The Peace Settlements

On the 11th day of the 11th month 1918, the Great War finally ended. It was 3 months
later when thirty-two representatives from the Allied nations met at the Palace of
Versailles on the 18th of January, 1919. They were to decide upon the peace treaty.
This treaty shaped the Europe to come and put events in motion. The key negotiators
were the USA, Great Britain and France. The United States was represented by
President Wilson, the British by Prime Minister Lloyd George and the French by
Premier Clemenceau.

The Armistice of 11 November, 1918 was an agreement to end the war, and applied
until the signing of a peace treaty. The Germans signed the Armistice on the basis of
President Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The Germans were obliged to evacuate all
occupied territories, release all prisoners of war, deliver 5000 heavy guns and 30,000
medium guns, evacuate the left bank of the Rhine, restore mines and water supplies,
hand over 5000 locomotives and 1500 wagons and surrender their naval fleet. These
were only a few of the demands. Although the Germans agreed to the Armistice, they
never conceded the defeat of their armies and their soldiers were greeted with cheers
when they returned home.

On 18 January, 1919, the Council of Ten was made up of ten of the major countries
involved in WWI. They convened at Versailles and included Great Britain, USA,
France, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Canada and South Africa. The
Council of Ten eventually became unworkable and was reduced to a Council of Four.
The first four listed were the most powerful and did most of the work. There were
many underlying problems that the peacemakers had to face. Some of these were an
influenza epidemic that swept through Europe; killing twice as many people as the
war, shortages of coal, food and raw materials. The Allies were not united in their
aims. This led to a prolonged period of negations.

The French were determined to put harsh conditions on Germany. France wanted
guarantees of its security by the disarmament of the German army, the restoration of
Alsace Lorrain, reparations and the creation of a separate buffer state. Wilson and
Lloyd George had strong objections to these demands and forced Clemenceau to
revise them. On the 15th of April they reached a compromise which stated: the Saar
Valley was to be placed under League administration for 15 years and France would
receive the Saar mines as compensation. The French security issue was settled with
demilitarisation of the west bank of the Rhine, allied occupation of the west bank and
British and US military guarantees should Germany attack.

Lloyd George believed that a speedy recovery of Germany and the beginning of trade
would be vital to the restoration of European economic prosperity. He wanted the
reparations to not exceed 2,000 million pounds. He believed that a peace that crippled
Germany might be a disadvantage to Britain. Britain’s negotiating position was
strengthened when concessions were won from the USA and France. These included
the gaining of Palestine, Mosul and its oil reserves being transferred to Britain and the
seizure of German colonies by Britain.
President Wilson of the United States devised Fourteen Points that were intended as a
basis for the peace negotiations with Germany and its allies. These were: No secret
diplomacy and ‘open covenants of peace’, freedom of navigation on the high seas in
peace and war, removal of trade and economic barriers between nations consenting to
the peace, guarantees of disarmament to the ‘lowest point consistent with domestic
safety’, free and impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, evacuation of all Russian
territory, evacuation and restoration of Belgium, withdrawal from French territory and
restoration of Alsace Lorraine, readjustment of Italian frontiers along lines of
nationality, autonomous development for peoples of Austria-Hungary, Balkan states
to be evacuated and Serbia given free access to the sea, Turkish portions of the
Ottoman Empire assured sovereignty, an independent Polish state should be created
and a general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the
purpose of gaining mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial
integrity.

On the 18th of April the German representatives were invited to review the draft
treaty. The Germans were shown the treaty on 7th May and were given only fifteen
days to reply. The Germans strongly objected to the Polish settlements and the ban on
a union between Germany and Austria. They believed the treaty was a contradiction
of Wilson’s fourteen points. Between the 1st and 2nd of June the British imperial
Cabinet met to discuss the German response. Efforts to secure concessions for the
Germans were strongly opposed by Clemenceau and Wilson and Lloyd George’s
attempt to limit the extent of reparations failed.

On the 28th of June the treaty of Versailles was signed. The treaty of Versailles’
conditions were harsh and oppressive and changed Europe forever. The loss of
German territory hurt their pride and created over 7 million refugees. This represented
around 10% of the German population. Other German colonies were lost to New
Zealand, Australia, Britain and Japan. Germany was stripped of her military strength
by limiting its armed forces to 100,000, removing her tanks, heavy artillery and air
force. Germany was also made to take the blame for the war and had to pay 6,600
million pounds in reparations. This had a long lasting negative impact on the German
people and may have been a major cause of future problems.