department of history...collapse and revolution history department armistice • erzberger and...

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Fall 2019Prof. Kenneth F. [email protected]

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

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


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Interwar Europe

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

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


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HISTORY DEPARTMENT


Interwar Europe


Interwar Europe

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Interwar Europe


Interwar Europe


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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris– Paris Peace Conference

• Opened January 18, 1919• Closed January 21, 1920, with inaugural General Assembly of the League of

Nations

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Negotiating Peace

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris– Paris Peace Conference– Delegates from 27 countries

• 52 preliminary commissions• Held 1,646 sessions to prepare reports for plenary meetings• Diplomats accredited from 32 states and nationality groups

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Allied and Associated Powers gathered in Paris– Paris Peace Conference– Delegates from 27 countries– Most famous commission the “Commission on Polish Affairs”

• Drew “Curzon Line” to serve as eastern border of new Poland

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Organization of Paris Peace Conference– Plenary Conference of the 27 states once a week– Supreme War Council became directing agency of peace, with addition

of Japan• Council of 10 (heads of state/government plus foreign ministers)• Council of 4 (U.S., Britain, France, Italy)

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

David Lloyd-George

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Georges Clemenceau

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Vittorio Orlando

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Long delay between Armistice (November 11) and opening of Peace Conference (January 18) and further delay led to two problems– Decision to skip preliminary settlements and proceed to final one made

preliminary decisions from Territorial Committees final– Victorious powers demobilized while negotiating, demanded by war-

weary populations, but reducing options of imposing will

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Making the Peace

• Explore making of the peace in 1919 in three steps:– Explore terms and effect of Armistice, which prefigured the peace– Explore plans and aims of victorious powers– Explore the first of the treaties with the five defeated powers, Germany,

the Treaty of Versailles– Then next week will look at the other four treaties and some of the

consequences of World War I and the Paris Peace Conference for today

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Negotiation of First Armistice of Compiègne took a long and hard month– September 29, 1918, Ludendorff and Hindenburg tell Kaiser Wilhelm II

and Chancellor Georg von Hertling that German military situation was hopeless

– Ludendorff claimed he could not guarantee that front would hold for another 24 hours

– Demanded request to Entente for immediate ceasefire

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• October 3, 1918, Prince Max von Baden replaced Hertling as Chancellor– October 4, sent telegram to Wilson asking to negotiate terms on basis of

Fourteen Points– Wilson responded on October 14 and 23– Made it clear that Allies would deal only with a democratic Germany

not an imperial state under military dictatorship– Implied but not stated that Kaiser would have to abdicate

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• October 5, Prince Max announced impending constitutional reforms, adopted by Reichstag on October 29– Made Chancellor responsible to majority in Reichstag– Made army subject to civilian control through Chancellor

– Abolished property-based three-class suffrage system in Kingdom of Prussia

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

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

retreated since July

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Ludendorff in late October declared Allied demands unacceptable, changed his mind, demanded to resume war he had declared lost a month before– New democratic Imperial government dismissed him and replaced him

with General Wilhelm Groener– October 24, sailors in Wilhelmshaven then Kiel refused to sail and rose

up

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

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

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

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

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Uprisings in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel turned into revolution on November 9 in Berlin and many other cities– Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated throne– Prince Max turned over Chancellor’s office to Friedrich Ebert of the

Social Democratic Party– Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the democratic republic from the

Reichstag at 2:00 p.m.– Karl Liebknecht proclaimed the socialist republic from the city palace

at 4:00 p.m.– Ebert worked with Erzberger of the Catholic Center Party to avoid a

Bolshevik-style revolution, create a republic, and negotiate a peace

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Collapse and Revolution

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Erzberger and German delegation arrived at forest of Compiègne on morning of November 8– Allies handed Germans a list of demands and gave 72 hours to answer– No real negotiations

– Sunday, November 10, French showed them Paris newspapers to prove the Kaiser had abdicated and republic been proclaimed

– November 10, Ebert instructed Erzberger to sign

– Armistice agreed to at 5:00 a.m., signed between 5:12 and 5:20 a.m.– Effective 11:00 a.m. Paris time (Noon Berlin time)

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Terms of the Armistice:– Termination of military hostilities on land and in air within 6 hours– Immediate removal of German troops from France, Belgium,

Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine within 14 days– Subsequent removal of all German troops from west bank of Rhine

plus 30 km bridgeheads on east bank at Mainz, Koblenz, and Cologne– Occupation of Rhineland and bridgeheads by Allied troops

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Terms of Armistice– Removal of all German troops on Eastern Front (Turkey, Austria-

Hungary, Romania) to German territory as of August 1, 1914– Renunciation of Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia and Treaty of

Bucharest with Romania

– Internment of German High Seas Fleet in Britain– Surrender of all German submarines– Surrender of 5,000 cannons, 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 Minenwerfer,

1,700 airplanes, 5,000 locomotives, 150,000 railway cars.

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• British naval blockade of Germany continued– Total blockade until January 17, 1919– After that, Allies requested Germans to send German ships to Allied

ports to transport food supplies.– German government feared loss of ships if hostilities resumed– Did not send ships until March 1919– March 1919 onward U.S. food also shipped on U.S. ships to Germany

– Restrictions on food imports only fully lifted on July 12, 1919 after signing of Treaty of Versailles

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Armistice

• Original Armistice had term of 32 days, to expire December 13, 1918– German withdrawal and disarmament began immediately– Germany fell into revolution and chaos

• December 15-16 and December 25, struggles with Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils• December 27, Poles rose in Province of Posen

– Armistice extended until January 16, 1919• Spartacus Uprising Berlin January 4-15• Elections to National Assembly January 19

– Armistice extended again until February 16, 1919• National Assembly convened in Weimar February 6

– Armistice extended third time to January 10, 1920

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

Plans and Aims for Peace

• United States– Wilson felt obligated to attend Paris Peace Conference in person to

work for his goal of a League of Nations– His war aims represented in Fourteen Points

• Britain and France did not embrace Fourteen Points, embraced individual ones for their own reasons or instrumentally to curry favor with Wilson

– Wilson led U.S. toward policy of interventionism• Out of touch with public opinion at home

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Great Britain– Over-arching interest was to maintain unity of British Empire with all

its holdings and interests– Four specific additional goals

• Ensure security of France• Remove threat of German High Seas Fleet• Settle contentious territorial issues to prevent future tensions• Support League of Nations

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Great Britain– Wanted to limit idea of self-determination of peoples with respect to

peoples of British Empire• Ireland

• India

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Great Britain– Had to deal with demands by (white) Dominion governments

• Prime Minister Sir Richard Borden of Canada convinced that Canada had become nation on battlefields of Europe

• Australians opposed Japanese Racial Equality Proposal, forcing Britain to oppose it• Canada, India, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa all were

among the 27 countries seated at Paris and later in League of Nations

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Great Britain– Britain and several Dominions sought mandates to govern former

overseas colonies of Germany• Australia – New Guinea

• New Zealand – Samoa• South Africa – South West Africa• Britain (and Belgium and France) – other German colonies in Africa as “Class B”

mandates

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• France– Under Georges Clemenceau, primary goal was to weaken Germany

militarily, strategically, and economically– Sought Anglo-American guarantee of French security in event of

another German attack

– Could not abide Wilson:• “Mr. Wilson bores me with his Fourteen Points. Why God Almighty only has ten!”

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Italy– Remained focus on getting all territory promised in the 1915 Treaty of

London– Wanted additional expansion down the Dalmatian coast and into

Anatolia

– Vittorio Orlando handicapped by being only one of Council of Four not to speak English

HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Japan.– Sought to be one of the “Big Five” but generally relinquished because

of lack of interest in European affairs– Racial Equality Proposal for Covenant of the League– Territorial claims to German colonies and spheres of influence in China

• Kiaochow and Shandong• Chinese disappointment expressed itself in May 4, 1919 student and worker protests

– German Pacific colonies north of the Equator• Marshall Islands• Micronesia• Mariana Islands

• Caroline Islands

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HISTORY DEPARTMENT


• Small states of eastern Europe sought recognition• Existing states such as Greece sought expansion• Groups hoping to found states, from Belarus to Ukraine to

Zionist movement all made claims• Claims that moved forward were enshrined in one of the

treaties with the defeated Central Powers or in the Covenant of the League

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