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0:54

Hello and welcome to a History of Europe

0:56

GeBattles podcast. My name

0:59

is Cardo Islet and today I'll be

1:01

continuing the story of the First World War.

1:05

This is the 19th and the

1:07

final part on our series

1:10

on World War I. The

1:13

Treaty of Versailles. In

1:24

previous weeks I've talked about the fighting

1:26

in World War I. Late

1:30

in 1918, one by one, the

1:32

Central Powers gave up the fight.

1:36

And finally, on the 11th of October

1:40

1918, a German delegation signed the Armistice

1:42

Agreement to end the Great War. The

1:54

delegates for a peace conference began to

1:56

assemble in Paris at the end of 1918.

2:00

Negotiations were dominated by the British and

2:02

French prime ministers, David Leib

2:04

George and Georges Clemenceau, and the

2:07

American president, Woodrow Wilson.

2:12

The defeated Central Powers were subsequently presented

2:15

with their terms. The French and Americans

2:17

in particular, however, had different priorities.

2:21

Wilson sought to create a new world

2:23

order under the auspices of the League

2:26

of Nations, with the guiding principle

2:28

of self-determination. The

2:30

mere motivation of the French, meanwhile, was

2:32

to make sure that Germany was so weakened

2:35

that it could never threaten her borders again. The

2:42

peace agreed at Paris consisted of a group

2:44

of distinct treaties, but the main

2:46

concern of the delegates was the settlement

2:48

with Germany, embodied in the Treaty

2:50

of Versailles, signed in June 1919. The

2:55

French demanded not only the return of Alsace-Lorraine,

2:58

but also the acquisition of the Coleridge-Sar

3:01

Basin. German

3:03

territories on the left bank of the river, Clemenceau

3:06

argued, should be detached altogether

3:08

from Germany to create an autonomous state

3:11

or group of states under French protection to

3:13

cover the frontier. Yes,

3:17

the British would not accept, arguing that

3:19

such a protectorate would be like Alsace-Lorraine,

3:22

a persistent source of friction. They

3:25

agreed only to the demilitarisation

3:28

of the left bank and of the right bank

3:30

to a depth of 40 miles, with

3:32

an Allied military presence pending

3:34

the full payment of reparations. Ownership

3:39

of the Tsar coalfields was to pass

3:41

to France, for it was to be administered

3:43

by the League of Nations for 15 years,

3:47

when its status would be settled via plebiscite.

