THE PEACE AND ITS RESULTS

The peace Conference which was to end World War I met in Paris January 1919. There were representatives from all the countries that had been at war with the Central Powers. One of the first acts of the Peace Conference was to draw up a constitution for a League of Nations. The League was planned to reduce the chances of another war. This Covenant of the League of Nations was made the first part of the Treaty of Versailles (see League of Nations).

Signing the Treaties

The treaty was given to the German delegation to sign at Versailles May 7, 1919. The German delegates strongly objected to its severe terms. They said the terms were not consistent with President Wilson's Fourteen Points (see Wilson, Woodrow). The Allies made only small concessions. Finally, on June 28, 1919, the German delegates signed. A treaty with Austria was signed on Sept. 10, 1919, at St-Germain. Treaties were signed with Bulgaria at Neuilly Nov. 27, 1919, and with Turkey at Sevres Aug. 10, 1920.

The United States Rejects the League

China and the United States were not at first included among those nations making peace with Germany. China objected to the cession to Japan of rights in the province of Shantung. The United States Senate rejected the act ratifying the Versailles Treaty on Nov. 19, 1919, and again on March 19, 1920. The Senate strongly objected to the United States entering the League of Nations. The League was an issue in the United States presidential campaign of 1920. Republican candidate Warren G. Harding was elected president with an overwhelming Republican majority in Congress (see Harding). A resolution was passed by Congress and signed by the president on July 2, 1921, ending the state of war between the United States and Germany and Austria-Hungary. The United States then made treaties with Austria and Germany. These were signed August 24 at Vienna and August 25 at Berlin.

Wars Continue

The Allied nations' dreams of peace did not last long after the end of World War I. Most of the new disputes were over the control of certain European territories. These disputes and the efforts to settle them are discussed in the article on Europe. One of the most serious upsets to Allied peace plans came from Turkey. A territorial war started in Asia Minor between Greece and Turkey. The Turks crushed the Greek forces. The Allies then agreed to replace the Treaty of Sevres with one drawn at Lausanne on July 24, 1923. Greece lost all claims in Eastern Thrace and Asia Minor (see Greece; Turkey). Meanwhile, Arab outbreaks had given the French trouble in Syria. In October 1925 the French bombarded Damascus (see Syria).

War Between "Whites"
and "Reds" in Russia

The hardest and longest fighting centered about Russia. In 1917 the Allies had stationed some 15,000 British and Americans at Archangel. There were also some 8,000 Americans in Siberia. These forces remained in Russia at the close of the war. In 1918 and 1919 fierce fighting took place in Russia between the Bolsheviks (Reds) and the anti-Reds (Whites). The revolutionary Reds finally won. Allied troops were then removed, and the Allies gave up their policy of intervention in Russia. Russia was also at war with Poland during the early postwar period. A peace treaty was signed between Russia and Poland on March 18, 1921. It gave Poland a large slice of Russian territory. Russia also had to pay Poland an indemnity of 30 million gold rubles, or about 15.5 million dollars.

Money Problems

A major postwar problem concerned the amount of money Germany should pay for its share in starting the war. On April 27, 1921, this sum was fixed by the Reparation Commission at 132 billion gold marks, or about 31.5 billion dollars. Part of this debt could be paid in goods. In 1922 Germany fell behind in its reparations deliveries of coal. In January 1923 France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr coal and iron district on the right bank of the Rhine. They did this to enforce payment of reparations by Germany. Germany immediately stopped all reparations payments. In the economic panic that followed German money became worthless, and many Germans were financially ruined.

Plans to Solve the Reparations Problem

In 1923 two committees were formed by the Reparation Commission to solve these money problems. The first and principal committee was headed by an American, Gen. Charles G. Dawes. The report which Dawes wrote came to be known as the "Dawes Plan." It called for more reasonable reparations payments by Germany. It also established a new German currency and a new Reichsbank. At first the German debts were paid promptly under the Dawes Plan. By 1928, however, Germany again fell behind in its payments. A committee headed by Owen D. Young worked out a second agreement. The Young Plan went into effect on Sept. 1, 1929. Despite the Young Plan, by 1931 Germany was no longer able to make reparations payments. President Herbert Hoover suggested that Germany's creditors grant Germany a delay of one year on all payments due them. This was called a moratorium. To make this possible he offered a moratorium on all debts due the United States by these same nations. After Germany stopped making reparations payments in 1932, most of the other European nations stopped paying their war debts to the United States. One exception was Finland, which paid regularly.

Locarno Treaty; Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact

For a few years diplomatic relations among the nations of Europe seemed to run more smoothly. There were some territorial disputes during this period. However, peace and friendship seemed to prevail between the years 1925 and 1930. A nonaggression pact was signed by the major powers of Europe at Locarno in October 1925. The Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact, sponsored by Frank B. Kellogg and Aristide Briand, was a further effort to insure peace. It was signed at Paris by all the major nations of the world on Aug. 27, 1928.

Period of Totalitarian Aggression

The territorial problems of Europe, however, had never really been settled. After 1929 a world-wide economic depression set in. As it spread more and more of the treaty agreements broke down. Adolf Hitler became head of the German government in 1933 (see Hitler). He soon announced that he intended to reject all the military limitations of the Versailles Treaty. The Allied nations protested and tried to meet the German challenge by increasing their own armaments. It soon became clear that another war was in the making. Italy under Benito Mussolini allied itself with Germany (see Mussolini). It seized Ethiopia and Albania. The peace settlements at the end of World War I had forbidden the union of Austria with Germany. Now, however, Hitler's Nazis assassinated Austria's Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. A few years later Germany occupied Austria. Next it moved into Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, in the Far East, Japan invaded Manchuria and then China. The major Allied nations offered no military resistance to these acts of totalitarian aggression. However, when Hitler's troops invaded Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany.

Excerpted from Compton's New Century Encyclopedia and Reference
Collection II Copyright (c) 1995 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

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