Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Treaty of Versailles

Episode Date: November 11, 2021

On November 11th, 1918, the first world war came to an end. Or to be more precise, the fighting stopped. For the next eight months, a final peace treaty was hammered out, and hanging over the negotiations was the very real threat that fighting could break out again. In the end, the treaty ended the world’s greatest war and might have been the starting point for an even worse one. Learn more about the Treaty of Versailles on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On November 11, 1918, the first World War came to an end. Or, to be more precise, the fighting stopped. For the next eight months, however, a final peace treaty was hammered out, and hanging over the negotiations was the very real threat that fighting could break out again. In the end, the treaty ended the world's greatest war, and it might have been the starting point for an even worse one. Learn more about the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement which ended World War I on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Do you ever climb into bed ready to sleep, only to have your mind start racing the moment your head hits the pillow? Thoughts bouncing around, replaying the day or jumping ahead to tomorrow? That is exactly why Catherine Nikolai created Nothing Much Happens. Each episode is a gentle, cozy bedtime story where, well, nothing much happens. No drama, no tension. Nothing you need to follow closely. Just soft narration, calming repetition, and soothing sensory details designed to help your mind slow down and your body relax. It's not about entertainment, it's about rest.

and millions of listeners around the world use it every night to quiet their thoughts and finally fall asleep. If you've ever struggled to shut your brain off at night, this might be exactly what you've been missing. You can listen to Nothing Much Happens wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are every Monday and Thursday. November 11th is honored as Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, or Veterans Day in countries around the world. This was the day in 1918 when the Great War, the War to End all wars, finally ended. However, while it was the end of the fighting, it wasn't the end of the conflict per se. The terms of the peace still had to be hammered out, and the armistice wasn't necessarily a permanent

thing. While no one really wanted to start fighting again, the threat of resuming hostilities was always in the air. Before I get into the details of the Paris Peace Conference that led to the Treaty of Versailles, I should note a few things about how the peace was negotiated. The central powers in the war, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey all had separate peace treaties which were negotiated and signed with the Allies. As the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up, separate treaties were signed with both new countries. The Treaty of Saint-Rermain and Lé was the Treaty with the New Republic of Austria. They had to give up some territory which formed the basis of the New Republic of Czechoslovakia. The United States signed a separate treaty with Austria. The Treaty of

Luzhen was the treaty signed with the New Turkish Republic, and the Treaty of Nulis-Sersain was the treaty that ended the war with Bulgaria. The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty that was only signed with Germany, which was by far the largest belligerent of the central powers. The Paris Peace Conference convened about two months after the armistice was signed in January of 1919. All of the parties which entered the conference had their own agendas. France had probably suffered more than any other country. They had lost 1.3 million soldiers and another 400,000 civilian lives. 25% of all French men between the ages of 18 and 30 were dead. Much of their industrial capability had been destroyed.

France came into the conference wanting compensation for what they lost, as well as wanting to punitively punish Germany to prevent a belligerent Germany from ever rising again. Britain suffered heavy casualties in the war, but suffered very little in terms of infrastructure. They wanted compensation, but they didn't want to punitively punish Germany as the French did. They wanted to do what they had always done, to keep a balance of power in continental Europe, which was to keep Germany strong enough to balance France. They also wanted to severely shrink the German Navy, which did threaten Britain,

and they wanted to keep and expand their empire. The United States had very lofty goals entering the conference, most of which came from President Woodrow Wilson and his 14 points. He really wanted to use the end of the war as an opportunity to recreate the world order, spread democracy, and reduce the future risk of war. There were other countries represented at the conference as well, which had smaller roles in the war with Germany, including Italy, Japan, South Africa, Australia, and Canada. The inclusion of Canada, South Africa, and Australia as separate attendees, and not being

represented by Great Britain, was one of the first recognition of them being independent countries. Russia was not invited, as they had signed a separate treaty, the Treaty of Brest-Latofsk, after the Communist Revolution. The Germans, of course, wanted to come away from this giving up as little as possible, but they didn't have a lot of room to negotiate. Part of the terms of the Armistice Agreement was that Germany would withdraw from all the territory in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Furthermore, the Allies would occupy the Rhineland, which was the westernmost part of Germany bordering the aforementioned countries and the Netherlands. The naval blockade of Germany was also still in place, which restricted the number of goods that were

