The Paris Peace Conference: Causes and Consequences of World War I, Guide, Progetti e Ricerche di Storia Delle Relazioni Internazionali

Scarica The Paris Peace Conference: Causes and Consequences of World War I e più Guide, Progetti e Ricerche in PDF di Storia Delle Relazioni Internazionali solo su Docsity! Paris Peace Conference The first world war was caused by political, military, economical and cultural causes. Regarding political causes, there were conflicts between the states, in fact in Europe there were many territories disputed by different states: * France wanted to take Alsace and Lorraine away from Germany * Italy wanted to free Trento and Trieste from the dominion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire * Austria, Russia and Italy wanted to expand into the Balkan area The military causes were characterized by the arms race, in fact Germany had been preparing for years by equipping itself with large armaments. The economic cause was between the industrial powers, where an increasingly tough economic and commercial competition was unleashed as the large industrial groups made enormous profits from the construction of armaments and ships, so for them the war was a source of great gains. Regarding the cultural causes, some people started to have a positive opinion about war because they saw it as the only possibility to change the social and political situation. The peak that led the outbreak of the | World War was an attack by Gravilio Princip. On 28 June 1914, Gravilio Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist and member of the Serbian Black Hand military society, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. So, Austria, supported by Germany, declared war to Serbia on 28 July 1914. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two collocations: the Triple Entente, consisting of France, Russia and Britain; and the reestablished Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The Triple Alliance was only defensive in nature, allowing Italy to stay out of the war until 26 April 1915 when it sign a secret treaty with the powers of the Triple Entente. The treaty stipulated that Italy would undertake to intervene in the conflict alongside them in exchange for the promos of significant territorial acquisitions. Immediately after the outbreak of the conflict, Germany invaded Luxembourg and Belgium with the intention of occupying France. However, the Germans were stopped on the River Marne in a battle that caused 500,000 deaths. The illusion of a short war immediately vanished: trench warfare began. And it was within them that the morale of the troops also dropped as serious illnesses spread, supplies were difficult and there were also severe penalties for those who decided to desert. In June 1916 the Austrian army engaged in what was called the "punitive expedition" or "strafe expedition" as the Italians were traitors to be punished because they had not respected the "Triple Alliance". However, the Italian army repelled the offensive and managed to conquer Gorizia. The prolongation of the war began to weigh, especially on the central empires which could not easily procure raw materials because the British controlled the seas. Then the Germans intensified the submarine warfare against all ships suspected of bringing supplies to the adversaries. The sinking of the US transatlantic Lusitania caused the death of a thousand people including 124 US citizens and this provoked protests especially from the United States which decided to enter the conflict alongside the Entente. 1917 was a decisive year, not only for the entry of the United States but also forthe situation in Russia. In fact, a revolution broke out which overthrew the Tsar's regime. Russia decided to exit the war on March 3, 1918 and the Brest-Litovsk peace established the conditions of surrender: Russia had to cede Poland and the Baltic countries to Germany and also had to recognize the independence of Ukraine. In the spring of 1918, Germany launched a last and desperate offensive, but that time too it was repulsed in the second battle of the Marne. It is at that point that France, England and Italy, with the help of the United States, go on the offensive with the conclusion that Austria and Germany asked for an armistice. Thus ends the First World War. lt was now necessary to reach the definitive peace which was sanctioned with the Paris Peace Conference. The idea of closing the accounts opened by a war by means of an international conference is certainly not an invention of 1919. The most authoritative precedent was the Congress of Vienna, held a century earlier to restore European order following the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The novelty of the Paris Conference lay in the high profile of the protagonists: the involvement in first person, and for the entire duration of the Conference, of the heads of government and foreign ministers of the main winning countries was certainly not taken for granted; in their number and variety. The French Clemenceau was elected president of the conference, while the other major powers were represented by Wilson for the United States, Lloyd George for England, Orlando for Italy. The Peace Conference opened in Paris on January 18, 1919, with the participation of thirty-two countries, excluding the defeated ones. The decision not to admit them except for the final signature of the treaties left deep traces in the collective memory, since it was considered a humiliation towards them. Even in this case, however, it was not a novelty compared to the past: the scandal was born rather from the disappointment of the high expectations generated by the declarations of Wilson himself, who had promised a "peace without losers or winners". On the contrary, the victors themselves had an easy game in imposing a decided and agreed peace between them. Although a large number of delegations took part, most of the most relevant decisions were made by the small number of the five main winners and not by the plenary assembly. The peace conference was organized to outline a new geopolitical situation in Europe and to draw up peace treaties with the central powers defeated by the war. Austria was without an empire and Germany without an emperor. But the problems that the defeated nations faced were not limited to this; both countries found themselves having to fight the revolutionary forces on the left and militarism on the right, revitalize a destroyed economy, keep up the morale of the nation branded with the mark of defeat. The historical context in which the negotiations took place was, however, marred by the many shadows of the past, by the unresolved problems of the borders, by international security and by the quivering nationalisms that could not be contained in a context that should have safeguarded minorities and national identities. The main protagonist of the opening of the Peace Conference was President Wilson with his 14 points. They envisaged total freedom of navigation outside territorial waters, the renunciation of secret diplomacy, general disarmament, the reintroduction of liberalist