The Treaty of Versailles

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 two months later in january 1919 delegates from all over the world came to paris to conclude the peace settlements that would end the war six months of haggling in conference rooms climaxed with the signing of a treaty with germany in the hall of mirrors at versailles three men dominated the peacemaking the american president woodrow wilson and the french and british prime ministers george clemons 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 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 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 nationalism 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 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 11th style casualties every day for four years then you begin to get some kind of feeling of what the sort of trauma was that existed in the western countries and the allied countries at the time particularly in britain and in france which had never known levels of casualties of the kind that they'd 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'd been killed or named the british hadn't fought a war in europe for a hundred years they had never 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 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 destroyed farms 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 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 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 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 joseph's austria-hungary the ottoman empire and the russia of the tsars all these power blocs had vanished by january 1919. the simultaneous collapse of four powers is unprecedented 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 against russians romanians against but how to deal with this allied troops were being quickly demobilized and those who waited to go home were impatient even mutants so during these months in paris they were always going to be severe limits to the power of the allied leaders three weeks after the armistice woodrow 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 three 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 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 1918 a superstar was an extraordinary event one young american on the president's staff described wilson's reception in paris the parade from the station to the miura house in rio de mazzo 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 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 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 peace and redemption in a way to the old world the american delegation made its headquarters at the luxurious hotel on the plaza concorde life at the creon contrasted sharply with the simple lifestyle of the prime minister of france georges clemenceau living alone in a flat across the river in the 16th arandismo he was a very cultural man he wrote books himself he was a thinker actually he got even philosophical books you know not only memoirs and such political books he had also a big career behind him as journalist very good one he had a huge political experience and he was certainly a very witty man as prime minister clem also had a polished contempt for the president of france there are only two perfectly useless things in the world one is an appendix and the other is 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 killer we would say today critics of his role at the peace conference saw clemenzu as a weary product of the old world but he'd become prime minister during the lowest point in the war and led france to victory when news of the armistice was announced he put his head in his hands and wept clement had a political career which dated back to 1870 when as mayor of montmartre 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 1870 and 1914 would never happen again on the 11th of january 1919 the british prime minister david lloyd george arrived in paris with clemasso and wilson lloyd george completed the triumvirate of power in paris everybody who knew him always commented on the incredible amount of energy he had and there's a story of clemassa going to the opera and saying he's seeing the barber of seville figaro here figaro there he says he's a kind of lloyd george he was always moving about always full of energy and full of full of ideas and something like that the peace conference in paris where he's working on a world stage was simply made for lloyd george like clemasso 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 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 again was britain to 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 clemenza's insistence that paris was the venue for the peacemaking i never wanted to hold a conference in his bloody capital i 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 six months was the time of his life he set himself up in a luxurious flat with his secretary and mistress francis stevenson balfour his foreign secretary lived one floor above and got used to hearing the sound of lloyd george's favorite hymns and negro spirituals drifting up the rest of the 400 strong british empire delegation was based at the hotel majestic on the avenue kleber here there was an obsession with security british still didn't really trust their french allies all that much and to ensure really maximum security they fired all the french staff of the hotel chefs included and brought in staff 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 cook 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 newsreel cameras were present to cover the official opening of the peace conference on the 18th of january in 1919 it took place in the sal de l'horloge at the french foreign ministry at the que doce 32 countries sent delegates to paris and following the official delegations were all those who looked to the peacemakers to change the world for them as well six 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 suffragettes coming you had african-americans you had black africans you had the koreans who came from siberia unfortunately they got there too late because they started out by dog sled and it was too slow but everybody came here and so for six months this was the world government woodrow 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 thing that above all he wanted to get out of the negotiations and the peace treaty it would be the thing which above all would justify his decision in bringing americans to 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 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 ascetic 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 deciding its structure meetings took place in room 351 of the creon the suite of colonel house the president's closest advisor 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 houses rooms the commission for the league of nations started meeting on february the 3rd 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 connotation because for woodrow wilson this was the great gift that he was bringing to the world but clem also scoffed at wilson's idealism the president's ambition 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 clem also wanted a little more real politic the iron fist in the velvet glove he was all for new international system because he was the liberal he believed in winston's ideas to that extent but at the same time he deeply resented the fact that twisted was not pragmatic enough climate so was in favor of a league of nations but he would have wanted a league of nations with a very strong military establishment league of nations with thief and with other germans that's why that was the most 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 proved to be an effective chairman of the league's 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 sell of the league to a skeptical congress by the time of this mid-winter break delegates had discovered the many delights of paris by day skating in the water boron by night tasting the capital's more racial pleasures at the hotel majestic entertainment was peculiarly british well it was very british and a lot of the 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 authorities wondered if they better put a stop to them there's a wonderful story that marshall fosh came to see the dancing one evening and these days of course they were doing things like the black bottom of the fox chart and he's 