imported into Germany and its ability for its economy to function. The negotiations weren't between two sides of the war so much as they were between the Allied powers. It wasn't the case of the Allies being on one side of a table and Germany being on the other. Even then, it was mostly the big three powers of Britain, France, and the United States that set the terms of the treaty. The negotiations were really just a matter of figuring out how much Germany was going to have to pay and how much they would be punished. Germany was given the peace terms as a fate accompli. If they didn't agree to the terms, the Allies threatened to resume hostilities. Had they done that, it wouldn't have been the resumption of the war the way it had been the last four years. Now with the

allies occupying a large part of Germany, it would have been fought on German soil, and the allies might just overrun and conquer the whole country. So, what were the terms presented to Germany? For starters, Germany lost quite a bit of territory. Sixty-five thousand square kilometers, or 25,000 square miles of land was ceded to France, Belgium, and Poland, with smaller amounts given to Denmark, Lithuania, and Czechoslovakia. In particular, France got back the Alsace-Lorraine, which was taken back in the Franco-Prussian War almost 50 years earlier. The Sarland was to be put under the control of the newly created League of Nations, and the coal production of the region was to be given to France.

More on the League of Nations in a little bit. Germany had to give up all rights to its colonies in Africa and the Pacific, and most of them had already been occupied by allied countries during the war. Significant limits were put on the German military, with the intent of making it impossible for Germany to engage in an offensive war. They were to reduce the entire army down to 100,000 men, consisting of seven infantry and three cavalry divisions. The Rhineland was to be completely demilitarized, which was the area bordering the allied countries. Likewise, restrictions were put on the size of the German Navy, as well as on the number of tanks and artillery pieces.

One of the biggest terms of the treaty was reparations. Turkey, Austria, Hungary, and Bulgaria paid little to nothing in terms of reparations because their economies were so bad. Germany was required to pay 132 billion gold marks, which was the equivalent of about 33 billion U.S. dollars. The terms of the reparations were renegotiated several times after the fact, and Germany paid off the last of the reparation debt in 2010. The other big thing to come out of the Paris Peace Conference was the League of Nations. This was intended to be a multinational organization where countries could arbitrate disputes between themselves to hopefully reduce the risk of war. The treaty was signed on June 28, 1919 at the Palace of Versailles in France, which is where the treaty gets its name. The United States Senate couldn't ratify the treaty, so they signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921.

So what happened with the treaty? Well, let's start with the last point I brought up, the League of Nations. It was actually proposed by the United States, but the U.S. never joined because the Senate couldn't ratify the treaty. It ultimately failed to achieve its goals and didn't do anything to prevent the next war. The idea behind it was finally achieved in the United Nations about 30 years later. The reparations, territorial concessions, and military restrictions were the center of German politics for the next decade. It was a source of national shame and it set off conspiracy theories. The biggest conspiracy was the Stabbed-in-the-back theory. This held that Germany didn't actually

lose the war on the ground, but rather it was betrayed by people in the government. This was one of the biggest drivers of the German far right and the rise of anti-Semitism after the war. The Stabbed in the Back theory was a central tenant of the Nazi party, which was founded only eight months after the treaty was signed and would come to power only 14 years later. Almost all of the terms in the treaty were changed or abandoned in the 1930s, and they were able to do so without any real repercussions. British economist John Maynard Keynes called the Treaty of Versailles, quote, one of the most serious acts of political unwisdom for which our statesmen have ever been responsible,

end quote. It probably isn't too much of a stretch to say that the punishing terms of the Treaty of Versailles were a direct cause of the Second World War. After World War II, the Allies learned the lesson of the First War. There was no attempt to impose similar reparations on either Germany or Japan. Likewise, because the surrender was unconditional and the victory was total, there was no possibility for people to think that they had been sold out. In fact, through programs like the Marshall Plan, money was invested into the vanquished countries after the war to help them get back on their feet quickly and to reduce instability. The Treaty of Versailles is a textbook case for what not to do once you defeat an adversary. Creating bitterness, resentment, and shame in a former enemy

never works in the long run. The associate producers of Everything Everywhere Daily are Peter Bennett and Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please join the list of patrons over at patreon.com. And also remember, if you leave a review or send me a question, you use it. too can have it read on the show.