Context to the Paris Peace Treaties

WW1 is, of course, the overriding context to the Paris Peace Treaties. That much is surely obvious. But there is still need for some thought in order to properly set the treaties in context.

Was Germany and Austria-Hungary (and Turkey to an even lesser extent) to blame for WW1? And if they weren’t to blame, to what extent were they responsible? To answer this, you need to know something about Germany’s foreign policy: the policy known as Weltpolitik or world policy. And you need to know something about the character of Kaiser Wilhelm II too. As for Austria-Hungary, you need to know something about the events in the Balkans and Austria-Hungary’s involvement in them. And was Hungary as much to blame as Austria in that dual monarchy? For they were dealt with separately at the Paris Peace conferences and Hungary was dealt with as harshly as Austria. Finally, to gain a proper sense of perspective, you need to balance Germany and Austria-Hungary’s responsibility with those of the other Great Powers, Russia, France and Britain, as well as those of Turkey, Serbia and other Balkan states.

What is more, you also need to look at these questions over a longer time-frame, from the 1870s to 1914 as well as for the short period following the assassination in June, 1914 of the Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, the period known as the July Crisis.

But there is another dimension to WW1 that needs to be considered if a proper understanding of the context to the Peace Treaties is to be achieved. That is the nature of the war and the cost born by individuals and by states. It was a long war, a costly war, a bloody war, atrocities were committed, and hate filled the air more than mustard gas. And you need to consider that the main authors of the peace treaties – France, Britain and America – were all democracies and so had to consider the feelings of the men who had fought for more than four years, and the families who had lost loved one’s or seen them return home crippled.

If you don’t have any understanding of these issues, you cannot possibly be in a position to answer whether you think the treaties were justified or not, fair or not. So, get yourself informed!