3:53

Germany's eastern frontiers presented a far

3:55

greater problem. The counterweight

3:57

on which France had relied before 1914. In 1914

4:01

the Russian Empire had vanished. In

4:03

the East, Kramenso argued, maximum

4:06

territory should be taken from Germany with

4:08

the building of new nations, both to

4:10

hold off encroachments of Bolshevism

4:12

from Russia and also to contain

4:15

German power. The

4:18

implosion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

4:20

and the Western part of the Russian Empire

4:23

created widespread chaos in East-Central

4:25

Europe. Wilson's principle

4:28

of national self-determination was

4:30

good in theory, but difficult to apply in the

4:32

land of such intermixed ethnicities

4:35

where racial enmities had been inflamed

4:37

by war. Any place

4:39

whose population was mixed and whose ownership

4:42

was contested saw violent clashes and

4:44

the suppression of weaker groups. As

4:47

examples, the German inhabited

4:49

north and west of Bohemia briefly

4:52

declared itself a part of the German Austria,

4:55

but was overrun in early November by

4:57

Czech soldiers, and there was tension

4:59

in the Adriatic port of Fiume, also

5:02

known as Rijeka, between native

5:04

Italians and Croatians. One

5:09

of the bloodiest inter-ethnic confrontations, writes

5:12

the historian Alexander Watson, took

5:14

place in the city of L'Ovre, in

5:17

Austrian Grisia, in early

5:19

November. L'Ovre

5:22

had suffered greatly during the war. Russian

5:25

occupation and food shortages had heightened tension

5:27

between its three major ethnic groups,

5:30

Poles, Ukrainians and Jews. The

5:33

Poles, accounted for just over half the population,

5:36

were looking to join the new independent Polish

5:38

state. However, the Ukrainians

5:40

desired the city as the capital of

5:43

a new state of their own. After

5:47

violent clashes between the two sides, leaving

5:50

hundreds dead, Ukrainian troops were forced

5:52

out of the city. Exultant

5:54

Poles then turned on L'Ovre's Jews, who

5:57

had set up their own militia for protection, but had

5:59

remained in the city. remained neutral. In

6:02

a three-day pogrom, shops and houses

6:04

were plundered, women were raped, 73 Jews

6:07

were killed and hundreds were injured. This

6:10

violence between ethnic groups and vicious

6:13

anti-Semitism boded very ill

6:15

for East-Central Europe. Inevitably,

6:21

no easy agreement could be found

6:24

anywhere in East-Central Europe, with

6:26

so many overlapping claims of territory between

6:29

different nationalities. The

6:31

core of the new Poland was the Grand Duchy

6:33

of Warsaw, and Russia was in no position

6:36

to contest its independence, nor

6:38

the Austrians able to retain their Polish lands

6:40

in Grecia. As

6:43

part of the Treaty of Versailles, an

6:45

area of 51,800 square kilometers,

6:49

or some 20,000 square miles, was

6:51

granted to Poland at the expense of Germany. This

6:56

territory included Upper Silesia,

6:58

Poznan and West Prussia, areas

7:01

which had been thickly settled by Germans

7:03

for generations. Poland

7:06

was given its promised access to the sea, which

7:08

could only be provided by giving her the

7:10

Lower Wiesztula Valley, whose population

7:13

was mixed, and the port of Danzig,

7:15

today Gdansk, which was almost

7:18

entirely German. That

7:20

involved dividing the main part of Germany physically

7:23

from East Prussia, which was widely regarded

7:26

as her historic heartland. The

7:29

Germans never concealed their intention or

7:31

reversing it at the earliest opportunity.

7:37

In addition to accepting these losses, Germany

7:40

was required to disarm, to surrender

7:42

her overseas colonies, and to pay

7:44

heavy reparations to her victorious enemies.

7:48

Her army was reduced to 10,000 men, deprived

7:51

of offensive weapons such as tanks, and

7:53

a navy building restricted. Germany

7:56

also lost her colonies, and the powers

7:58

that acquired them did so in the future. as mandates

8:00

on behalf of the League of Nations rather

8:03

than directly. The

8:06

implications of the combined demands on

8:08

Germany were denounced by the economist

8:10

John Maynard Keynes, who

8:13

argued for a much more generous peace, not

8:15

out of a desire for justice or fairness, these

8:18

aspects of peace that Keynes does not deal with, but

8:21

for the sake of the economic well-being of all

8:23

of Europe. Especially

8:26

contentious was the justification given

8:28

for imposing reparations on Germany,

8:31

her alleged responsibility for causing the war in

8:33

the first place, when all fairness

8:36

blame could be shared to some

8:38

extent across all major powers. A

8:41

narrative developed in Germany that

8:43

they had been deprived of victory because they had been

8:45

cheated by the Allies over the Armistice

8:47

terms, and they had been, quote, stabbed

8:50

in the back, unquote, by internal

8:53

enemies. After

8:57

the Armistice was agreed, the German state

9:00

fell apart. The

9:02

army had almost ceased to exist, leaving

9:05

a dangerous power vacuum.

9:07

The political factions of the left fragmented,

9:09

and when the Communists took to the streets during the Spartacist

9:12

uprising of 1919, they were

9:15

counted with devastating brutality, where

9:17

the unofficial foreign corps, made

9:19

up of servicemen bound together by

9:22

their military past, and adherence

9:24

to right-wing politics.

9:28

By the time the German Weimar Republic

9:30

was formally founded in August 1919, it was in

9:33

dire trouble. Racked by

9:35

raging inflation and economic turmoil,

9:38

Germany would spend the 1920s torn apart by competing

9:42

visions of left and right-wing ideologues.

9:46

In the end, the right won with the

9:48

advent of Hitler and a Nazi party.

9:54

At the Treaty of Versailles, Italians were

9:56

hopeful of major territorial gains, as

9:59

agreed with the Allies in the Treaty of London, 1915.

10:03

However, Woodrow Wilson's insistence that

10:05

the readjustment of the frontiers of Italy

10:08

should be affected along clearly recognisable

10:11

lines of nationality were a great source

10:13

of disappointment. The

10:15

Italian Prime Minister, Vittorio Alandor,

10:18

and Foreign Minister, Sidney Sunino,

10:21

were intent on acquiring a large chunk of

10:23

Damacia on the Adriatic coast, even

10:26

though its population was almost entirely Slav.

