The Second World War Winston Churchill

Volume I: The Gathering Storm Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929)

Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929) After WW1, there was a deep conviction and almost universal hope of peace (the war to end war) Steps taken to achieve such peace? Wilsons League of Nations British delegations proposals at Versailles As far as outside enemies were concerned, the victorious Allies were all-powerful, despite the fact that they did face internal difficulties and riddles they could not yet solve. Teutonic Powers in Central Europe that made the upheaval were prostate before them. Russia, shattered by German flail was in civil war, falling into Bolshevik/Communist grip. Summer of 1919: victor Powers disputed & debated over the future of Europe in Paris Unlike the days of the treaties of Utrecht and Vienna, when victors & vanquished alike were able to reshape systems in a courtly fashion, total war + huge losses in lives demands for retribution in full. France, by right of her efforts and her losses, held the leading place. Late-19th century France was marked by a disputatious relationship with Germany, with the latter acting as the oppressor. For the people of France, the outcome of WW1 held the promise of peace & safety and the resolve not to be subjected to German oppression again. However, the future was heavy with foreboding o Population of France was less than 2/3 the population of Germany. o The French population was stationary while the German population was growing. within a decade the supply of military-age youth would be twice in Germany than France. France could not also easily expect an Allied response of the same scale in the event of future war with Germany: o Russia was in ruin and convulsion, transformed by the Bolshevik Revolution. o Italy might be on the opposite side. o Britain and the United States were separated by oceans and seas from continental Europe. o British Empire itself was embroiled in internal issues. As a result, the French lacked the guarantee of security and lived in fear about the future. Marshal Foch (Generalissimo of Allied Forces) demanded that the new French frontier be the Rhine. He wanted the Rhine to be a natural barrier that the French could use for their protection. However, the Treaty of Versailles practically left Germany territorially intact, leaving behind the largest homogeneous racial block in Europe.

The Second World War Winston Churchill

Volume I: The Gathering Storm Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929)

Fochs reaction: This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years.

Economic clauses of the Treaty were malignant and silly enough to be futile; Germany was condemned to pay fabulous reparations, which: were an expression of the victors rage failed to take into consideration that no defeated community can ever make payment on a scale meeting the cost of modern war The public ignored basic economic facts and the leaders, seeking their votes, had to comply. Few realized that reparation payments could only be made in goods & services that dislocate local industry except in very primitive or rigorously-controlled societies. The only real way to pillage a defeated nation, thus, is to cart away desired movables and take prisoners of war as slaves. The profit of such processes, however, has no relation to the cost of war. Germany was able to make payments only because of profuse lending from the United States and its greediness in consuming any sources of credit that were made available to it. Misguided British sentiment about aiding a fallen nation and profitable interest rates led Britain to join the lending effort. The second cardinal tragedy: break-up of Austro-Hungarian Empire by Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon. Previously, this surviving embodiment of the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed trade and security advantages while the individual peoples who constituted it could not stand in the face of pressure from a revivified Germany or Russia. This change led to the aggrandizement of the German Reich, which while tired and warscarred, was still locally overpowering. Allies imposed upon Germany the ideals of Western liberalism, establishing a democratic constitution at Weimar. Beneath this flimsy fabric raged the passions of a mighty, defeated but still largely uninjured German nation. Prejudice of Americans against monarchy (which Lloyd George did not counteract) evidenced to the German Empire that it would receive better treatment as a republic than a monarchy. This opened up a void in German national life; the Weimar Republic was regarded as an imposition of the enemy and it couldnt hold the loyalties or the imagination of the Germans. France was tired and worn-out at the time of Allied victory and in fear of Germany, which led to Fochs demands for the Rhine frontier.

