Senior Scholars Interwar Europe Fall 2019 Week 1

Home , Georg von Hertling

9/4/19

Senior Scholars: Interwar Europe: Working Out Modernity in the Midst of Crisis

Fall 2019 Prof. Kenneth F. Ledford [email protected] 368-4144

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

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DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Interwar Europe

• Friday, September 1, 1939 – 4:40 a.m. Central European Time – Wielun – Luftwaffe – 4:45 a.m. Central European Time – Westerplatte – Kriegsmarine – Gleiwitz Radio Tower

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Interwar Europe

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Interwar Europe

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

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Interwar Europe

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

Interwar Europe

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Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris – Paris Peace Conference • Opened January 18, 1919 • Closed January 21, 1920, with inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Negotiating Peace

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris – Paris Peace Conference – Delegates from 27 countries • 52 preliminary commissions • Held 1,646 sessions to prepare reports for plenary meetings • Diplomats accredited from 32 states and nationality groups

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris – Paris Peace Conference – Delegates from 27 countries – Most famous commission the “Commission on Polish Affairs” • Drew “Curzon Line” to serve as eastern border of new Poland

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Organization of Paris Peace Conference – Plenary Conference of the 27 states once a week – Supreme War Council became directing agency of peace, with addition of Japan • Council of 10 (heads of state/government plus foreign ministers) • Council of 4 (U.S., Britain, France, Italy)

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David Lloyd-George

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Georges Clemenceau

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Vittorio Orlando

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Long delay between Armistice (November 11) and opening of Peace Conference (January 18) and further delay led to two problems – Decision to skip preliminary settlements and proceed to final one made preliminary decisions from Territorial Committees final – Victorious powers demobilized while negotiating, demanded by war- weary populations, but reducing options of imposing will

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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Making the Peace

• Explore making of the peace in 1919 in three steps: – Explore terms and effect of Armistice, which prefigured the peace – Explore plans and aims of victorious powers – Explore the first of the treaties with the five defeated powers, Germany, the Treaty of Versailles – Then next week will look at the other four treaties and some of the consequences of World War I and the Paris Peace Conference for today

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Negotiation of First Armistice of Compiègne took a long and hard month – September 29, 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg tell Kaiser Wilhelm II and Chancellor Georg von Hertling that German military situation was hopeless – Ludendorff claimed he could not guarantee that front would hold for another 24 hours – Demanded request to Entente for immediate ceasefire

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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Armistice

• October 3, 1918, Prince Max von Baden replaced Hertling as Chancellor – October 4, sent telegram to Wilson asking to negotiate terms on basis of Fourteen Points – Wilson responded on October 14 and 23 – Made it clear that Allies would deal only with a democratic Germany not an imperial state under military dictatorship – Implied but not stated that Kaiser would have to abdicate

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• October 5, Prince Max announced impending constitutional reforms, adopted by Reichstag on October 29 – Made Chancellor responsible to majority in Reichstag – Made army subject to civilian control through Chancellor – Abolished property-based three-class suffrage system in Kingdom of Prussia

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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Armistice

• October 5, government announced to public for first time the perilous military situation on Western Front – But German army still stood on French and Belgian soil, albeit having retreated since July

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Ludendorff in late October declared Allied demands unacceptable, changed his mind, demanded to resume war he had declared lost a month before – New democratic Imperial government dismissed him and replaced him with General Wilhelm Groener – October 24, sailors in Wilhelmshaven then Kiel refused to sail and rose up

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• On November 4, soldiers and sailors in ports formed Solders’ and Sailors’ Councils (Soldaten- und Matrosen-Räte)

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Armistice

• November 6, German delegation headed by Matthias Erzberger departed Berlin for France

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Uprisings in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel turned into revolution on November 9 in Berlin and many other cities – Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated throne – Prince Max turned over Chancellor’s office to Friedrich Ebert of the Social Democratic Party – Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the democratic republic from the Reichstag at 2:00 p.m. – Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the socialist republic from the city palace at 4:00 p.m. – Ebert worked with Erzberger of the Catholic Center Party to avoid a Bolshevik-style revolution, create a republic, and negotiate a peace

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Collapse and Revolution

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Collapse and Revolution

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Collapse and Revolution

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Erzberger and German delegation arrived at forest of Compiègne on morning of November 8 – Allies handed Germans a list of demands and gave 72 hours to answer – No real negotiations – Sunday, November 10, French showed them Paris newspapers to prove the Kaiser had abdicated and republic been proclaimed – November 10, Ebert instructed Erzberger to sign – Armistice agreed to at 5:00 a.m., signed between 5:12 and 5:20 a.m. – Effective 11:00 a.m. Paris time (Noon Berlin time)

