The Treaty of Versailles

Summary

The Treaty of Versailles marked the official end of World War I, signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles after months of negotiation among world leaders. While criticized historically for being overly harsh and a contributor to World War II, recent historians argue it was a fair attempt given the circumstances and global pressures. The treaty redefined European borders and established the League of Nations, though many of its idealistic principles clashed with political realities and national interests of the time.

Highlights

• The treaty was signed in the opulent Hall of Mirrors, a symbolic choice by France. 🖼️
• Key peacemakers were President Wilson, PM Lloyd George, and PM Clemenceau. 🤝
• There were many disagreements, especially about how harshly to treat Germany. 🛡️
• The treaty aimed to establish a new world order but faced criticism. ❔
• The League of Nations was created aiming for lasting peace but faced many challenges. ✌️

Key Takeaways

• The Treaty of Versailles officially ended World War I, signed in a historic setting. 🏰
• Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and David Lloyd George were key figures in shaping the peace process. 🇺🇸🇫🇷🇬🇧
• The treaty has been criticized for being too harsh on Germany, potentially leading to future conflict. ⚔️
• A lasting creation of the treaty was the League of Nations, although its effectiveness was debated. 🌍
• Competing national interests made peacemaking complex and multifaceted. 🌐

Overview

The Treaty of Versailles is often remembered as a harsh peace settlement that ended World War I but sowed seeds for World War II. Signed in 1919 with much ceremony in the Hall of Mirrors, the treaty featured prominently in peace discussions led by the United States, France, and Britain.

President Woodrow Wilson of the United States pushed for a league of all nations to prevent future wars. However, his idealism often clashed with the geopolitical demands of leaders like France's Georges Clemenceau and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who had their own visions for post-war Europe.

The treaty was criticized for imposing heavy reparations on Germany, drawing borders that ignored ethnic groups, and thus causing future geopolitical tensions. Still, it was a bold attempt to forge peace in a fragmented world and laid down the foundations of modern international diplomacy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Signing of the Armistice and Beginning of Peace Talks The chapter titled 'Signing of the Armistice and Beginning of Peace Talks' describes the cessation of hostilities on the 11th of November 1918, marking the end of World War I as an armistice was signed with Germany. Following this, in January 1919, delegates from various global nations gathered in Paris to negotiate and establish peace settlements to formally end the war.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Leading Figures of the Peace Conference The chapter discusses the events surrounding the signing of a peace treaty with Germany after six months of negotiations, which took place in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. It highlights the key figures involved in the peacemaking process: American President Woodrow Wilson, French Prime Minister Jor Closo, and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. These leaders are often critiqued for their short-sighted and vindictive decisions, which are seen as contributing to the rise of Hitler and the outbreak of a second world war.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Challenges of Redrawing Europe's Map Historians like Margaret McMillan are revisiting the events of the Paris Peace Conference. Contrary to the view that it was a failure, they argue it was a realistic attempt to reshape Europe post-World War.
• 03:00 - 04:00: American Involvement and Wilson's Arrival The chapter discusses the uncontrollable factors of ethnic nationalism and the challenges that come with it, both historically and in contemporary times. It highlights the perspective of peacemakers at the Paris global summit in 1919, who had a liberal progressive agenda for world peace and were dealing with issues that are still relevant today. The narrative is an attempt to understand their story and decisions.
• 04:00 - 06:00: Aftermath of the First World War The chapter discusses the devastating human toll of the First World War, with 10 million dead and 20 million wounded or maimed. It draws a comparison to the 9/11 attacks' casualties, imagining such losses occurring daily for four years.
• 06:00 - 08:00: German Perspective and Conditions The chapter explores the immense trauma and impact of World War I on Western countries, notably Britain and France. It highlights the unprecedented level of casualties experienced between 1914 and 1918, affecting civilian armies and therefore entire families, as opposed to just regular soldiers. This war was particularly shocking as Britain hadn't engaged in a European war for 100 years prior, leading to deep societal scars within these nations.
• 08:00 - 10:00: Division among Allies and National Interests The chapter provides an analysis of the division among allies during a period of conflict, focusing on how national interests often outweighed collective goals. It delves into the staggering toll of war, underscored by the loss of nearly a million soldiers from Britain and its empire, highlighting the unanticipated magnitude of these casualties. This significant loss contributed to the deep sense of tragedy and growing outrage reflective of a broader understanding of the war's devastating impact.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Mandates and Non-European Territories The chapter titled 'Mandates and Non-European Territories' discusses the profound impact of World War I on France, particularly focusing on the demographic and physical devastation the war brought. A quarter of French men aged 18 to 30 were either dead or injured during the conflict, and the war resulted in large-scale destruction of farmland in northern France due to the actions of the retreating German forces.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Compromise and Consequences of the Treaty After World War I, Germany was left devastated, with flooded mines and looted factories, and 1.8 million dead. However, unlike World War II, Germany wasn't invaded by Allied troops by the end of the war in 1918. The Armistice line was drawn in Belgium and along Germany's Western borders, marking the absence of Allied invasion.
• 15:00 - 17:00: Signing the Treaty of Versailles The chapter titled 'Signing the Treaty of Versailles' discusses the aftermath of World War I on German soil where Allied troops never occupied German territory. The German army retreated in good order and was welcomed back by the new president of the Republic, who emphasized that they had not been defeated. This led to a perception of an incomplete victory, necessitating a peace conference to decisively conclude the conflict and impose penalties on Germany.
