Design of a Violent Century

Border Issues and the Paris Peace--Ninety Years Ago

2009-10-02T15:28:00.007-05:00

We will be doing quite a bit more of looking into the border changes upon which the Paris Peace decided. Much German territory was given to neighboring states. In several cases, however, the local people were given a hand in the decision--even though these lands represent a small percentage of all the territorial changes on Germany's borders. Today, I want to get this issue on the board by

Diktat III--Imposing the Treaty on the Republic

2009-09-27T20:43:00.002-05:00

When I left off speaking of the "Diktat," I mentioned that it took the new republic a few historical moments to absorb what was happening. I would like to expand on that point for a few moments. Let us discuss just was going on politically in the new republic that received the treaty conditions in late spring and was being coerced into signing by mid-summer. Back to the

Where did August go?

2009-09-08T16:40:00.002-05:00

OK, here I am, guilty again (but at least not guilty of the war!).Probably any readers have given up on me, but I have--he said boldly--not given up on myself!Actually, there is much good historical material pertaining to August 1919. And more about September. So in the days to come, I intend to finish the consideration of War Guilt, talk about the King-Crane Commission a good bit (and hence

Diktat II

2009-07-28T20:40:00.004-05:00

We continue here a consideration of the "dictated" nature of the Versailles Treaty. Many scholars of the issue today, perhaps most, will bridle at descriptions of the Treaty as dictated. Indeed, since the period of historiographical "revisionism" that began even before the Peace was concluded (see the NY Times article of May 10, 1919 on the conference, for example),

Diktat I

2009-06-28T19:51:00.003-05:00

Today ninety years ago, the Versailles Treaty was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Ninety-five years ago today, a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Prinzip, assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to precipitate the crisis that led a few weeks later to the unthinkable war whose settlement was supposed to be provided by the Paris Peace. That was some five years! A half-decade that was itself

Framework of Events: May/June at the Paris Peace Conference

2009-06-27T15:31:00.005-05:00

OK, so I have bitten off more than I can chew! But that doesn't mean that we can't continue exploring important aspects of the "peace" year and even beyond. To those who are still reading, many thanks for your patience in waiting for the recent posts. In the coming days, we will be dealing with the German territorial issues, especially North Schleswig, and Upper Silesia, as they were embodied

Self-Determination: A Deeper Look

2009-06-17T15:34:00.004-05:00

Self-determination, as we have seen, became a primary theme of the Paris Peace Conference. I would like to examine this conception here in a bit more depth. Even before American entry into the war, Woodrow Wilson had introduced into the public discourse on the territorial aspects of the war the expression "self-determination," not a new phrase in itself, but an old

Here We Go Again

2009-06-17T15:32:00.000-05:00

Apologies to any who might be following my attempt to keep up with the Paris Peace Conference. I am losing ground! But I had to undertake a very specific research trip at this very specific time, and what with the end of the semester, my travel, etc., I have been remiss in keeping up. Well, no use crying over blog entries unwritten. Indeed, my research pertained to

Finals, Flu, and Some Developments on Schleswig

2009-05-21T17:20:00.003-05:00

OK, so I have missed some of my anniversaries. Unfortunately, working with about two dozen term papers and then being overwhelmed with finals, an especially sick group of test-takers (no swine flu that I know of, but several hospitalized with lung infections, etc.), and some severe cases of senioritis has taken its toll.By the way, my college, Austin College, is in Texas, though nowhere close to

Yeats, Violence, and "The Second Coming"

2009-05-05T08:11:00.004-05:00

Yeats was not at Paris, but maybe this would be a good time not only for me to get back on the line, but also to introduce the theme of a broader cultural critique of the age of the "The Peace."As we have seen in the last post (pun accidental, but there it is, at least for all who are familiar with the famous British bugle call), the violence of the war had lessened in its horrifying intensity

Peace.... Isn't It Wonderful!: Violent Europe, Spring 1919

2009-04-23T07:32:00.003-05:00

Let me just list a few events outside Paris in these busy peacemaking days. March 3—Freikorps units continue their pacification of "leftists" and resume "force and awe"-type tactics in Berlin. Twenty-four "radicals" are killed in Berlin in early March with more to come. In Latvia, other "volunteer" fighters under German General von der Goltz began an advance on Riga,

A Word On Upper Silesia

2009-04-15T21:17:00.002-05:00

I want to say something now about German perceptions of what was going on in Paris, especially in connection with the coal-producing territory of Upper Silesia. Remember that no Germans were allowed visas to be in any part of France during the conference, except at the few occasions when the German delegation was invited to come. At the same time, the Germans were not just sitting on their

