The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the victorious Allied Powers in the end of WW1. It dealt with the unsuccessful Central Powers and their punishment in order to imbue peace again in Europe. However, peace was not exactly established from the treaties that were forced to be signed. The Paris Peace Treaties that were made between the Allied Powers and the countries that lost the war had more failures than successes overall, which caused nationalism to rise, as well as political, economic and military problems.
Towards the end of the First World War both sides came to the realization that the Central Powers had become weaker and would eventually be defeated in the war. So the two sides decided to sign a peace treaty with each other stating the Central Powers’ defeat. Some say that the treaties were too harsh for the defeated countries, especially for Germany, which eventually caused the breaking out of another World War. The treaties signed after the war were: the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the treaty of Trianon, the treaty of Sevres, the treaty of Neuilly, the treaty of Brest Litovsk and the treaty of Lausanne. These treaties mainly aimed to the punishment of the countries involved with the Central Powers, which meant the division of Empires thus creating new states, the diminishing of their military power and the lessening of economy and political independence.
The treaty of Brest Litovsk was actually made during the war, towards the end of it between Germany and Russia. This included the “betrayal” of Russia to the Allied Powers since she dropped out the war by creating a peace treaty with Germany giving up many territories to her enemy. I believe, however, that this “betrayal” was necessary for Russia’s own sake, since the country was going through political crisis with their government. Lenin, leading his nationalistic group called Bolshevik, went against the Tsar and the Whites Party. The civil war could have caused the victory of the Allied Powers if Russia hadn’t left the war. The treaty gave Germany the advantage of exploiting the territories they won from Russia and also caused Russia economic problems since these territories were a benefit to Russia’s economy. Therefore the exploitation of the lost territories is a failure. These territories, however, were to be distributed back to the Allied Powers after the treaty of Versailles was to be established.
The Ottoman Empire was involved in two treaties because they were unsatisfied with the first one the eventually rebelled against it. The treaty of Sevres named the removal of the Ottoman Empire from Europe and divided it up leaving all the territories of the empire under the control of the Allies. The Allies were to control the economy of the empire like the tax system and future expansion. Also the empire was forced to pay their “Public Dept” which included British, French and Italian bond holders. In addition to the Allies’ economic control in the Ottoman Empire, was their military control. The empire’s empire was to be limited to 50,000 men; the navy was to have only 6 torpedo boats and the forbiddance of an air force. These economic and military reforms caused Mustafa Kemal to protest and overthrow the Sultan who had signed the treaty. The feeling of nationalism after this treaty caused the outbreak of the Turkish War of Independence which led to negotiations with the Allied Powers. Therefore the whole treaty of Sevres was a failure since it caused another fight. The nationalistic war of independence led to the treaty of Lausanne which officially stated the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey. Even though now the new Republic was independent, the treaty did provide protection of the remaining Greek Orthodox in Turkey and Muslims in Greece. There were both failures and successes in this treaty concerning the military and the economy of Turkey. The economic support had decreased compared to what they had before, but free and open trading with all the countries was established which indicates a success in this treaty. A failure, however, would be the strengthening of the Turkish military due to the Turkish straits, because this shows that the aim of the “peace” treaty was not achieved.
The treaty of Saint Germain-en-Laye dealt with the separation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly with Austria. Austria lost her Empire and became a Republic made up of German-speaking people. Self-determination was denied, thus losing the opportunity to unite with Germany again. The treaty broke up the Habsburg Empire and recognized the independence of states such as: Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), therefore creating a much smaller Austria. The creation of these new small states is a failure due to their weakness of actually being independent. The newly formed stated didn’t have the power to work as well-functioning governments. Some successes of this treaty was the fact that they had weakened the military of Austria since post-wat Europe was supposed to be peaceful with less feeling of threat with each other. The treaty limited Austria’s volunteer army and broke down the Austro-Hungarian navy which was then distributed to the Allied Powers.
The treaty of Trianon also dealt with the separation of Austria-Hungary, but mainly involved Hungary. There were some failures concerning the economy of Hungary and the foreign policies established. The treaty removed the rights of Hungary for self=determination, thus limiting her privileges in trading openly with other countries. New borders were made that cut off Hungary’s trade routes thus quelling all the income from agricultural production and causing unemployment. Moreover, the treaty’s failures also concerned another country. Hungary was restored onto Italy’s responsibility and charges against Italian crimes and offences were annulled which could cause potential nationalistic actions from Hungary. The treaty stating Hungary’s limited military access to the air force, navy and army could be described as a success since Hungary used to be a big threat to Europe due to her power as an Empire.
The treaty of Neuilly involved Bulgaria, a country they did not play a huge role as Germany or Austria-Hungary. The treaty forced Bulgaria to give up territories, like the Western Thrace, which could be described as a failure since giving up this territory caused Bulgaria many economic problems. They were put under Greek control and became deprived of their only access to the Mediterranean Sea thus losing a good trade route. The demobilization of the Bulgarian army to 20,000 men was necessary since the aim of the treaties was to restore a safe Europe without the fear of a breakout of another war. Also, Bulgarians did not lose all army privileges since voluntary enlistment was allowed. However, the formation of any group of forces that concerned military command or war preparation was forbidden which could be considered harsh because the Bulgarians had no control of their own army.
The Paris Peace Treaties overall had more unsuccessful outcomes than successful. The punishment of these countries, the denying of self-determination caused the defeated countries to have economic, military and political problems. I believe that the biggest failure were the financial offences put onto these countries because it stopped them from evolving. Clearly looking at the decisions made by the politicians at that time, makes it easier for a historian, for example, to realize what would be a failure and a success since they’d know that there would be a Second World War that was partly caused due to the harsh decisions made to penalize the defeated countries.