• 17:00 - 19:00: Legacy and Reflections on the Treaty The chapter discusses the chaotic state of the world at the time of the Paris Peace Conference. By January 1919, several major empires, including the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Imperial Russia, had collapsed simultaneously—a historical event of unprecedented scale. The peacemakers in Paris aimed to reshape the world amidst this turmoil.

The Treaty of Versailles Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 on the 11th of November 1918 the guns fell silent the killing of the first world war stopped as an Armistice with Germany was signed 2 months later in January 1919 delegates from all over the world came to Paris to conclude the peace settlements that would end the war
• 00:30 - 01:00 6 months of haggling in conference rooms climaxed with the signing of a treaty with Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Versa three men dominated the peacemaking the American president woodro Wilson and the French and British prime ministers Jor closo and David Lloyd George these peacemakers have often been seen as short-sighted and vindictive whose bungling led to a chain of events which ended with Hitler and a second
• 01:00 - 01:30 world war but a generation of historians like Margaret McMillan revisiting events in Paris are challenging this view of a failed peace with Germany the trouble with hindsight is you know how the story ends and so you look back for things that tell you that the story was bound to end this way and that's not really how events unfold these historians argue that the peace conference was a realistic attempt to shape the map of Europe in many cases
• 01:30 - 02:00 they were dealing with factors way outside their control or anyone else's control outside anyone's ability to control how do you control ethnic nationalis and we haven't made such a great job of it today they see Paris as a global Summit with a liberal Progressive agenda for the world and urge greater understanding for the peacemakers of 1919 as they face dilemmas which remain grimly familiar to us today this is their story
• 02:00 - 02:30 [Music] the first world war had left 10 million dead and twice that number seriously wounded and maimed for life if you think of September the 11th but then you think of September the 11th style casualties every day for 4 years
• 02:30 - 03:00 then you begin to get some kind of feeling of what the sort of trauma was that existed in the Western countries and the Alli countries at the time particularly in Britain and in France which had never known levels of casualties of the kind that they had experienced between 1914 and 1918 remember these were casualties suffered by civilian armies not just by regular soldiers so every family in Britain and France would be likely to have had some experience with someone close to them who' been killed or maimed the British hadn't fought a war in Europe for a 100 years they had never
• 03:00 - 03:30 anticipated that so many troops would fight for so long nearly a million soldiers from Britain and its empire were killed these losses were in numbers which had never been anticipated and the sense of outrage and the sense that this was a tragedy of the deepest order grew from
• 03:30 - 04:00 1914 to 1918 25% of France's male population between 18 and 30 was either dead or wounded the fighting had devastated whole areas of northern France the retreating Germans dest destroyed Farms
• 04:00 - 04:30 flooded mines and looted factories Germany of course had also suffered by the end of the war 1.8 million Germans were dead but in November 1918 unlike at the end of the second world war in 1945 there was no Allied invasion of Germany the line drawn on the day of the Armistice lay through Belgium and along Germany's Western borders Germany never saw Allied troops
• 04:30 - 05:00 on German soil the Germans themselves never saw Allied troops in occupation the German Army itself marched back from the Frontiers in good order it was greeted by the new president of the Republic who said we welcome you who haven't been defeated so there was a feeling that victory was incomplete the peace conference would have to resolve this inconclusive end to the fighting and punish Germany
• 05:00 - 05:30 but the wider world the peacemakers also hoped to shape in Paris was in chaos not only the German Empire of the Kaiser but France yosef's Austria Hungary the Ottoman Empire and the Russia of the Zars All these power blocks had vanished by January 1919 the simultanous collapse of four powers is unprecedented
• 05:30 - 06:00 it meant that the map of Europe would not look the same in 1919 whatever the peacemakers did that this was a map which would have to be redrawn because the very blocks which had constituted Europe earlier no longer existed throughout the peace conference there was Quiet on the Western Front but fighting continued in the East poles
• 06:00 - 06:30 against Russians Romanians against hungarians but how to deal with this Allied troops were being quickly demobilized and those who waited to go home were impatient even mutinous so during these months in Paris there were always going to be severe limits to the power of the Allied Leaders 3 week after the Armistice
• 06:30 - 07:00 woodro Wilson the American president set sail for Europe Wilson had had a meteoric rise in American politics in 1910 he was a college President yet within only 3 years leading the Democrats Wilson entered the White House after a period of neutrality he led America to war in April 1917 Wilson had a presbyterian belief in
• 07:00 - 07:30 punishment for Germany but he also believed in Redemption his 14 points addressed to Congress in January 1918 promised a new more open diplomacy a belief in National self-determination and the moral supremacy of democracy the speech made Wilson a symbol of Hope for the future the president's arrival in December 19 18 a superstar was an
• 07:30 - 08:00 extraordinary event one Young American on the president's staff described Wilson's reception in Paris the parade from the station to the mura house in rud Maro which is to be his official residence was accompanied by the most remarkable demonstration of enthusiasm and affection on the part of parisians that I've ever heard of let alone
• 08:00 - 08:30 seen troops Cavalry and infantry lined the entire route and tens of thousands of persons fought for a glimpse the streets were decorated with flags and Banners Wilson's name was everywhere stretched across the streets from house to house he seemed to embody America and that's I think a very important factor
