End of WW1

The Cost of WWI

•9-11 million soldiers dead, 12 million civilians dead

•21 million wounded or handicapped

•Famines throughout Europe

•Millions of homes, farms, factories and roads are destroyed.

•In 1918, the world is hit with a flu epidemic that kills nearly 20 million people

•The world in chaos, all the war weary parties are ready to move on and recover.  

The Peace Conference

Purpose

• The purpose of the Paris Peace Conference was simple: to decide on the terms of peace that would be offered to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans are our main concern) and of course to sign them.

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• Over the next 20 months, treaties with Germany (June 1919), Austria (September 1919), Bulgaria (November 1919), Hungary (June 1920), and Turkey (August 1920) were concluded at locations around Paris.

Who was there?

• The Paris Peace Conference was made up of 27 countries, all of whom were victorious in the war against the Central Powers.

• All defeated countries were excluded from the negotiations as well as Russia, who the Allies did not trust.

• None of the defeated nations would have an opputunity to discuss or negotiate thier own terms.

Multiple Choice

Why was Russia not invited to attend the conference and why did the governments of the Western nations not trust Russia?

• Russia was going through a revolution & set up a communist dictatorship

• Russia was developing nukes and snowballs to enter themselves into a Cold War

• Russia suffered the most deaths so they were just too defeated to be able to attend

• Lets be real...Russia has always been sus

Poll

Do you think it was fair that the countries that lost the war weren't allowed to discuss the terms of the Treaties?

• Yes

• No

Draw

What kind of mustache should Wilson wear?

The Big Three

• Despite the huge numbers of attendants the Conference would come to be dominated by the leaders of the three most powerful allies:

• David Lloyd George of Great Britain

• Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America

• Georges Clemenceau of France

• They were called the "Big Three".

• The Italian Prime Minister Orlando was also a leader of a big winner but he was largely ignored and forgotten.

Poll

Italy left the Triple Alliance (w/Germany and A-H) because they made a secret treaty with Britain. The treaty stated: In exchange for their help, the Italians would receive several pieces of land. Now that it's 1919, the treaty was IGNORED. Wilson thought countries should rule themselves so Italy got denied for the most part. Italy got Tyrol (land), some of the reparations and a seat on the "League of Nations". Do you think Italy should be ok with that?

• Yes! At least they got something!

• No! The powers broke the secret treaty and Italy got the shaft.

Multiple Choice

Out of the Allies - you unfriended Russia, shushed Italy - who was a rising world power but was was also largely ignored?

• Japan

• Serbia

• Portugal

• Greece

​Japan

​Japan’s primary interest was to secure all of Germany’s former Pacific colonies and have a decisive say in Chinese domestic affairs. But while the Versailles conference did indeed award Japan control over some German territories—namely, the islands of the new South Pacific Mandate and the German concession in Shandong—others were transferred to Australia (New Guinea), New Zealand (Western Samoa), and the British Empire (Nauru).

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From the Japanese perspective, this territorial settlement was a modest win at best, and hardly reflected the central position that Japan deserved to occupy in Asia.

Even worse, Japanese delegates felt humiliated by their peers at Versailles when Wilson voted down their racial equality clause to the treaty.​

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Multiple Select

Select All: Who was not invited to the Peace Conference?

• Germany

• Austria-Hungarian Empire

• Ottoman Empire

• Russia

Poll

The Allies broke up the A-H empire along ethnic lines. A northern region largely populated by Czechs was linked with the Slovaks in the east to form Czechoslovakia. The empire’s Slovene, Serb, and Croat peoples were joined with Serbia to form the new nation of Yugoslavia. Romania and Italy also gained territory. The land that remained became the separate nations of Austria and Hungary. Bulgaria, another Central Power, lost territory to Yugoslavia and Greece. The Austrian army was limited to 30,000 men, while Hungary’s army was limited to 35,000 men. The treaty with Bulgaria allowed it an army of 20,000. What do you think about this move?

• It's the right move. This allows nations to achive self-determination and calm nationalist feelings.

• It's the wrong move. Some are probably not happy with the ethnic divisions and loss of land is always going to trigger someone.

Multiple Choice

True or False: The secret treaty "Sykes-Picot Agreement" between Britain and France to take Middle Eastern lands even though they told the Arab princes they would get independence if they helped the Allies (Balfour Declaration) will result in long-lasting resentment toward the West.

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Russia was the only _____ Power to lose territory from World War I, and of all the Great Powers, its losses were the _______. Following its revolution and withdrawal from the war in 1917, Russia was too weak to hold on to parts of its empire. When Finland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania revolted, the other Allies recognized their independence. However, Russia’s greatest loss of territory was to Poland, one of the nations the Allies created at the Paris Peace Conference. The Big Four also gave Romania a small amount of Russian territory.

• Central; greatest

• Central; lowest

• Alllied; greatest

• Allied; lowest

Open Ended

Sneek peak at Germany: What is one term of the Versailles Treaty that you see that is going to anger Germans?