History 309 – Contemporary Europe – September 14, 2005  

PEACE-MAKING, 1919  

Note:   The task of political leaders is to organize our lives so that we’re safe (at the very least), prosperous (we hope), and democratic (ideally).  Sometimes leaders do a really good job at this; sometimes they don’t.  The Versailles settlement, which ended World War I, is a classic example of political failure.    

I.                    TERMS TO KNOW.  Be sure you can define the following:

From W & H:

1.      Nationalism

2.      Woodrow Wilson

3.      Fourteen Points

4.      Thomas Masaryk.

5.      Serbs & Croats

6.      Rumania & Transylvania

7.      Yugoslavia

8.      Matthias Erzberger

9.      “Stab in the Back” legend

10.  League of Nations

11.  Big Four

12.  Lloyd George

13.  Georges Clemenceau

14.  Vittorio Orlando

15.  Mandate system

16.  Reparations

17.  Treaty of Versailles

18.  “War Guilt” clause

19.  The “minor” treaties

20.  J. M. Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace

21.  Upper Silesia

22.  Russo-Polish War (1920-1921)

23.  Mustapha Kemal (Attatürk)

24.  D’Annunzio

25.  Kapp Putsch

26.  French occupation of the Ruhr (1923)  

From Perry:

1.  Be sure you know the key points in the selections from Wilson, Clemenceau, and “German Delegation” (they’re all in Perry, Chapter 2, section 7).

 

II.                 QUESTIONS.   

1. So: What went wrong at Versailles?  Is it fair to say that the Allies should have know better?  Or were they just unlucky?

2. Or: didn’t the delegates do at least something right?  Think about Versailles once more – can you find anything that proved to be a good idea (at least at the time)?

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Modified by:  H.  Kamerling