• 08:30 - 09:00 America had entered World politics at this point and many Europeans look to it for salvation really from the hills of the old world which was very much of course the American view themselves that they were bringing um Peace and and redemption in a way to the old world the American delegation made its headquarters at the luxurious hotel de
• 09:00 - 09:30 cron on the plaz de la Concord life of the Cleon contrasted sharply with a simple lifestyle of the prime minister of France Jor clemo living alone in a flat across the river in the 16th arisma he was a very cultural man he wrot books himself he was a think actually he wrot even philosophical
• 09:30 - 10:00 books you know not only Memoirs and such political books uh he had also a big career behind him as journalist very good one he had a huge political experience and he was certainly very wit man as prime minister clono had a polished contempt for the president of France Ron pangari there are only two perfectly useless things in the world one is an
• 10:00 - 10:30 appendix and the other is prank and clemon so reveled in his own nickname The Tiger he relished His Image he did everything to enhance that image because it was a political tool for him his reputation as a a killer we would say today critics of his role at the peace conference saw clono as a weary product of the old world but he'd become Prime Minister during the lowest point in the
• 10:30 - 11:00 war and led France to Victory when news of the Armistice was announced he put his head in his hands and wept clemon so had a political career which dated back to 1870 when as mayor of Morad he saw France defeated by Prussia then occupied by the new Germany so in the peacemaking he had one simple aim to protect France so that
• 11:00 - 11:30 1870 and 1914 would never happen again on the 11th of January 1919 the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George arrived in Paris with closo and Wilson Lloyd George completed the triumvirate of power in Paris everybody who knew him always commented on on sort of the the incredible amount of energy he had um there's a story of of closa going to the
• 11:30 - 12:00 Opera and saying seeing the barar of Seville Figaro here Figaro there he says he's a kind of Lloyd George he was always moving about always of full of energy and full of full of ideas and something like the the peace conference in Paris where he's working on a world stage was simply made for Lloyd [Music] George like clemo Lloyd George had come to power during the dark days of the war and had recently been reelected in Coalition with the conservatives in the
• 12:00 - 12:30 Khaki election of December 1918 he had a reputation as a politician of infinite flexibility but there was also substance to the Welsh wizard he wanted a stable Europe a Europe that would not again mean that Britain had to interfere in Continental matters never ever again was Britain to
• 12:30 - 13:00 send an army of the size of the Great War army to the continent and I think for him stability was of extreme importance Lloyd George complained about Clo's insistence that Paris was the venue for the peacemaking I never wanted to hold a conference in his bloody capital I
• 13:00 - 13:30 thought it'd be better to hold it in a neutral place but the old man wept and protested so much that we gave way but as he later admitted Paris during these 6 months was the time of his life he set himself up in a luxurious flat with his secretary and mistress Francis Stevenson balur his foreign secretary lived one or above and got used to
• 13:30 - 14:00 hearing the sound of Lloyd George's favorite hymns and Negro spirituals drifting [Music] [Music] up the rest of the 400 strong British Empire delegation was based at the hotel Majestic on the Avenue cber here there was an obsession with security brsh still didn't really trust their French allies all that much and to
• 14:00 - 14:30 ensure really maximum security they fired all the French staff of the hotel chefs included and brought in star from the Midlands which meant that maybe they had security although that was doubtful but what it did mean was that they had really good solid British food and so they had big cooked British breakfast with lots of oatmeal porridge and so on they had lots of boiled cabbage lots of vegetables much to the fury in fact of many of the British Empire delegation who'd been looking forward to really good French food
• 14:30 - 15:00 news real cameras were present to cover the official opening of the peace conference on the 18th of January 1919 it took place in the salor L at the French Foreign Ministry at the kidori 32 countries sent delegates to Paris and and following the official delegations were all those who looked to
• 15:00 - 15:30 the peacemakers to change the world for them as well for 6 months it was the closest we have ever had to a world government and I don't suspect we'll ever have anything like it again you can imagine all the most powerful people in the world here Prime Ministers Kings presidents foreign secretaries plus all the people who came because they were here you had suffet coming you had African-Americans you had black Africans you had the Koreans who came from Siberia Unfortunately they got there too late cuz they started out by dog sled and it was too slow but
• 15:30 - 16:00 everybody came here and so for 6 months this was the world government woodr Wilson insisted that A League of Nations was the first item on the conference agenda this would be a permanent international organization to put into practice the ideals the president had advocated during the war the League of Nations to him was the most important thing the think that above all he wanted to get out of the
• 16:00 - 16:30 negotiations and the peace treaty it would be the thing which above all would justify his decision in bringing America into the war the deaths of 10 million men had created a determination to break with the past Harold Nicholson part of the British delegation reflected a passionate desire for change we were journeying to Paris not merely
• 16:30 - 17:00 to liquidate the war but to found a new order in Europe we were preparing not peace only but Eternal peace there was about us the Halo of some Divine Mission we must be alert Stern righteous and athetic for we were bent on doing great permanent and Noble things the League of Nations was so important to Wilson that he chaired the commission decid iding its structure
• 17:00 - 17:30 meetings took place in room 351 at the Cleon the suite of Colonel house the president's closest adviser what happened in this room was was what people at the time thought was probably the single greatest achievement of the Paris peace conference the League of Nations was basically made in this room in House's rooms the commission for the League of Nations started meeting on February the 3D they sat around a big table in this room covered with a great big red cloth about 19 members in that commission and they hammered out what was called the Covenant of the League of Nations it had almost a religious
