1. End of War, Signing of Treaties
Grade 11 – Modern History
Mr. Malhotra

2. Outcomes
4.2.1 Understand and be able to explain the points of view of those negotiating the treaties to end the Great War in 1919
4.2.2 Demonstrate how the articles of the Treaty of Versailles were at odds with the stated goal of achieving collective security.

3. Aims of the Lesson To find out:
1. What members of the public in allied countries thought of the Germans in 1918.
2. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
3. What the German people thought of the Treaty of Versailles.
4. Collective Security and the creation of the League of Nations.

4. The End of the Great War
Fighting stopped with the signing of an armistice on November 11th, 1918 (Remembrance Day)
An armistice is an agreement of both sides to stop fighting at a certain time (a truce).

5. Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest- Litovsk was a peace treaty signed on March 3, between the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central Powers (German Empire, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), that ended Russia's participation in World War I.
The first page of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in (from left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian.
Signed before Treaty of Versailles – that’s why Russia wasn’t included in TOV
The treaty was annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918, When Germany surrendered to the western Allies. However, in the meantime it did provide some relief to the Bolsheviks, already fighting the Russian Civil War( ), following the Russian Revolutions of 1917 by the renunciation of Russia's claims on modern-day Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Ukraine and Lithuania.
When Germans later complained that the later Treaty of Versailles in the West of 1919 was too harsh on them, the Allied Powers responded that it was more kind than the terms imposed by the Brest-Litovsk treaty.

6. Treaty of Versailles
Treaty to end World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers (mainly United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, and other Allied Powers). It was signed on 28 June 1919.
Cancelled the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

7. Who’s Involved?
Great Britain, America and France were the three most powerful Allies and they wanted to exert their influence upon the Treaty of Versailles.
But! They all wanted different things.

8. David Lloyd George- Great Britain
What Britain wants:
Believed Germany needed to be justly punished but not too harshly.
Germany to lose its navy and colonies as these were a threat to Britain's own navy and empire.
Germany and Britain had to become trading partners.
Thought that the Treaty was too harsh, and that it would start another war in 25 years time.
There was pressure at home to make Germany pay – if he had been too soft he would have been voted out as PM. Lloyd George hated the Treaty. However "Hang the Kaiser" and "Make Germany Pay" were two very common calls in the era immediately after the end of the war and Lloyd George, looking for public support, echoed these views.
He liked the fact that Britain got German colonies, and the small German navy helped British sea-power. But, although many British people wanted to ‘make Germany pay’, Lloyd George thought that the Treaty was too harsh, and that it would start another war in 25 years time.

9. Geroges Clemenceau- France
What France Wants:
To cripple Germany so it couldn’t attack France again.
Wanted Germany broken into smaller states. (weakened)
Why? France had suffered the most during the war so Clemenceau was under great pressure from the French people to make Germany pay.
Clemenceau liked the harsh things that were in the Treaty, especially reparations, because they would weaken Germany while helping France to recover. He had one very simple belief - Germany should be brought to its knees so that she could never start a war again (France had been invaded by Germany before in 1871). He liked the idea of a small German army, and the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland, because he thought that this would protect France from attack in the future. Also, he was pleased that France received Alsace-Lorraine as this had been taken off France by Germany in In truth though, he wanted the Treaty to be harsher.

10. Woodrow Wilson- USA What the USA wants:
1. A better more peaceful world.
2. A League of Nations that would help and support each other and help promote world peace.
3. The right to self- determination. The right to decide which country you wish to be governed by.
Fourteen Points Speech
Wilson got self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe, and a League of Nations, but he was disappointed with the Treaty because few of his ‘Fourteen Points’ were acted upon. Worst of all, when Wilson went back to America, the Senate refused to join the League of Nations, and refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles! In America, there was a growing desire for the government to adopt a policy of isolation and leave Europe to its own devices. Wilson believed that Germany should be punished, but in a way that would lead to European reconciliation (peace) as opposed to revenge (war).
in his speech to Congress, President Wilson declared fourteen points which he regarded as the only possible basis of an enduring peace.