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 paris 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 austro-hungarian empire because they're all too busy talking about the next amateur theatrical harold nicholson met marcel proust for dinner at the ritz the novelist was fascinated by the peacemaking and demanded prestian detail about how exactly it worked tell me about the committees you take a car from the delegation you get out of the kid or say you climb the stairs you go into the room and then be specific my friend be specific and serving at the ritz was a young kitchen assistant from vietnam ho chi minh 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 folie berger something a little more elevating 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 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 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 come but the law man from canada was right about a hungry continent seemingly on the brink of revolution beyond the salons and dining 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 habsburg empire they see bolsheviks as a shorthand for chaos for anarchy the famine for the lack of traditional authority and given that much of eastern central europe was now without a recognised government the fear was that if you did not make a settlement quickly then the plague the bacillus 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 world as clematis was leaving his flat on the roof franklin he was shot by an anarchist emil kotta he survived to complain about his would-be assassin's marksmanship a frenchman who misses his target six times out of seven at point blank crunch both when woodrow 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 properly which in paris was a pretty mean thing to say as the three leaders met again at the hotel de creon 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 versailles it was agreed that germany should be punished for the recent 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 george and clem also 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 until the pips squeak a reparations committee met in the splendor of the ministry of finance on the ruda rivoli delegates briefed by the leaders try 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 countries that got particularly heated were the british and the french the 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 vivendi and and and really came together on a figure 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 alsace loren taken during the eighteen seventy franco-prussian war should go back to france but after nineteen fourteen the french wanted more to guarantee security and prosperity a zone of security on the river rhine and control of the tsar coalfields what france is trying to look for is a secure boundary against germany something which could 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 german fleet had gone there was no threat to either of them directly but clem also 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 rhineland were german he argued they should be able to choose the country they lived in lloyd george saw the potential for future conflicts as lloyd george puts it the key concern this time is not to create el sessler 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 time this fundamental tension between borders and self-determination highlighted by the rhineland 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 the problem about solving the collapse of the empires in eastern central europe which was compound compounded of course by the fact the one 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 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 dorsey struggled long and hard to find solutions here in the grand bank winning hall many of the territorial commissions met and so they read the submissions they 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 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 champs-elysees 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 kiddos say 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 pogroms in recent memory there was deep concern about the anti-semitism that came with polish nationalism the problem of minorities in poland was 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 they were 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 protect the rights of these national 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 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 ideals than previous settlements would have 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 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 woodrow wilson if he'd like to do mandates in the center of europe in the old collapsed austro-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 indeed perhaps even a racist attitude here another group who came to the k dossier petitioning for independence was an arab delegation led by prince faisal advised by t.e lawrence one of the most dramatic appearances of the supreme council was that of prince faisal the arab leader he was dressed in flowing robes he had a gold scimitar 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 faisal was simply reciting the quran while lawrence who of course knew the arab case well presented it faisal wanted the old ottoman provinces of mosul baghdad and basra 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 runito an advisor 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 must have palestine syria hmm what is that 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 sewers canal to maintain the security of the persian gulf and clearly the new strategic element of oil 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 faisal in the decision a separate deal between britain and france confirmed british control of mosul in northern iraq but agreed french access to its oil fields resentment about the settlement led to immediate revolt and a bitterness which would 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 hadn't been agreed and there were now other obstacles to the success of the peace conference the allied leaders were meeting daily at wilson's new residence on the place uni opposite lloyd george's flat since january the italian prime minister vittorio orlando had been present at these meetings up until now this fourth ally had registered little interest in the proceedings it's easter sunday and francis stevenson was standing by the window looking out across to president wilson's house just across the road here frances stephenson was lloyd 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 president wilson study orlando the prime minister of italy and he was weeping copiously and so she stood there in horror wondering what had happened in lord george's valley who was standing beside us said what on earth have they done to the poor gentleman 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 walkout by the italian delegation and there was now trouble from a fifth wartime ally japan the japanese though staying in some style on the plasma dome always felt ill at ease in paris clemons for one was openly rude to them they were treated with a certain amount of condescension the two japanese representatives in paris were called the two mercados and clemens so for example used to make louder sides he said you know it's a beautiful day outside and so many beautiful women in the world and here we are shut up with those ugly japanese and rather loud voice too i bet they heard him um you know there was an attitude that the japanese were there really as a courtesy 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 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 mainly because they were very concerned about their prestige and security as the only non-white great part to be invited to the prize peace conference and then there was also the question of immigration or more precisely anti-japanese immigration in in in the united states and also in australia in particular and 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 whites only immigration policies wilson realizing he now had a problem over racial equality used a meeting of the league commission of the cr to veto the japanese 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 was sympathetic rather than antagonistic they were premised on the kind of paternalist assumption of superiority which he certainly had the japanese now demanded a quid pro quo 