• 17:30 - 18:00 connotation because for woodro Wilson this was the great gift that he was bringing to the world but clono scoffed at Wilson's idealism the president's Ambitions seemed far too Messianic for his liking God himself was content with 10 commandments Wilson modestly inflicted 14 points on us the 14 Commandments of the most empty Theory clemo wanted a little more real
• 18:00 - 18:30 politique the iron fist in the velvet glove he was all for new international system because he was a liberal he believed in W's ideas to that extent but at the same time he deeply resented the fact that wisen was not pragmatic enough closo was in favor of a League of Nations but he would have wanted a league of nation with a very strong establishment League of Nations with
• 18:30 - 19:00 thief and without the gerem that's what that was Koso position the search for a new world order had quickly been Complicated by conflicting opinion amongst the Allies about the use of their power competing National agendas would divide the peacemakers for the duration of the conference Wilson Pro proved to Be an Effective chairman of the League's
• 19:00 - 19:30 commission despite disagreements a draft Covenant had been agreed by the 13th of February so the president decided on a short visit home to begin the hard cell of the league to a skeptical [Music] Congress by the time of this midwinter break delegates had discovered the many Delights of Paris by day skating in the waterb by night tasting the capital's more rer
• 19:30 - 20:00 [Music] Pleasures at the hotel Majestic entertainment was peculiarly British well it was very British and a lot of the foreigners found it really rather extraordinary amateur theatricals poetry readings people had written their own poetry um charades dancing they had tea dances every Saturday which became so rowdy in fact that the British
• 20:00 - 20:30 authorities wondered if they better put a stop to them there's a wonderful story that Marshall fosch came to see the dancing one evening and these days of course they were doing things like the black bottom and the fox Tru and he is reported to have said why do the British have such sad faces and such Jolly bottoms one British representative from the center of Europe who came hot foot to Parish to try and warn people about things that were collapsing there said that when he got here he couldn't get anyone interested in the collapse of the austr Hungarian Empire because they're
• 20:30 - 21:00 all too busy talking about the next amateur theatrical Harold Nicholson met Marcel PR for dinner at The Ritz the novelist was fascinated by the peacemaking and demanded pran detail about how exactly it worked tell me about the Committees you take a car from the delegation you get out at the Kor you climb the stairs you go into the room and then be specific my friend be specific
• 21:00 - 21:30 and serving at the Ritz was a young kitchen assistant from Vietnam hoi Min the future revolutionary sent a petition to the peace conference requesting independence from France for his country he got no reply Canada's legal expert wrote to his wife about the culture to be had in Paris something earthy at the Folly berer something a little more elevating
• 21:30 - 22:00 at the Opera but wherever he went he was struck by the women of Paris he also described French women how elegant they were on the stage and off how sometimes they didn't wear very many clothes how attractive their ankles were at this point his wife wrote to him and said I'm coming over to join you he wrote then um a very persuasive letter saying I would love you to come of course I adore you but I should point out that Paris is about to have a revolution you will not get enough to
• 22:00 - 22:30 eat um You probably won't have anywhere decent to stay in fact you may have to walk back to the channel ports for safety wonderful letter and she didn't [Music] come but the law man from Canada was right about a hungry continent seemingly on the sprink of Revolution beyond the salons and dining
• 22:30 - 23:00 rooms of Paris Europe was mentally and physically exhausted communism was spreading from the East following the success of the Bolsheviks in Russia there had been Insurrection in Germany a communist government would soon be established in Hungary the heart of the old hapsburg Empire they see bolism shorthand for
• 23:00 - 23:30 chaos for Anarchy for famine for the lack of traditional Authority and given that much of Eastern Central Europe was now without a recognized government the fear was that if you did not make a settlement quickly then the plague the vasillis The Germ of Russian communism would spread into Eastern and Central Europe among defeated people among disillusioned people and this was a really serious threat to the whole to the whole conference and on the 19th of February there was a reminder of this unstable
• 23:30 - 24:00 world as clono was leaving his flat on the R Franklin he was shot by an anarchist Emil codan he survived to complain about his wouldbe assassin's Marksmanship a Frenchman who misses his Target six times out of seven at Point Blank Range both
• 24:00 - 24:30 when woodro Wilson returned on the 14th of March to Paris it was obvious that his honeymoon with the French was over when Wilson came back the atmosphere was markedly different I mean it was decidedly cool when you think of the wildly enthusiastic crowds who greeted him in December 1918 there was almost none of that in the middle of March 1919 The French Press were very hostile they made jokes about Mrs Wilson they said her skirts were too short and she didn't know how to dress proper which in Paris was a pretty mean thing to
• 24:30 - 25:00 say as the three leaders met again at the hotel de cron there was a renewed urgency to their deliberations now the central preoccupation of the peace conference was the final settlement with Germany the Treaty of [Music] versailes it it was agreed that Germany should be punished for the recent
• 25:00 - 25:30 catastrophe the Allies believed that Germany had started the war and should pay for its aggression and the leaders had promised their electorates that Germany would pay Lloyd Georgia and closo have public opinion at home which is expecting Britain and France to seek the full cost of the war from Germany Britain's just had a general election in that general election one government Minister has said that I am for squeezing Germany