10:30

When he could not get his way, Alandor walked

10:33

out of the conference and waited in Rome for

10:35

his allies to offer concession and

10:38

to implore him to come back. As

10:41

the other delegate shared the view that Italy had contributed

10:43

little to the conference, accepting discussions

10:45

about its own borders, they were content

10:48

to let him stay there until he decided,

10:50

somewhat sheepishly, to return. Wilson

10:55

had already agreed to let the Italians

10:57

have South Tyrell, a decision he later

10:59

regretted, but he refused to concede

11:01

Damacia, which was granted to the new

11:04

Yugoslavia. Since

11:07

Italy did not receive everything it wanted, its

11:09

people were encouraged to believe that it had done badly

11:12

out of the war, that it had been betrayed

11:14

by its allies, and that the settlement was,

11:16

in the words of the nationalist parrot and journalist

11:19

Gabriella Donuncio, a,

11:21

quote, mutilated piece, unquote.

11:25

In fact, Italy had done quite

11:27

well from the Treaty of Rapallo, 1920, in

11:30

which it was granted Trentino and

11:32

South Tyrell, Trieste, Gorizia,

11:35

Zarda, and several islands in the eastern

11:38

Adriatic. Some Italians

11:40

also resented their exclusion from the

11:42

allocation of the German colonies in Africa.

11:47

And in March 1919, the Italians,

11:50

independently, decided to invade and occupy

11:52

Antarya in southwestern Turkey. Moreover,

11:55

anger at the peace agreement provided

11:58

the circumstances for the rise to power of

12:00

Mussolini and the fascists in Italy.

12:05

to

12:30

learn more and activate the 14-day trial

12:32

period.

13:00

The Habsburg Monarchy The

13:05

Habsburg Monarchy The

13:10

Habsburg Monarchy The

13:15

Habsburg Monarchy

13:20

As for the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian

13:23

half lost Bohemia to the Czechs, who

13:26

joined their Slovak cousins from Hungary in

13:28

a Republic of Czechoslovakia, which

13:31

contained a significant minority of

13:33

Germans. In the south

13:35

they lost the Slovenes, who with their

13:37

Croat cousins from Hungary joined with

13:40

the Serbs in the newly created Kingdom of

13:42

the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later

13:45

to be renamed Yugoslavia. The

13:48

Austrians also lost their Italian lands

13:50

south of the Alps, including Trieste, their

13:53

main port on the Adriatic. Austria

13:57

was reduced to a German-speaking rump.

14:00

The Habsburg was so discredited that not

14:02

even the Austrians wanted anything to do with them.

14:06

They initially tried to join the new German

14:08

Republic to the north, but this was forbidden by

14:10

the Allies. The

14:13

Hungarians, meanwhile, lost not only

14:15

the Slovaks and Krijats, but also

14:17

the province of Transylvania, which

14:20

joined Romania. The

14:24

Turks also lost most of their territory,

14:27

as the new states of Syria, Lebanon,

14:29

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Palestine

14:32

and Transjordan performed under

14:34

British or French control. The

14:37

result was the birth of many of the Middle East

14:39

problems that exist to this very

14:41

day, including

14:44

in Palestine, where during the war promises

14:47

had been made by the Allies for both an Arab

14:49

state and a Zionist Jewish state,

14:52

and also over the arbitrary nature of

14:54

the borders drawn for Iraq, Syria

14:57

and Turkey. In

15:03

addition, as well as the Italian invasion of

15:05

Antalya, the Greeks staked

15:07

their claims in Thrace and regions in

15:09

Anatolia, especially the cosmopolitan

15:12

port of Smyrna, today Izmir,

15:15

where there was a substantial Greek minority.

15:19

Popular unrest among the Turks brought to power

15:21

was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk,

15:24

who at the end of the war had found himself in

15:26

command of the remnants of the Ottoman

15:28

army. From his base in

15:30

Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal

15:32

launched a movement of national resistance against

15:35

the Allies and peace terms they sought

15:37

to dictate. He succeeded

15:40

in driving the Greeks out of Anatolia

15:42

and threatened to do the same to the British forces

15:44

occupying the straits. After

15:51

a war of three years, Ataturk freed

15:53

Turkey from foreign occupation

15:55

and established his own nationalist parliament

15:58

in Ankara, the new Turkish

15:59

capital.

