Results of the First World War

 The First World War was a bitter war which was fought on land, sea and air.
 It was the first major war in the world to use advanced technology.
 As a result, millions of people were killed and injured.
 Its effects were so far reaching that it changed the course of history not only in
Europe but the whole globe politically, economically and socially.

Political Results

Peace treaties

 After the war the four defeated Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Bulgaria and Turkey) were forced to sign peace treaties with the Allies.
 Treaty of Versailles with Germany on 28 June 1919.
 Treaty of St Germain with Austria in September 1919
 Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria in November 1919
 Treaty of Trianon with Hungary in June 1920
 Treaty of Sevres with Turkey August 1920
 Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey in July 1923.

Collapse of Empires and Imperial dynasties

 Four empires, which are the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire, the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, the Russian Empire and the German Empire, collapsed.
 In Russia, the last Tsar, Nicholas II, was overthrown in the 1917 revolution.
 The German Kaiser, William II, fled and went to live in exile in Holland. His
government was replaced by the Weimar Republic which will be discussed in
more detail later.
 The empire of Austria-Hungary disintegrated as many races gained
independence from Habsburg rule.
 The Turkish Empire also broke up as various nationalities became independent.

Creation of new states

 The collapse of the empires in Europe led to the creation of new states.
  The formation of these new states was driven by the desire for self-rule by
various minorities.
 The new states of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Lithuania and
Estonia were created.

Balance of Power

 Up to the First World War, Europe had dominated world affairs especially Britain
and Germany.
 Both countries were weakened by many years of fighting.
 The USA made great advances because no fighting had taken place in its
territory and, had experienced little property damage and loss of life. USA rose to
become the most powerful nation in the world.
 Meanwhile, the new states created in Europe became weak and fragile and
vulnerable to stronger nations.

Rise of dictatorships

 The end of the First World War saw the rise and spread of the democratic system
of government in Europe.
 Countries such as Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia adopted
democratic rule.
 Faced with problems, democracy proved a weak form of government and many
countries turned to dictatorships.
 In Italy, Benito Mussolini established a Fascist dictatorship while Hitler and the
Nazis created another dictatorship in Germany.
 Communism achieved power in Russia under Lenin.

League of Nations

 The First World War was a major catastrophe that forced the world countries to
create a world organisation to avoid a repeat of such a scenario.
 The League of Nations was formed to maintain world peace and security.
 This was the first attempt at forming a world government to increase cooperation
between global nations.
Economic Results

Material damage

 The European countries involved in the war suffered a lot of destruction

especially those on whose soil the war was fought such as France.
 Factories, railways and bridges, and cities were destroyed and, coal mines were
flooded.

Decline of European economic power

 The First World War marked the end of Europe as a world economic power
house.
 During the war, the industrial nations of Europe such as Britain, France and
Germany concentrated on the production of war materials.
 Meanwhile, other countries like Japan and USA, not actively involved in the war,
supplied Europe with much needed goods. This helped those countries to
penetrate former European markets in Africa and Asia.

War debts

 Many European countries emerged from the war with huge war debts.
 European governments had borrowed heavily to finance the war.
 Most of the loans had come from the USA.
 Countries turned to taxing their people heavily to raise the money to pay the
debts. For example, the British got a quarter of its money from direct taxation.

Inflation

 The end of the First World War resulted in the rise of inflation.
 Money was needed to pay back the huge debts and the governments turned to
printing large sums of money.
 This led to high inflation in countries like Russia and Germany.
 Germany made history by having the highest level of inflation ever recorded.
Unemployment and Strikes

 After the war many countries that were involved in war faced many problems
concerned with trade.
 They ran short of raw materials and markets as competition for trade increased
with countries like Japan, India and USA.
 Food shortages became common.
 Unemployment rose in Britain, France, Italy and Germany. The situation was
made worse by soldiers who came back from the war but could not find jobs.
 High levels of unemployment led to industrial unrest.
 Those in employment received low wages resulting in strikes and lockouts.

