhelm (William) II abdicates throne  November 11, 1918: Germany negotiates for an armistice to end the fighting of WWI  Plans for a new, democratic government begins ► Collapse of the German economy  Massive Inflation, money virtually worthless

Kaiser William IIFriedrich Ebert, 1 st President of Weimar Republic

Paul von Hindenburg President of the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic ► Weimar Republic: Germany’s government created after WWI  Democratic government  Constitution modeled after that of the U.S.  President given excess power ► Article 48: gives President power to suspend constitution in times of crisis, dissolve parliament (Reichstag) and call for emergency elections

Weimar Republic ► Germany’s economy in bad shape  1923: massive inflation ► It would take over 4 trillion German marks (currency) to purchase 1 American dollar.  Slight recovery in mid to late-1920’s  1929: Stock Market Crash in U.S. leads to Great Depression….Germany hit hard ► Germany was relying on the U.S. for loans. U.S. economic problems carry over to Germany. ► Germany had highest unemployment rate in Europe

Rise of the Nazi Party ► Germany’s poor economy contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) ► Nazi Party Platform: (25 Points)  Socialism: government control of certain aspects of the economy for the benefit of the people  Extreme nationalism  Racism and Anti-Semitism  Revenge for the Treaty of Versailles and “Stab in the Back”  Expansion of German influence, imperialism

Self-Determination??? ► Ethnic groups (and Wilson) called for self- determination for the ethnic groups living in former empires of Europe ► Austria and Hungary were broken into separate nations ► Poland was created ► Czechoslovakia was created by combining the Slovaks and the Czechs ► Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were created by taking lands from Russia

A New Map

The Mandate System ► Territories of the former Ottoman Empire were to be administered by the League of Nations  Known as Mandate System  Former German colonies in the Pacific were also part of this system