"No Further Along Than Almost a Month Ago"

2009-04-05T22:09:00.000-05:00

Colonel House looked over his previous diary entries on April 2, 1919, perusing them for preparation to be sealed and put in a safe deposit box. He thought that this piece of his diary of events at Paris would make him seem a "false prophet": "At the beginning of this last reading, I predicted an earlhy peace, even thought we might be ready as early as March 20 to ask the Germans to

An Afrikaner at Paris: Jan Smuts, part one

2009-03-29T17:09:00.002-05:00

Talk about a life trajectory. From a farm in southern Africa to a statue in Parliament Square in London.Jan Christiaan Smuts was born in 1870 to a family of sturdy Calvinist Afrikaner farmers in Cape Colony (in the territory of the modern state of South Africa). Southern Africa was technically under the control of the British, the British having acquired the coastal area of southern Africa as a

Note to Self

2009-03-28T16:49:00.000-05:00

Note, part 1. Next time you think about committing yourself in public to do a year-long blogging project on a near daily basis... stop! Drink some tea! Calm down! Ask hard questions of yourself. Let's think about this for a while... Note, part 2. If I am finding it hard, some days, to get up enthusiasm to deal with the Peace Conference, what must those folks in Paris in 1919 have felt like?

A Primer in Austrian and Habsburg History

2009-03-20T15:43:00.013-05:00

We need to talk about Austria-Hungary. The Dual Monarchy, as Austria-Hungary was sometimes called, was the most recent constitutional shape of the Habsburg Empire, based on what was for the house of Austria the tumultuous changes of 1866/67. Actually, the Habsburg Empire was intimately connected with the history of Central Europe and Europe as a whole for hundreds of years. The Habsburg

How Time Flies!

2009-03-16T17:25:00.003-05:00

Well, it does. I have been away from the blog, traveling to and attending a conference, working on a couple of papers, and just generally taking some time off from the grind of the Paris 1919. But the guys couldn't do that ninety years ago. Well, Wilson seemed to. He jumped on board the USS George Washington (the 1919 version of Air Force One) and steamed to the United States in mid-February.

Who's in Charge Over There?

2009-03-08T22:14:00.005-05:00

Back to Paris to meet Col House the only man the Pres ever listened too,.... Will Rogers As Woodrow Wilson steams back toward Europe, we should think briefly about his intentions as to what should happen in Paris while he was gone, at least his intentions as to leadership in peace matters. Lloyd George had gone home for a short stay about the time that Wilson departed, but he

A Multitude of Problems

2009-03-01T14:52:00.000-06:00

So much was happening at once, in these days ninety years ago. Woodrow Wilson was still in Washington trying to figure out how to get congressional support for his peace plans. Not much luck. At the Conference, the hard work of hearing claims and working out positions within committees goes on. Subjects discussed from Monday, February 24, the day after Wilson landed in the USA: Albanian

Who's in Charge Here?

2009-02-26T20:17:00.003-06:00

Of course there was a lot of dissatisfaction against the Pres going, Mostly by people whom he did not take along,... I was in favor of his going because I thought it would give us a chance to find out who was Vice President, But it Dident,... Will Rogers The Cowboy Philosopher made a good point: who held down the fort at home during those six months when Wilson was away? True, the

Will Rogers on the Peace Conference

2009-02-24T22:51:00.006-06:00

Will Rogers was a enormous American presence by the end of World War I, known both for his vaudeville act and the movies which he had just begun making. His monologue, of course, consisted chiefly of commentary on current events (a commentary usually accompanied by lariat tricks, with his faithful pony on hand). By the end of the war, he had also begun some writing that would turn eventually

Wilson's Return to the United States

2009-02-23T21:15:00.003-06:00

Ninety years ago today, Woodrow Wilson arrived aboard the George Washington at Boston. There are some wonderful photographs of Wilson's four voyages on the GW at: http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-g/id3018-p.htmWow! If anything about the whole picture of 1919 impresses upon us the differentness of that time from our own, I nominate Wilson's whole course of action relating to the

Denmark's Territorial Wish List

2009-02-22T20:46:00.006-06:00

Ninety years ago yesterday, the Conference heard the claims of the Danish government to a piece of Germany—the northern strip of German territory from the North Sea to the Baltic. The area was called either Nordschleswig (North Schleswig) and Sønderjylland (South Jutland), depending on whether one was looking at the region from the German or the Danish perspective. We have to work through some