16:01

Finally, in a peace conference in Lausanne

16:03

in 1923, he obtained the

16:06

new frontiers he demanded for Turkey,

16:08

thus deserving intact the Anatolian

16:11

homelands and a foothold in Europe

16:13

which included the city of Adrianopol, today

16:16

Edine. The

16:18

Greek population of Smyrna were

16:21

brutally expelled and disputes between

16:23

Greek and Turkey over possession of

16:25

islands in the Aegean continue until

16:28

today. The

16:34

Armistice of 1918 and Treaty

16:36

of Versailles are remembered in Britain and France

16:39

as the end of war and beginning of peace. However,

16:42

writes the historian Robert Gerwarth

16:44

in his book The Vanquisht, Why

16:46

the First World War Failed to End 1917-23. For

16:51

those living in many places of Eastern,

16:54

Central and South Eastern Europe in 1919, there

16:57

was no peace, only continuous

17:00

violence. Violence,

17:02

though, was ubiquitous as armed forces

17:04

of different sizes and political purposes continued

17:07

to clash across Eastern and Central Europe,

17:10

and new governments came and went amid much

17:12

bloodshed. Between 1917

17:14

and 1920 alone the continent

17:17

experienced no fewer than 27

17:20

violent transfers of political power, many

17:23

of them accompanied by civil war. The

17:26

most extreme was the Russian Civil War

17:28

of 1917-23 which claimed well over

17:32

three million lives. In

17:36

addition to the conflict between national groups

17:38

after the war, Europe's slow and

17:40

uneven march towards democracy was reversed.

17:43

New political movements, notably communism,

17:46

Nazism and fascism, came

17:48

onto the scene, prepared to use violence to implement

17:51

their extreme policies. The

17:56

First World War brought ruin upon the whole

17:58

continent and an end to a of

18:00

European hegemony over the rest

18:02

of the world. The entry of

18:04

the United States in the war and its tipping

18:06

of the balance to the Allies was a watershed

18:09

moment in global history and

18:11

by 1945 it had become a global

18:13

superpower. Meanwhile

18:16

the great empires of Russia, Germany,

18:18

Austria-Hungary and Ottomans

18:20

were destroyed. The Tsar of

18:22

Russia was murdered with his family by

18:25

revolutionaries while the emperors of Germany

18:27

and Austria-Hungary were driven into exile

18:30

along with the regiments of German

18:32

princes.

18:34

The last Ottoman Sultan, where

18:36

the Sikhs departed to spend his last days

18:38

on the Italian Riviera. The

18:43

collective trauma of those affected by the

18:45

First World War produced varying reactions.

18:49

Some blaming nationalism for the horrors brought

18:51

to mankind through their support behind

18:53

the League of Nations hoping for a world

18:55

of increased international cooperation. On

18:58

the other there were many whose views became hardened

19:00

by the conflict who came to the belief

19:03

that only military strength could provide

19:05

them with protection. Certainly

19:10

the peace, prosperity and stability

19:13

of the Victorian age and the optimism

19:15

of France's turn of the century and Apoc

19:18

were things of the past. People

19:21

mourned for many years after the war the

19:23

colossal tragic loss of life

19:26

and commemorated the

19:28

so-called lost generation. The

19:33

carefully tended war memorials, the

19:36

continuing acts of remembrance, the

19:38

growing interest in visiting the battlefields,

19:41

all these demonstrate the way the First World War

19:44

still resonates deeply with

19:46

us even today.

19:54

My name is Karl

19:56

Reilert and you've been listening to History

19:58

of Europe. Day

20:05

listeners, after more than 250 episodes

20:08

and nearly 10 years, we have reached the end

20:10

of my project to relate the grand sweep

20:13

of European history in the Ancient Greeks

20:16

to World War I. It has

20:18

taken a lot longer than expected, as

20:21

I kept on finding fascinating new

20:23

topics I wanted to tell you about. I

20:26

have really enjoyed the research and

20:29

the storytelling and hope you enjoyed listening.

20:32

Thank you so much

20:34

for your words of encouragement over the years.

20:36

It has meant a lot to get your feedback, your

20:39

ideas, your praise and the corrections

20:42

when I have got something wrong. I

20:45

very much hope to continue with the

20:47

podcast in some way in the future, but

20:49

I can't say when at the moment. There

20:52

are other features of European history I would

20:54

love to tell you about, but not for now. I

20:57

need to take a break. Thank

21:00

you so much for joining me in this

21:02

great journey. I wish you all the best and

21:04

always feel free to get in touch by

21:07

writing to karl.net

21:13

or look out for my Facebook page.

21:16

Best wishes and goodbye.

21:41

Have you ever Googled your own name? Prepare

21:43

for a shock because your personal info, including

21:45

addresses and phone numbers, is all out

21:48

there. It's all harvested by data brokers

21:50

and sold legally. Aura

21:52

is a personal digital security service that scans

21:55

the internet for your sensitive information and

21:57

provides a full suite of privacy enhancing tools.

22:00

limited time, Aura is offering listeners a 14-day

22:02

free trial at Aura.com.safety.

22:05

That's A-U-R-A.com.safety

22:08

to learn more and activate the 14-day

22:10

trial period.