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Terms of the Armistice: – Termination of military hostilities on land and in air within 6 hours – Immediate removal of German troops from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine within 14 days – Subsequent removal of all German troops from west bank of Rhine plus 30 km bridgeheads on east bank at Mainz, Koblenz, and Cologne – Occupation of Rhineland and bridgeheads by Allied troops

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Armistice

• Terms of Armistice – Removal of all German troops on Eastern Front (Turkey, Austria- Hungary, Romania) to German territory as of August 1, 1914 – Renunciation of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia and Treaty of Bucharest with Romania – Internment of German High Seas Fleet in Britain – Surrender of all German submarines – Surrender of 5,000 cannons, 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 Minenwerfer, 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotives, 150,000 railway cars.

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Armistice

• British naval blockade of Germany continued – Total blockade until January 17, 1919 – After that, Allies requested Germans to send German ships to Allied ports to transport food supplies. – German government feared loss of ships if hostilities resumed – Did not send ships until March 1919 – March 1919 onward U.S. food also shipped on U.S. ships to Germany – Restrictions on food imports only fully lifted on July 12, 1919 after signing of Treaty of Versailles

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Original Armistice had term of 32 days, to expire December 13, 1918 – German withdrawal and disarmament began immediately – Germany fell into revolution and chaos • December 15-16 and December 25, struggles with Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils • December 27, Poles rose in Province of Posen – Armistice extended until January 16, 1919 • Spartacus Uprising Berlin January 4-15 • Elections to National Assembly January 19 – Armistice extended again until February 16, 1919 • National Assembly convened in Weimar February 6 – Armistice extended third time to January 10, 1920

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Plans and Aims for Peace

• United States – Wilson felt obligated to attend Paris Peace Conference in person to work for his goal of a League of Nations – His war aims represented in Fourteen Points • Britain and France did not embrace Fourteen Points, embraced individual ones for their own reasons or instrumentally to curry favor with Wilson – Wilson led U.S. toward policy of interventionism • Out of touch with public opinion at home

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• Great Britain – Over-arching interest was to maintain unity of British Empire with all its holdings and interests – Four specific additional goals • Ensure security of France • Remove threat of German High Seas Fleet • Settle contentious territorial issues to prevent future tensions • Support League of Nations

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Plans and Aims for Peace

• Great Britain – Wanted to limit idea of self-determination of peoples with respect to peoples of British Empire • Ireland • India

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• Great Britain – Had to deal with demands by (white) Dominion governments • Prime Minister Sir Richard Borden of Canada convinced that Canada had become nation on battlefields of Europe • Australians opposed Japanese Racial Equality Proposal, forcing Britain to oppose it • Canada, India, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa all were among the 27 countries seated at Paris and later in League of Nations

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• Great Britain – Britain and several Dominions sought mandates to govern former overseas colonies of Germany • Australia – New Guinea • New Zealand – Samoa • South Africa – South West Africa • Britain (and Belgium and France) – other German colonies in Africa as “Class B” mandates

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Plans and Aims for Peace

• France – Under Georges Clemenceau, primary goal was to weaken Germany militarily, strategically, and economically – Sought Anglo-American guarantee of French security in event of another German attack – Could not abide Wilson: • “Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points. Why God Almighty only has ten!”

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• Italy – Remained focus on getting all territory promised in the 1915 Treaty of London – Wanted additional expansion down the Dalmatian coast and into Anatolia – Vittorio Orlando handicapped by being only one of Council of Four not to speak English

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• Japan. – Sought to be one of the “Big Five” but generally relinquished because of lack of interest in European affairs – Racial Equality Proposal for Covenant of the League – Territorial claims to German colonies and spheres of influence in China • Kiaochow and Shandong • Chinese disappointment expressed itself in May 4, 1919 student and worker protests – German Pacific colonies north of the Equator • Marshall Islands • Micronesia • Mariana Islands • Caroline Islands

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Plans and Aims for Peace

• Small states of eastern Europe sought recognition • Existing states such as Greece sought expansion • Groups hoping to found states, from Belarus to Ukraine to Zionist movement all made claims • Claims that moved forward were enshrined in one of the treaties with the defeated Central Powers or in the Covenant of the League

HISTORY DEPARTMENT