The Death of Mark Sykes

2009-02-21T12:17:00.003-06:00

British diplomat, Conservative "politician," scholarly Wunderkind, English "traveler," and diplomatic middleman Sir Mark Sykes died in Paris, of the Spanish Influenza, at the Hotel Lotti on the evening of February 16, 1919. He was 39.Sykes's friend, diplomat and diarist Harold Nicolson, wrote: "Mark Sykes died last night at Hotel Lotti. I mind dreadfully. He is a real loss. It was due to

Borders in the Paris Peace, Primer, Part III

2009-02-18T22:41:00.005-06:00

Concerning Alsace-LorraineAn acquaintance of mine asked a good question about the population of Alsace-Lorraine and its ethnic make-up. You may remember that at the end of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, that war that unified Germany, the Germans simply took Alsace-Lorraine (or rather, Alsace and part of Lorraine) and made of it a "Reich Territory," which meant that Alsace-Lorraine was not

David Lloyd George, Part I

2009-02-17T22:36:00.001-06:00

Simply put, David Lloyd George was too big for any single blog post!The only British Prime Minister whose native language was not English, David Lloyd George, the irrepressible Welshman, was a phenomenon. Contemporary cartoonist David Low called him, “the best-hated statesman of his time as well as the best loved.” Low continued: “He must have been poison to the old school tie brigade, coming

What Happened to the Ottoman Empire?

2009-02-15T16:29:00.002-06:00

What about the Ottoman Empire? It was a very important component of the Central Powers. I've touched briefly on some of the Arab politics related to the Turkish Empire, but we should get down the core of things here. Today: how did the war end for the Ottoman regime?First off, a definition. The Ottoman Empire was an empire led by an Islamic and Turkish dynasty and administration which

The League Covenant

2009-02-14T19:46:00.003-06:00

Woodrow Wilson had been in Europe since December 1918. The fact that the American President was both head of state and head of government put him in a special position to begin with. Also, Wilson was in no way certain of political necessities at home. Hence, he intended to take a break from the conference for a few weeks beginning February 15.In the days before this, his struggle for an

The Opening of the Weimar Assembly, February 6, 1919

2009-02-08T20:48:00.007-06:00

On February 6, 1919, as the Council of Ten heard Emir Faisal talk about borders and claims in the still fluid Middle East, far away, in the town of Weimar, Germany, the German national constituent assembly held its first meeting. We have already seen that this newly elected national assembly was the result of both revolution and fear of revolution in its make-up. Actually, the strong showing

Borders in the Paris Peace, Primer, Part II

2009-02-05T16:55:00.005-06:00

Slowly, slowly... wait for it!OK. A bit more, but just a bit, about borders. There are several distinct sets of issues about borders that we have to discuss, so this Primer may need to be a regular item in the blog. The peacemakers ninety years ago were just setting up the committees of experts to deal with each borders, the teams of experts brought by the various powers to the conference

le Tigre

2009-02-03T23:18:00.005-06:00

Chatting ninety years later at the top of this page, The Four continue to fascinate those who still study them. And we will explore aspects of them in due time as the opportunity arises. Just few notes today on Clemenceau. Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was born in 1841 in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, in the Vendée region, famed for its superb salt and for its peasant army fighting

Borders in the Paris Peace, Primer, Part I

2009-01-30T19:27:00.004-06:00

OK, well I accidentally mentioned changes of boundaries and frontiers in the last post. I can't avoid using that as a lead-in to the territorial issues of the Peace. Still, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt (or worse!) by a long disquisition on border changes--not on my blog watch, by golly!! So, I will try to lay out a few ideas about peacemaking and borders without being too prolix.

Lunch With Toynbee: Harold Nicolson at Work on the Peace

2009-01-29T13:42:00.006-06:00

Harold Nicolson, son of a diplomat, born into an upper-class British family in Tehran in 1886, was one of the most interesting and articulate chroniclers of the Paris Peace Conference. Having served as a diplomat himself since 1909, he was part of the British delegation at the conference, and in particular designated as a specialist for issues relating to Southeastern Europe. Nicolson's

German Revolution--German Politics

2009-01-27T21:34:00.005-06:00

Well, the nineteenth of January passed with nary a mention in this blog that the German election took place. This was of course the election for a Constituent (constitution-making) Assembly. From this vantage point, I want to go over some basics. Please remember that there was a German Revolution that began in November, that the moderate Socialists (the SPD) and the smaller party of leftist