• 25:30 - 26:00 until the Pips squeak a reparations committee met in the Splendor of the Ministry of Finance on the rud de rivy delegates briefed by the leaders tried to decide what Germany could or should pay and who might get these reparations arguments continued night and day oh at times it got really heated because they were squabbling over figures and they were squabbling over the share of the pie the two two countries that got particularly heated were the British and the French the
• 26:00 - 26:30 British because they felt the French were grabbing too much the French because they felt the British weren't giving them their Just Desserts the French and the Americans funnily enough actually worked out a modus V vendi and and and really came together on a figure and it was the British who held out for the very high figure and so yes you had real arguments over it there was also disagreement about how the borders of Germany should be changed to try and prevent Another War it was agreed that the provinces of alas luren taken during the 1870 Franco
• 26:30 - 27:00 Prussian War should go back to France but after 1914 the French wanted more to guarantee security and prosperity a zone of security on the river Ry and control of the S coal Fields what France is trying to look for is a secure boundary against Germany something which would never be quite as secure as the channel and certainly not as secure as the Atlantic both Lloyd George and Wilson already had security when they came to Paris in 1919 the
• 27:00 - 27:30 German Fleet had gone there was no threat to either of them directly but closo would have liked to have seen some form of physical barrier between himself and Germany Wilson objected that this went against the principle of national self-determination people in the Rin land were German he argued they should be able to choose the country they lived in Lloyd George saw the potential poal for future conflicts as Lloyd George puts it the
• 27:30 - 28:00 key concern this time is not to create El cesler ends in reverse and have a situation where territories that are inhabited by Germans and want to be part of Germany are under French or polish occupation and Rule because that he thinks will create an unstable settlement in the future the Germans will not accept it and you'll have continuing tension and probably eventually another war in a few years [Music] time this fundamental tension between borders and self-determination highlighted by the
• 28:00 - 28:30 Rin land was being duplicated all over Europe by the time the conference opened states were already emerging from the wreckage of Empire all the peacemakers could do was try and fix the borders of these new additions to the map in accordance with their liberal ideals there a problem about solving the collapse of the empires in eastern Central Europe which was compound compounded of course by the fact the one
• 28:30 - 29:00 principle which was left at the end of the war was Wilson's idea of self-determination the idea that people should be allowed to choose what state they belong to and that was going to be very very difficult to apply in Eastern and Central Europe which had seen invasions migrations people coming and going some people staying some people going on little pools of people left all across the seashore of Eastern Central Europe experts who met at the K do struggled work long and hard to find Solutions here in the grand Banting Hall
• 29:00 - 29:30 many of the territorial commissions met and so they read the submissions the interviewed the witnesses they poured over the maps they argued among themselves as they tried to draw fair and rational boundaries what they were trying to do was impose order on a world in 1919 that was irrational and disorderly for Harold Nicholson it was agonizing work how fallible one feels here a map a pencil tracing paper yet my courage fails at the
• 29:30 - 30:00 thought of the people whom our errant lines enclose or exclude the happiness of several thousand people and this work was made even more difficult by the demands of the emerging Nations at the hotel Shan stayed a delegation from Poland a nation which had disappeared at the end of the 18th century but had come back to life almost by historical accident during the first World War the Polish delegation came to the kedos
• 30:00 - 30:30 to argue their case they wanted the great Poland of the past stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea but this would include Germans ukrainians lithuanians and Russians the country would also include significant communities of Jews with pgms in recent memory there was deep concern about the anti-Semitism that came with Polish nationalism the problem of minorities in Poland was
• 30:30 - 31:00 evident elsewhere the Statesman in Paris became aware as they tried to draw up the Frontiers that they simply weren't going to produce Frontiers on which everybody was going to be on the right side at the end of them there would bound to be people who can be left in a country they didn't want to be part of who would themselves be almost the living personification of the fact that National self-determination didn't work so the peacemakers found a solution which tried to to protect the rights of these National
• 31:00 - 31:30 minorities separate agreements were drawn up which would safeguard religious protection language rights and schooling and offer plebiscites or referendums in disputed areas but could liberal Solutions be found for settlements outside Europe if Paris was to be the start of a Brave New World then what should be done about the old traditions of dividing up The Spoils of
• 31:30 - 32:00 War in 1919 there were some very tempting prizes the colonies of Imperial Germany in Africa and the Pacific and the riches of the collapsed Ottoman Empire in the Middle East something like a million square miles of territory 14 million people scattered across the world are if you like up for grabs but the Paris peace conference once again sets itself higher on ideals than previous settlements would have
• 32:00 - 32:30 done to Wilson there should be no land grabs or annexations by the victors another solution must be found involving the League of Nations the answer found in Paris was mandates a civilized country say Britain would be given the opportunity to look after a less civilized part of the world until that country matured into nationhood oh I think mandates had a very paternalistic attitude behind them that these peoples in the Middle East
• 32:30 - 33:00 these peoples in Africa these peoples in Asia these peoples in the South Pacific weren't in any way ready to rule themselves it's really interesting actually someone asked woodro Wilson if he'd like to do mandates in the center of Europe in the old collapsed austri Hungarian Empire and he looked totally stunned and said no no we don't need mandates for Europeans and so yes there was a paternalistic and and indeed perhaps even a racist attitude here another group who came to the K do petitioning for Independence was an Arab delegation led by Prince fisel advised
