FREE ESSAY ON THE GREAT WAR

THE GREAT WAR

The Legacy of the Great War
After reading William R. Keylor's The Legacy of the Great War, I realized the important
events that pertain to the international relations. Until our present day there has not
been so many great leaders come together to address issues such as: politics, economics,
and social settings in Europe. This is the beginning of the problems in European
civilization. 
The Paris Peace conference had a total of twenty-seven countries with their highest
representatives and aides who devise a peace settlement. For two months they had redrawn
the map of Europe with political and economical arrangements. It took another six months
for the leaders who defeated the Central Powers to decide which rules that would govern
the postwar order. The Central Power leaders are also known as the Big Four who was:
President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great
Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of
Italy. After all the peace makers of the treaties was creating the fire for the Second
World War in 1939.
During the Peace Conference there was two themes that was very critical. The first is
that each victorious European ally had betrayed the new diplomacy of President Woodrow
Wilson and therefore deprived the postwar international order of its moral 
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justification. The second theme is the Carthaginian settlement, which the victors
virtually dismantled Germany of all of its power economically and military. 
When the Peacemaking conference began, President Wilson promised Poland a "free and
secure access" to the Baltic Sea. (p.19) The port of Danzinger had an overwhelmingly
German population there with different religious practices. With self-determination
Wilson balanced antithetical considerations. He already promised Poles a free port, and
France also wanted to weaken Germany by giving Poland territory. The outcome of the
German-Polish Frontier is a free international port in the hands of Polish control. 
After the war the French wanted to destroy the German economy. The French wanted control
of the German coalmines. But Wilson would not agree. He was looking out for the Germans
economically. Premier Clemenceau called Wilson pro-German which obviously hurted the
President. (p.29) With this going on President Wilson was self-determine to do his best
for the redrawing of Europe. Most leaders in France believed the way to weaken Germany
without hurting it economically was to move Germans under rule of other nations. Most of
these small states have never set up a stable government for themselves and adding large
amount of Germans to their native lands could be dangerous. This is one way how Wilson
and his delegates were violated. 
One of French main goals in the Peace Conference was security from the Germans in the
future. The only way for this is if the Americans and British take charge, and give the
Germans a punch and never let them get up again. Germany is the strongest country on the
continental Europe. The Germans have the Rhineland, which is a shield 
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against aggression. On April 22, 1919 Wilson and George came up with a French security
formula. The pledge to defend France against any German aggression, and German
disarmament, reduction of the German army to 100,000 men, demilitarization of a zone
fifty kilometers east of the Rhine. (91) The French wanted the Rhine River for an allied
military base at the four main crossings. Wilson would not allow this, because it would
break his national self-determination. 
During the Carthaginian Peace settlement, John Maynard Keynes published a book called
"The Economic Consequences of the Peace." According to Keynes he is a hostile critic of
President Wilson and his Fourteen Points peace treaty. (122) With Keynes facts I believe
he was totally correct. The treaty ignored the economic problems that Germany faced.
Germany is economy was built on coal and iron. After the treaty the coal could not be
mined or delivered to other countries. Also, seventy-five percent of the iron ore came
from Alsace-Lorraine, which the French reclaimed after WWI. With the cutback of coal and
iron Europe was even more unsettled then it was. 
I believe that Germany was responsible to pay for the war damages. Since they started the
war a lot of civilians lost their homes and farms. They were the ones who declared war on
France, and Russia at the beginning. Keynes said that everyone was responsible for war
damages. I disagree with him. Germany received a bad deal with the ban on coal trading
and loss of the Alsace-Lorraine iron ore deposits. However they do deserve to pay for the
war.
Next question at the conference, what to do with the African and Asian colonies that
belong to Germany? Already the Germans were unfit colonial rulers. Wilson 
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proclaimed that this was part of his international trusteeship of self-determination.
During the conference they decided that the colonies should surrender to the remaining
five victorious countries. Germany argued that this idea was not a fair colonial
adjustment. 
When the Ottoman Empire collapsed it turn out to be the longest and most difficult treaty
to finalize. The ottomans lost 32.7 % of its population and a fifth of its land. (177)
Americans had no interest in controlling the Ottomans, but France and England had other
plans. Because of this a lot of new countries popped up when the Middle East wars
developed and treaties were signed. These countries did not want nationalism with
European powers. They did not want to be controlled by Anglos or French. Eventually they
did get land in the Middle East with military trading and arrangements. However, they
could not keep control of the land that they received.
Adolf Hitler's speech on April 28, 1939 did break the Treaty of Versailles. He said, "I
have worked only to restore that which others once broke by force." (53) When he took
over the Rhine River, and continued to add to his army and surplus over 100,000 soldiers
he broke the treaty. The ironic thing was after reading his speech I felt like he had
done nothing wrong. A lot of things he said were very true. The treaty did destroy
political order in Europe economically, and divided nationalities. The Germans could not
acknowledge the Austria community that they had confessed for more then a thousand years.
(53) Since the Treaty of Versailles the German economy was down. This led to migrations
to other countries. In his speech, Hitler just wanted to liberate nearly four million
Germans, and return to their thousand-year-old Reich. For Hitler to united 
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his Germans he had to remove different national and ethnic groups in Germany. Which
clearly broke the treaty. 
I never thought by reading Keylor's The Legacy of the Great War, I would learn the fine
details of the Paris Peace plan. The book goes in great detail that enables me to
understand everyone's opinion. However I did not agree with everybody actions and
thoughts on the treaty. I understood what they were looking for in the outcome. I now
have a different feeling for Adolf Hitler. He was very powerful through his speeches and
controlling a people's mind. I believe he had great ideas but did not know how to execute
them in the proper manner.