The Paris Peace Conference: None of the defeated nations weighed in, and even the smaller Allied powers had little say. Formal peace negotiations opened in Paris on January 18, , the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in World War I had brought up painful memories of that conflict—which ended in German unification and its seizure of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France—and now France intended to make Germany pay.
None of the defeated nations were invited to weigh in, and even the smaller Allied powers had little say. The treaty was lengthy, and ultimately did not satisfy any nation. In addition, it had to drastically reduce its armed forces and accept the demilitarization and Allied occupation of the region around the Rhine River. Most importantly, Article of the treaty placed all blame for inciting the war squarely on Germany, and forced it to pay several billion in reparations to the Allied nations.
Faced with the seemingly impossible task of balancing many competing priorities, the treaty ended up as a lengthy and confusing document that satisfied no one. But his fellow Allied leaders rejected much of his plan as naive and too idealistic. Yet as noted, from to , Germany, with the help of U. Instead of imposing taxes to pay for the war, they decided to fund it by borrowing. The effect of this decision was to begin a steady devaluation of the German mark against foreign currencies. Predictably, this caused inflation, and as more money entered circulation, inflation rates increased.
Moreover, the claim that hyperinflation led directly to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis flies in the face of reality. Only German politicians — both for their own domestic political reasons and as a means to gain international sympathy — chose to interpret Article as unfairly placing blame for the entire war on Germany. And, as noted, even that was further limited to what the Allies calculated Germany could pay. Yet that claim assumes that the league would have been successful at preventing another world war if the United States had been a member.
In fact, due to serious flaws in its concept, organization and procedure for settling international disputes or stopping aggression, the League of Nations could hardly have prevented predatory nations from doing whatever they wanted, whether or not the United States was a part of it.
But since these could be economically detrimental to the nations imposing them, this procedure ran counter to the national interests of many league members, whose response was typically to ignore the sanctions. Increasingly, as the s wore on the league became irrelevant in international affairs.
Those who embrace the long-standing myth that the United States doomed the league to failure never seem to explain how U. Please choose a screen name. This name will appear beside any comments you post. Your screen name should follow the standards set out in our community standards.
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