• 33:00 - 33:30 by TE Lawrence one of the most dramatic appearances at the Supreme Council was that of Prince fisel the Arab leader he was dressed in flowing robes he had a gold cimer at his side and he spoke passionately in Arabic apparently outlining the Arab case his interpreter was Lawrence of Arabia and it has been suggested by some that fisel was simply reciting the Quran while Lawrence who of course knew the Arab case well presented it fisel Wanted the old Ottoman provinces of mul Baghdad and bazra
• 33:30 - 34:00 Mesopotamia but this future state of Iraq was also coveted by the British who'd taken the area from the Turks during the war at his flat on the Rito an adviser overheard Lloyd George thinking out loud about the Middle East Mesopotamia yes oil irrigation we must have Mesopotamia Palestine yes the Holy Land Zionism we
• 34:00 - 34:30 must have Palestine Syria H what is there in Syria let the French have that the British had strong interests in the Middle East which were always going to conflict with the idea of Arab Independence the British were very keen to maintain the security of the SE Canal to can maintain the security of the Persian Gulf and clearly the new strategic element of oil [Music]
• 34:30 - 35:00 for this reason Britain began to press vigorously for a mandate in what would become Iraq it gave little real self-determination to the Arabs and when the British mandate was finally ratified by the League of Nations there was no attempt to include fisel in the decision a separate deal between Britain and France confirmed British control of mosul in Northern Iraq but a greed French access to its oil fields resentment about the settlement
• 35:00 - 35:30 led to immediate revolt and a bitterness which would [Music] endure during the April of 1919 the weather was Grim in Paris and the volume of business was mounting up a German treaty to include the Covenant for a League of Nations still
• 35:30 - 36:00 hadn't been agreed and there were now other obstacles to the success of the peace [Music] conference the Allied leaders were meeting daily at Wilson's new residence on the pl ituni opposite Lloyd George's flat since January the Italian Prime Minister Victoria Orlando had been present at these meetings up until now this fourth Ally had registered little
• 36:00 - 36:30 interest in the proceedings Easter Sunday and Francis Stevenson was standing by the window looking out across to President Wilson's house just across the road here Francis Stevenson was Lord George's secretary but she was also his mistress so they had a very close relationship and he had promised to take her out for a picnic and she was looking across to see if the meeting of the big four had just ended and as she looked across she saw standing at the window of President Wilson's study Orlando the prime minister of Italy and he was weeping copiously and so she stood there in
• 36:30 - 37:00 horror wondering what had happened and Lord George's valet who was standing beside her said what on Earth have they done to the poal gentlemen what they had done was to refuse Italian demands in the Adriatic these Wilson angrily opposed provoking the Italians tears this clash between the two leaders was serious enough to provoke a walk out by the Italian delegation
• 37:00 - 37:30 [Music] and there was now trouble from a fifth wartime Ally [Music] Japan the Japanese though staying in some Style on the plaz vandom always felt ill at ease in Paris clemont s for 1 was openly root to them they were treated with a certain amount of condescension the two Japanese representatives in Paris were called the two mardos and clemo for example used to
• 37:30 - 38:00 make Lou sides he said you know it's a beautiful day outside there's so many beautiful women in the world and here we are shut up with those ugly Japanese in rather loud voice too I bet they heard him um you know there was an attitude that the Japanese were there really as a curtesy the Japanese delegation represented a nation which had had an astonishing rise to power by 1919 they had taken Korea and Manchuria in China so the Japanese came to Paris looking for respect and this was
• 38:00 - 38:30 expressed in their demand for a racial equality clause in the League's Covenant the Japanese wanted to have Racial equality Clause inserted into the Covenant of the League of Nations um mainly because they were very concerned about the prestige and security as the only nonwhite great part to be invited to the price peace conference um and then there was also the question of immigration or more precisely anti Japan immigration in in in the United States and also in Australia in particular and
• 38:30 - 39:00 they wanted to resolve this problem because of this fear of Japanese immigration Racial equality was furiously opposed by the Australian prime minister Billy Hughes Hughes and allies in the Empire delegation feared for their whiteson immigration policies Wilson realizing he now had a problem over Racial equality used a meeting of the league commission at the Kon to veto the Japanese
• 39:00 - 39:30 Amendment well I think it shows again his pragmatism I think I mean actually I don't think he himself was a great believer in Racial equality he himself had been brought up in the South and although his attitudes towards uh blacks were as it were sympathetic rather than antagonistic they were premised on a kind of paternalist assumption of superiority which he certainly had the Japanese now demanded a quidd
• 39:30 - 40:00 proquo Japan had taken possessions in the shantung peninsula in China from the Germans during the war they now wanted their claims recognized if not the Japanese delegation made it clear they would walk out of the conference too but in Paris there was a Chinese delegation its leader Wellington coup dramatically called the Japanese claim a dagger pointed at the heart of China KP argued that shantung under the
• 40:00 - 40:30 principle of self-determination was clearly Chinese but again to stop the conference falling apart Wilson decided to horse trade agreeing to the Japanese claim the Chinese reaction to the shantung settlement was um an incredible disappointment as well as the sense of betrayal um both by Wilson himself who was personally seen as the embodiment of
• 40:30 - 41:00 wilsonian idealism but also more broadly speaking these principles of new diplomacy um that Wilson was advocating at Paris the decisions made in Paris would have long-term consequences in the Far East disillusion in China would lead to the replacement of those like coup who believed political Solutions lay in Western liberal democracy with those who saw the future in a Chinese form of communism a similar totalitarian fate