11. Treaty of Versailles – Summary Part 1
2 minutes 25 seconds

12. Major Terms of the Treaty
Germany had to pay 6.6 billion pounds in war reparations to cover damages and other Allies losses. ($33 million)
Germany had to hand over some 70,000 square kilometres of land. (Nearly 13% of all land)
Germany was to have colonies taken away from them. These colonies were to become mandates run by the Allies on behalf of the League of Nations.
The German army was to have no more than 100,000 men and the navy was limited to 15,000 sailors. There was to be no air force and no submarines.
The German navy was only allowed six battleships and Germany was forbidden to buy any more weapons and other war material.
An Allied Army was to occupy the Rhineland for a period of fifteen years. No German troops were to be allowed into the occupation zone.
Article 231 – War Guilt Clause - Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war.

13. Article 231
“The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”
What are some things that stand out?

14. Primary Source- How do you think the Germans felt at the end of the First World War?
“Through the doors at the end…come four officers of France, Great Britain, America and Italy. And then, isolated and pitiable, come the two Germans, Dr. Muller and Dr. Bell. The silence is terrifying…They keep their eyes fixed away from those two thousand staring eyes, fixed on the ceiling. They are deathly pale…There is general tension. They sign. There is general relaxation…We kept our seats while the Germans were conducted like prisoners from the dock.”
(Harold Nicolson, Peace-making, 1919.)

15. Does this information help you to understand why so many people wanted revenge after the war?
Around 8 million people had been killed
The cost of the war was roughly nine billion pounds
The destruction of land, homes, farms and factories was huge
Millions more people died after the war due to famine and disease
“In France and Belgium, where most of the war was fought, 300,000 houses, 6,000 factories, 1,000 miles of railway, 2,000 breweries and 112 coal mines were destroyed…In some ways, mankind has never recovered from the horrors of the First World War.”
John D. Clare, First World War (1994)

16. Treaty of Versailles – Summary Part 2
1 minute 28 seconds

17. Satisfaction for the “Big Three” Overall
It made sure that Germany was too weak to start another European War
It kept the French border with Germany safe from future German attacks.
It created the League of Nations. This would help promote peace and trade throughout the world.

18. League of Nations
Canada was a founding member of the League of Nations — an organization of countries established in 1920 to maintain world peace
Even though it ultimately failed in its aim of collective security, the League established a new pattern of international organizational activity.
League membership brought Canada its first official contact with foreign governments, and helped establish its position as a sovereign state.
League membership also presented Canada with the opportunities and the dilemmas associated with international co-operation and peace-making.

19. Germany isn’t Happy
Result? Germans hated the treaty, especially Article 231 which blamed them for starting the war.
Many Germans also thought the financial penalties (reparations) that the treaty imposed upon their country and its people to be immoral and unjust.
Many German citizens felt that they were now being punished for the mistakes of the Kaiser and German government of August 1914 who had started the war as well as the government of 1919 that had signed the treaty that brought peace.

20. Conditions for another War? Collective Security possible?
World powers gathered and blamed Germany... Thus Germany developed resentments towards other countries.
... Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage ...of the war ...Germany was not given a chance to negotiate these terms. They were presented to the representatives of the new German Republic to sign. The only other option was to start fighting again and, with its armies disbanded and the country in turmoil, Germany could not do that.

21. What is collective security?
The cooperation of several countries in an alliance to strengthen the security of each other.
What does this mean?
The League provided opportunities for international discussion of political and legal questions, disarmament, economic relations, the protection of minorities, communications, transit, and health and social questions.
The purpose of collective security was to avert war, and in the 1920s the League participated in the attempted reconciliation of Germany with France and Great Britain. However, these efforts failed in the face of the territorial aggression in the 1930s by Italy, Germany and Japan. The League soon ceased to function as a collective-security organization, although its social and economic activities continued until the Second World War

22. League of Nations Mandate
Mandate, an authorization granted by the League of Nations to a member nation to govern a former German or Turkish colony. The territory was called a mandated territory, or mandate.
Mandates in Western Asia and Africa
: Syria (France)
Lebanon (France)
Palestine (Britain)
Transjordan (Britain)
Iraq (Britain)
British Togoland
French Togoland
British Cameroons
French Cameroun
Ruanda-Urundi (France)
Tanganyika (Britain)
South West Africa (South Africa)