by Jack Lee
One of the top 3 greatest moments in world history has to be the conclusion of World War One. As a departure from our politics as usual I wanted to discuss what happened back then because it might explain why we are so intent on nation building now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s hard to describe the raw emotions and the powerful personalities that resolved the end this war and then re-wrote the boundary lines for so many former colonies that became new nations, like Iraq and Kuwait. You may have heard of statesmen like David Lloyd George, Ferdinand Foch and Georges Benjamin Clemenceau to name but a few, all representing the allies. They were led by America’s Woodrow Wilson and were pitted against the Kaiser, Wilhelm II represented by Erich Ludendorff, Paul von Hindenburg and other legendary Generals of the German Army.
There was a point in 1919 that it the treaty was almost not signed and the war would have resumed and that is a book in itself. But, the sticking point was who would pay for the horrendous losses caused by war. The allies had a difficult time assessing reparations, but it was the consensus Germany should pay it.
The British and French suffered the most casualties and monetary losses, the landscape of France was in rubble, while Germany was untouched by war. They both insisted on hundreds of billions in reparations, but this was an impossible figure, Germany simply didn’t have gold to give them.
Japan, Italy were looking for expanding their empire, as well as some of Germany’s gold and then there President Wilson, who was resisting punishing Germany and trying to hold the line on being too harsh and holding Germany solely accountable. Wilson set the example when he declared America would ask Germany for nothing. He had also made it his personal mission to see that a League of Nations should arise from this carnage so that no single powerful nation could ever again wage war on its neighbors.
Following the armistice treaty of 11 November 1918, Germany ceased hostilities and believed that Wilson’s 14 point treaty, that included Germany’s adoption of democratic principles, was something they could live with and use to save face with the folks back home. However, Wilson’s plan was overly optimistic and his treaty was not to be. The allies wanted Germany to pay hundreds of billions in gold and they made a list of 440 points that including seizing Germany’s warships, arms, munitions, her colonies around the world, a border territory that contained rich coal mines and many more heavy demands that left Germany economically broken and morally devastated.
President Wilson agued to the point exhaustion against treating Germany too harshly, but eventually it was Wilson who went against his own principles and gave Germany an ultimatum, either sign the treaty or resume the war. Ironically it was England’s David Lloyd George that came around to Wilson’s earlier views and now warned that if the allies wanted the reparations were too harsh. He said, “if you want to make an enemy of Germany in the future, she will not disappoint”. This change of heart came too late.
Eventually the allies settled for far less than what they wanted, but it was still far more than Germany could afford to pay. However, Germany had no choice but to agree to pay; they were besieged by a military revolt at home and faced the very real possibility of the allies invading Berlin to force their will on Germany. The treaty of Versailles was signed. It was akin to reducing a country like the United States to a military and economic power like Mexico.
In the next few years the treaty was modified twice, each time reducing Germany’s debt. Finally a third modification in 1930 forgave Germany’s debt completely. But, but then the damage was done and this was what David Lloyd George warned about, it was the perfect setup for a demy-god like Adolph Hitler and of course you know what followed when he took over. There were a lot of hard lessons to be learned from the Treaty of Versailles.