• 41:00 - 41:30 awaited Japanese liberals Japan felt deeply betrayed by the Anglo Saxon West and particularly the United States and and Britain and this meant of course that it led to the rise of more nationalistic um streak of thought in [Music] Japan by the beginning of May the weather had improved and the countdown to the
• 41:30 - 42:00 signing of the Treaty of Veri with the Germans had begun invitations had now gone to Berlin requesting that a delegation traveled to Paris to receive the Allied terms after long hours of haggling in conference rooms deals had been struck Lloyd George and Wilson kickstarted the process by offering clemo G guarantees of military support if France was attacked by Germany
• 42:00 - 42:30 again Lloyd George made another offer well Lord George loved the dramatic gesture so what he said to the French is look even if the Germans attack again which I doubt they will we are going to build a tunnel under the channel it's one of ly George's dreams and so if the Germans attack we'll simply pop through the tunnel up we'll be and we'll be there giving you Aid the French understandably didn't really believe it the traditional view of the verside treaty is that the peacemakers particularly the French were inflexible but in finding agreement on
• 42:30 - 43:00 the final terms there had to be compromise on all sides clona softened the French position on the military occupation of the Ry by agreeing that it should be demilitarized for 15 years the SAR coal Fields would be owned by France with sovereignty decided by A League of Nations pleite clono knew perfectly well that the treaty was not perfect from the French point of view he could not achieve the
• 43:00 - 43:30 military border on the r permanent occupation of the Rand he knew that he understood that and there was a discussion in France the president of the Republic told clo you must not accept the treaty as it is but Koso decided to accept the treaty treaty because he believed that the most important thing was to retain English English and American Support historians now believe that the overall territorial settlement left Germany
• 43:30 - 44:00 better off in 1919 than it had been before the war perhaps the peacemakers had been too lenient storing up trouble for the future Germany as a political entity is left as it was before the war in the sense it's still there and that's very important uh Germany loses something like 13% of its pre-war territor something like 10% of its pre War population and in some senses of course at the end of the first world war it's
• 44:00 - 44:30 in a bad way it's been defeated it's it's it's not it's not in in a good condition but uh if you look at the future Germany no longer has its borders policed on almost all sides by great Powers at the Ministry of Finance the reparations commission had also come to an agreement a split of the money 52% France 28 % Britain the rest to the other allies with a final figure to be
• 44:30 - 45:00 agreed after the conference the great liberal economist John mayard KES working with the treasury team in Paris was furious with this deal Germany he believed could never afford the kind of figures suggested by the Allies its economy would be crippled with this deal the Allies were completing the destruction of Europe for KES Wilson was the half appless villain of the peace this blind and deaf Don kote was
• 45:00 - 45:30 entering a cavern where the Swift and glittering blade was in the hands of the adversary KES accused Wilson of doing nothing to challenge the other allies when his own experts had been critical of their demands he thought the president had been conned he allowed himself to be drugged by their atmosphere to discuss on the basis of their plans and of their dat and to be led along their paths but Wilson was a politician not an
• 45:30 - 46:00 economist he knew he had to give something back to the French and British in return for getting his own way with the League of Nations and anade was telling him that liberal guilt over reparations was simply not an issue in America tamot in Washington wrote in to say remember that reparations is primary of interest to the Europeans it's not a central issue with Americans and it's not worth wrecking the conference about
• 46:00 - 46:30 from our point of view what matters to us is the league um and I think again this sense of American domestic opinion and its priorities affected Wilson's own attitude so though he made this case he eventually exceeded in in its Essence to the Allied point of view most historians now argue that reparations were never the burden that critics like KES made out out of an agreed figure of six billion pound only a billion had been paid by the Germans when payments were suspended in
• 46:30 - 47:00 1932 and they conclude this revisionist analysis by challenging The View that decisions made in Paris led to the outbreak of the second world war there was simply too much history in between the peace settlement in in Paris was not ideal but it wasn't of itself sufficient to cause another major war that was going to take a series of of happen stances the problem of the Great Depression the problem of the the great slump in in in America 1929 and all that
• 47:00 - 47:30 and the consequences that would have for Europe and perhaps most importantly of all the arrival on the scene of the National Socialist in Germany the whole series of events in the 1930s changed the European system and prepared the way for the outbreak of the second world war that is a mistake to jump from 1919 to
• 47:30 - 48:00 1939 by the first week of May 1919 a German delegation had checked into the hotel de Reservoir at versailes the special trains taking them through northern France had been deliberately slowed down by the French to allow the enemy to ponder on the devastation it had caused
• 48:00 - 48:30 all the big three were there clemo Lloyd George Wilson their foreign ministers
• 48:30 - 49:00 the representatives of all the other powers there were journalists there were Admirals there were Generals and what they were seeing for the first time most of them was a German these were the people they defeated they hadn't seen Germans since 1914 except on the other side of the Western Front and now they were going to see them face to face the head of the German delegation foreign minister Brock do franso took two speeches with him to the Tiano one short and non-comm middle the other long and