The Second World War Winston Churchill

Volume I: The Gathering Storm Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929)

British and Americans held that the absorption of German territory by France was contrary to the Fourteen Points and to the principles of nationalism and self-determination upon which the Treaty was to be established. Clemenceau was won over by: o Anglo-American guarantee for the defense of France (The Treaty of Guarantee) The US Senate later refused to ratify this treaty. o Establishment of a demilitarized zone. o Total, lasting disarmament of Germany. The fear, anger and disarray of the French public disposed of Clemenceau and there was little compensating strength to be found. Poincare attempted to make an independent Rhineland under French control and patronage, but this had little chance of success. o Poincare did not hesitate, however, to try and impose reparations by invading the Ruhr, much to British and American condemnation. The general financial and political disorganization in Germany + the reparation payments of 19191923 caused the rapid collapse of the mark. The rage aroused by French invasion of the Ruhr vast, reckless printing of paper notes with the deliberate intent of destroying the whole basis of currency. The runaway inflation that resulted had deadly and far-reaching socioeconomic consequences: o Savings of the middle class were wiped out. o Strong foundations for the banners of National Socialism were established. o Disappearance of German working capital. o Large-scale borrowings of a bankrupt nation abroad. Meanwhile, British temper towards Germany, once so fierce, now moved in the opposite direction: A rift between Poincare and Lloyd George France & Britain fell apart and British sympathy for Germany found powerful expression. The League of Nations received an almost mortal blow soon after its creation. Wilson suffered a paralytic stroke which caused suffering for two years, at the end of which his party and policy were swept away by the Republican Presidential victory of 1920. Across the Atlantic, due to the Republican success, isolationist conceptions prevailed: The Republicans believed that Europe must be left to stew in its own juice and pay its lawful debts. Tariffs were raised to prevent the entry of the goods by which alone these debts could be discharged. Washington Conference (1921): far-reaching proposals were made by the US for naval disarmament, and the British and Americans proceeded to sink their battleships and break up their military establishments with gusto. o It was argued with odd logic that it would be immoral to disarm the vanquished unless the victors also stripped themselves of their weapons.

The Second World War Winston Churchill

Volume I: The Gathering Storm Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929)

Anglo-American reprobation was directed towards France, deprived alike of a Rhine frontier or the Treaty guarantee, for maintaining, even on a reduced scale, a French Army based on universal service. US made it clear to Britain that continuing her alliance with Japan would constitute a barrier in Anglo-American relations. Accordingly, this alliance was brought to an end. The annulment caused a profound impression in Japan and was seen as the spurning of an Asiatic Power by the Western world. Many links were sundered which might afterwards have proven of decisive value to peace. Japan would console herself with the fact that downfall of Germany and Russia it was the worlds third largest naval power. Although Washington Naval Agreement prescribed a lower ratio of strength in capital ships for Japan than for US and Britain (5:5:3), its quota was well up to its building and financial capacity while the two leading Powers cut their fleets to far below what their resources would have permitted and what their responsibilities enjoined. Meanwhile, a new and more terrible cause of quarrel than the Imperialism of Czars and Kaisers became apparent in Europe: Civil war in Russia ended in absolute victory of the Bolsheviks. The Soviet armies which advanced to subjugate Poland were repulsed in the Battle of Warsaw. Germany and Italy nearly succumbed to Communist propaganda and designs. Hungary fell for a while under the control of Communist dictator Bela Kun. Hitler was making himself useful to the German officer-class by arousing soldiers and workers to fierce hatred of Jews and Communists, on whom he laid the blame for Germanys defeat. Mussolini provided Italy with a new theme of fascist government which, while claiming to save his people from Communism, established him as a dictator. While as Foch observed, Bolshevism had never crossed the frontiers of victory, the foundations for European civilization trembled in the early post-war years. Nevertheless, one solid security for peace remained in German disarmament. Meanwhile, Soviet Russia was bared off from Western Europe by a cordon of violently antiBolshevik States, who had broken away from the former Empire of the Czars in its new and terrible form. Poland and Czechoslovakia raised independent hears, and seemed to stand erect in central Europe. Hungary eventually recovered from her dose of Bela Kun.

The Second World War Winston Churchill

Volume I: The Gathering Storm Chapter I: The Follies of the Victors (1919-1929)

Until 1931, however, the victors and particularly the US, concentrated their efforts upon extorting by means of foreign control their annual reparations from Germany. The fact that these payments were made only from far larger American loans reduced the whole process to absurd; nothing was reaped except ill-will. The strict enforcement at any time till 1934 of the Disarmament Clauses of the Peace Treaty would have guarded peace and safety. But this was neglected while the infringements remained petty and shunned as they assumed serious proportions. Thus, the final safeguard of a long peace was cast away.