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 dramatically called the japanese claim a dagger pointed at the heart of china coup argued that shantung under the 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 an incredible disappointment as well as the sense of betrayal both by wilson himself who was personally seen as the embodiment of wilsonian idealism but also more broadly speaking these principles of new diplomacy 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 ku 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 awaited japanese liberals japan felt deeply betrayed by the anglo-saxon west particularly the united states and and britain and this meant of course that it led to the rise of more nationalistic streak of thought in japan by the beginning of may the weather had improved and the countdown to the signing of the treaty of versailles with the germans had begun invitations had now gone to berlin requesting that a delegation travel to paris to receive the allied terms after long hours of haggling in conference rooms deals had been struck lloyd george and wilson kick-started the process by offering clemency guarantees of military support if france was attacked by germany again lloyd george made another offer well 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 lloyd 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 versailles treaty is that the peacemakers particularly the french were inflexible but in finding agreement on the final terms there had to be compromise on all sides clem also softened the french position on the military occupation of the rhine by agreeing that it should be demilitarized for 15 years the tsar coal fields would be owned by france with sovereignty decided by a league of nations plebiscite clemons so knew perfectly well that the titty was not perfect from the french point of view he could not achieve the military border on the rhine permanent occupation of the highland he knew that he understood that and there was a discussion in france the president of the republic uh you must not accept the treaty as it is but tim also 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 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 germany loses something like 13 percent of its pre-war territory something like 10 percent of its pre-war population in some senses of course at the end of the first world war it's in a bad way it's been defeated it's it's it's not it's not in in a good condition but 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 percent france 28 britain the rest of the other allies with a final figure to be agreed after the conference the great liberal economist john maynard keynes 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 keynes wilson was the hapless villain of the piece this blind and deaf don quixote was entering a cavern where the swift and glittering blade was in the hands of the adversary keynes 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 data and to be led along their paths but wilson was a politician not an 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 an aide was telling him that liberal guilt over reparations was simply not an issue in america tamilty 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 breaking the conference about 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 its essence to the allied point of view most historians now argue that reparations were never the burden that critics like keynes made out out of an agreed figure of six billion pounds only a billion had been paid by the germans when payments were suspended in 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 happenstances the problem of the great depression the problem of the great slump in in america 1929 and all that and the consequences which 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 1939. by the first week of may 1919 a german delegation had checked into the hotel reservoir at versailles 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 all the big three were there clemence lloyd george wilson their foreign ministers the representatives 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 german 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 brockdor francao took two speeches with him to the tiana one short and non-committal the other long and defiant 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 hard line speech he read it in a very harsh and raspy voice and of course he looked the picture of a german aristocrat the sort of person who had helped lead germany into the first world war if he had wanted to do something it would hurt an allied opinion even more he couldn't have chosen a better way to do it woodrow 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 brocktofrancel paused for a cigarette whilst the germans were given a deadline to respond to the treaty general fosh 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 deepened liberal dissolution 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 renegades and doubts had spread to leading members of the british delegation lloyd george went back to clemso 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 tumulty 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 early may and which liberals were so horrified by which people like keynes 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 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 brockdorf ransau in paris resigned the twenty third of june at four thirty in the afternoon a telegram arrived at the qudor sea with the news that members of a new german government would sign as soon as this was replied to guns went off all over paris the signing ceremony took place on the 28th of june in the hall of mirrors at the palace of versailles 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 george clemenceux he never forgot that the hall of mirrors 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 versailles at versailles in the hall of mary's was enormously important for the french and the hall of mirrors had been louis xiv great hall in his great palace when france under louis xiv had dominated europe it was in the hall of mirrors in 1871 that the new german empire had been proclaimed and so it was going to be now in the hall of marriage that germany signed the treaty which marked its defeat and so clemenceau planned it very thoroughly he made sure that there was a special writing desk which had belonged to louis xiv there he made sure that there was a special ink stand 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 three in the afternoon the germans were shown in the hall of mirrors was crammed i mean there's this huge audience there the the cameras the film cameras there and journalists there the 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 and this is sort of terrible hashem and people almost feel sympathetic for them because they look so ill with the 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 in paris the celebrations began 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 nineteen forty five at the end of nineteen nineteen clemasso stepped down as prime minister to try and become president of france but he had too many 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 confided to his wife well little girl it is finished and as no one 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 u s tour to sell the paris settlement to the american people on his return to washington in october 1919 he had a massive stroke the republican-controlled senate then refused to ratify the versailles treaty rejecting u s membership of the league of 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 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 peacemakers determination in paris to resolve war by compromise and conciliation to prevent war by states 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 today stay with us tonight as superstar russian soprano anana trebko sings popular arias by puccini bellini and vorjak with the bbc philharmonic the last night of the bbc four proms next

Channel: The History Room

Views: 657,388

Rating: 4.5114884 out of 5

Keywords: Treaty Of Versailles (Event), First World War, Great War, Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Big Four, Woodrow Wilson, League of Nations, German history, World War I (Event), Hall of Mirrors, Treaty of Versailles

Id: 74-HkCRozls

Length: 58min 51sec (3531 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 01 2016