• 49:00 - 49:30 defiant the German foreign minister decided to use the Hardline speech he was very nervous people who were close to him could see beads of sweat on his forehead he was probably shaking because of that he decided to sit down his legs were probably would probably have given away underneath him he sat at the table in the middle of this room packed with the allies and read out this Hardline speech he read it in a very harsh and rasping voice and of course he looked the picture of a German Aristocrat the sort of person who had helped lead Germany into the first
• 49:30 - 50:00 world war if he had wanted to do something it would hard an Allied opinion even more he couldn't have chosen a better way to do it woodro Wilson came away and said I have never seen a worse speech and Lloyd George said now I understand why people hate the Germans so much as he left the hotel bror ransa paused for a cig
• 50:00 - 50:30 cette whilst the Germans were given a deadline to respond to the treaty General fos commander-in-chief of Allied Forces was told to prepare 42 divisions to invade Germany if its leaders refused to sign the publication of the treaty
• 50:30 - 51:00 deepened liberal disillusion with the peace conference in January Paris had been a symbol of Hope for Harold Nicholson now there was bitterness we came to Paris confident that the New Order was about to be established we left it convinced that the New Order had merely fouled the old we arrived as fervent apprentices in the school of President Wilson we left as
• 51:00 - 51:30 Renegades and doubts had spread to Leading members of the British delegation Lloyd George went back to clemo and Wilson to suggest revisions they refused on matters of substance to budge Wilson was keen on being seen as tough towards the Germans he was told by Joe tumilty his political secretary in Washington who read the American Press and kept his ear very close to the ground that the German draft treaty which was produced on in
• 51:30 - 52:00 early May and which liberals were so horrified by and which people like KES and bullet and the others were so shocked by had actually been well received in America the the sort of um quite belligerent sentiment of the previous Autumn meant that uh Americans generally were in favor of a tough piece on the 16th of June a final ultimatum was sent to Berlin the German government represented by bror fransa in
• 52:00 - 52:30 Paris resigned on the 23rd of June at 4:30 in the afternoon a telegram arrived at the Kor with the news that members of a new German government would sign as soon as this was replied to guns went off all over [Music] Paris
• 52:30 - 53:00 the signing ceremony took place on the 28th of June in the Hall of Mirrors at the palace of verai the Italians had been persuaded to come back and sign the Chinese however stayed away their hotel surrounded by protesting students the signing was a deliberate piece of political theater by Jor clono he never forgot that the Hall of Mirrors
• 53:00 - 53:30 was where the new German Empire had been proclaimed in 1871 after Prussia had defeated then occupied France the whole signing of the Treaty of Versa at Versa in the Hall of Mirrors was enormously important for the French and the Hall of Mirrors had been Louis the 14th's Great Hall in his great palace when France under Louis the 14th had dominated Europe it was in the Hall of Mirrors in 1871 that the new German Empire had been proclaimed and so it was
• 53:30 - 54:00 going to be now in the Hall of Mirrors that Germany signed the treaty which marked its defeat and so clemo planned it very thoroughly he made sure that there was a special writing desk which had belonged to Louis the 14th there he made sure that there was a special ink stand that that was there he made sure that sitting in the front row in the Hall of Mirrors when the Germans came in were badly grievously horribly mutilated French War veterans at 3: in the afternoon the Germans were shown in the Hall of Mirrors was crammed I
• 54:00 - 54:30 mean there's this huge audience there the the cameras the film cameras there journalists there crowd Looking Through the Windows trying to see what's going on and the Germans are shown in these two men in black suits who have finally agreed to represent the German government sign the treaty and there's a hush in the hall and they're shown in and they're dead white and trembling and they come in and they sign the treaty there's this sort of terrible hush and and people almost feel sympathetic for them because they look so ill with the
• 54:30 - 55:00 emotion of the moment and then all the other nations have to come and sign the treaty as well and then the dignity begins to break down a bit the first autograph Seekers begin to get up I'm ashamed to say one of them was a Canadian
• 55:00 - 55:30 in Paris the celebrations [Music] began
• 55:30 - 56:00 the next morning Lloyd George left his Paris flat for the last time he would stay in power until October 1922 when his coalition government fell and he was forced to resign as prime minister he remained a backbench MP until just before his death in 1945 at the end of 1919 clemo stepped down as prime minister to try and become president of France but he had too many
• 56:00 - 56:30 enemies in French politics so the tiger left Paris to travel the world and to enjoy the role of heroic Elder Statesman he died in 1929 Wilson was pragmatic about the peace conference as he left France the president and confided to his wife well little girl it is finished and as no one
• 56:30 - 57:00 is satisfied it makes me hope we have made a just peace but it is all in the lap of the Gods Wilson the Democrat went on an exhausting US tour to sell the Paris settlement to the American people on his returned to Washington in October 1919 he had a massive stroke the Republican controlled Senate then refused to ratify the versai treaty rejecting us membership of the League of
• 57:00 - 57:30 Nations Wilson's term as president would end in March 1921 his dreams seemingly unfulfilled his career ending in political failure he died in February 1924 as an invalid in the White House Wilson requested a viewing of a film which had been made about his trip to Europe it
• 57:30 - 58:00 was a reminder of His Glory Days but watching these images of Paris also reminds us of Wilson's Vision his attempt to actively involve America in the world his belief that an international body could be a force for good and they remind us too Of The Peacemaker determination in Paris to resolve War by compromise and conciliation to prevent War by States
• 58:00 - 58:30 working together to preserve the peace to neutralize the power and violence of nationalism struggling in 1919 with the very same problems we still can't resolve [Music] today [Music]
• 58:30 - 59:00 stay with us tonight as Superstar Russian soprano Ana trebco sings popular Aras by Pini balini and Vac with the BBC philonic the last night of the bbc4 proms next