The League of Nations

2009-01-26T19:10:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, ninety years ago, a second "plenary" session was held (again, big states and small, but only the victors). This time, there was more than rhetoric, though there was a good deal of that. The Four announced that Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations would be a part of each peace treaty. Further, a number of committees were named to deal with various sets of boundary issues and economic/

Painting the Paris Peace Conference : William Orpen

2009-01-24T15:19:00.008-06:00

Numerous painters chronicled aspects of the Vienna Congress, including the great Sir Thomas Lawrence, who made portraits of many of the principal participants—notably Alexander I (only in the post-Congress Congress of 1818), Castlereagh, and Metternich. On the other hand, the Paris Peace Conference was in some regards more problematic, since the medium of painting was undergoing such upheaval,

Top Ten Events in the Tumultuous History of Germany Between October 1918 and February 1919

2009-01-23T21:03:00.005-06:00

(In the order in which they happened)1. With their armies losing, Hindenburg and Ludendorff gave up their military dictatorship and handed control back to the civilians at the end of September 1918. Germany's civilian leadership decided to install a new cabinet headed by the Prince Max of Baden, a south German liberal, who, it was thought, would be politically able to negotiate a truce. Prince

Meanwhile, Back in Germany...

2009-01-22T21:24:00.002-06:00

What, meanwhile, of the Germans? Don't get me started! Well, maybe I should get started, but I am really just working my way to the blog for Feb. 6, when the German National Constituent Assembly will be meeting (or at least did meet on that day ninety years ago) in the Stadttheater of Weimar. More on that for Feb. 6. But a quick look at the background is necessary. Germany fought a long,

The Council of Ten, and of Four

2009-01-21T22:48:00.009-06:00

The organization of the Conference was really worked out in the days ahead of Saturday, January 18, the first of the "non-official" meetings coming on January 12. In fact, the leading powers made decisions during the week before the opening which very much influenced the course of the peacemaking. Depending on how you count such entities as French North Africa, and on whether you count India

Dinner with Faysal

2009-01-20T22:09:00.006-06:00

On this day ninety years ago, after a Monday of committee work of various kinds, several members of the Wilson's "Inquiry" (consisting of "experts" who were scholars, bankers, or lawyers for the most part) had dinner with Emir Faysal, son of the "King" of Mecca, along with Lieutenant-Colonel T. E. Lawrence. Faysal, of course, had led the "revolt in the desert" with the assistance of T. E.

The Conference Opens

2009-01-18T18:25:00.004-06:00

Today, ninety years ago, the Paris Peace Conference held its first official meeting with a sitting of seventy delegates and other dignitaries in the Salle d'Orloge of the French Foreign Ministry. For some days, unofficial diplomatic meetings had met in various venues in Paris, arranging the overall structure of the conference. In particular, the diplomats had already decided on that

Paris Peace, Versailles Treaty—Some Definitions

2009-01-16T08:00:00.004-06:00

In historical and political writing as well as in journalism, we often hear the terms "Paris Peace" and "Versailles Treaty" used interchangeably. While usage often trumps "correctness" in our daily discourse and elsewhere, there is a good reason for all of us to differentiate between these two terms.The Paris Peace of 1919 is what we call the settlement that consisted of five different treaties

Woodrow Wilson Crosses the Water

2009-01-14T19:57:00.007-06:00

There is much more to say about the origins of the conference, but as the day approaches, it is well worth pointing out that the American President, Woodrow Wilson, was by this time ninety years ago, already in Europe, indeed, had been for a month. Wilson's presidential ship, The George Washington, steamed out of New York Harbor with great fanfare on December 4, 1918, preceded by the battleship

A Little Diplomatic History

2009-01-13T17:06:00.009-06:00

In a sense, the Paris Peace Conference wrote the script for the century—or should I say, at least the century—to follow. Very few diplomatic gatherings in human history have compared to it, either the in the size of the settlement and scope of issues or in the immensity of the conflict which the gathering ostensibly existed to settle. Only a couple of comparable settlements come to mind: the

Blogging the Peace of Paris, 1919

2009-01-12T20:16:00.003-06:00

The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, just ninety years ago. This great diplomatic summit meeting which produced five treaties was supposed to create a settlement that would conclude the Great War. That conflict itself had been advertised in various settings as "the war to end war." Hence, in some quarters—and certainly from the standpoint of public relations—there were high