Social Results

Loss of Human life

 About 10 million soldiers died from shootings, bombings, diseases and hunger.
 Another 30 million were wounded.
 Yet many of the survivors who returned home life was never to be the same
again whether their wounds were physical or emotional.
 The war displaced many people who became homeless and refugees.
 The death of many soldiers left many widows and orphans in most countries.

Class barriers

 The war helped to remove some of the class barriers that had existed before as a
result of common experiences in the trenches or war front.
 Bullets had killed indiscriminately irrespective of race, colour or creed.
 These experiences changed the attitudes of people from different classes.

Breakdown of Family life

 The unity of the family was broken as men spent four years away from their
families fighting the war.
  Women were also separated from their children as many left their homes to work
in industries and factories as labour was highly demanded by the war.
 After the war those who came back sometimes found it difficult to integrate into
society. Many had become used to a violent life and failed to adjust.

Health and Diseases

 The war led to food shortages and malnutrition.

 There was widespread outbreak of diseases such as influenza, cholera and
tuberculosis.
 However, at the same time there was great improvement in health as new drugs
were discovered.

Freedom for women

 Before the war women were discriminated against in all spheres of life. Their
place was considered to be in the home and when employed they could not
occupy leadership positions. They were also denied the right to vote.
 The war changed this as many women were employed to do jobs previously
reserved for men in industries and factories as bus drivers, farm labourers, ship
builders and ammunition producers.
 This greatly changed the belief that women were weaker than men. Men began
to give more respect to women and on their part women became more confident
and demanded better treatment.
 Women were given the right to vote in some countries like Russia in 1917 and
Britain in 1918.
 However, this was not the case in countries like France, Italy and Japan where
women only got the vote after the Second World War.

Communication

 Communication and transport were made easier by new developments such as

cars, lorries, buses and aeroplanes, radio and TV.
 In 1922, the BBC, the first public broadcasting system went on air.
Paris Peace Conference
 The Paris Peace Conference began on 18 January 1919.
 It was held to make a settlement with Germany and its allies after their defeat in
the First World War.
 The conference was attended by 32 countries but it was dominated by five major
powers of Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the USA.
 However, Japan only sent a former prime minister and played a small part at the
conference.
 The major decisions were made by the Big Four leaders. These were French
Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, British Prime Minister David Loyd George,
US President Woodrow Wilson and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele
Orlando.
 The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the signing of six treaties as mentioned
earlier.

The Big Three

 During the discussions of the Treaty of Versailles, Orlando temporarily pulled out
of the conference because Italian demands were not met.
 Orlando had demanded that the Allies fulfil their promises of granting land to
Italy made at the Treaty of London in 1915.
 Orlando met strong opposition from Wilson and failed to get support from Lloyd
George and Clemenceau.
 He was disappointed and left the conference and only returned a month later.
 This left Georges Clemenceau, Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson as the main
decision makers. They came to be known as the Big Three.
 Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George and Georges all wanted to prevent future wars
but they held different views about how this should be done.

Georges Clemenceau (France)

 Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France

 Georges Benjamin Clemenceau served as Prime Minister of France between

1917 and 1920.
 He was nicknamed The Tiger and Father Victory for his determination as a
wartime leader.
 When Clemenceau became Prime Minister in 1917, he also took over as
Minister of War.
 During the war, Clemenceau renewed the morale of the French people,
persuaded the Allies to form a united command, and pushed the war strongly
until the final victory.
 After the war, Clemenceau led the French delegation at the Paris Peace
Conference.
 He was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris
Peace Conference.
 Clemenceau was the main antagonist of Woodrow Wilson whose ideas he
viewed as too idealistic.
  Georges Clemenceau had always been deeply affected by the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870-71 in which France lost Alsace and Lorraine to Germany.
 He also witnessed a second German invasion of French soil in the First World
War.
 This time on the side of the victors, Clemenceau was determined to do what he
could to keep Germany down as a way of revenge and protecting France from
future attack.
 He wanted Germany to pay war damages since France had suffered the greatest
economic losses of all countries involved in the First World War.
 He insisted on reparations from Germany to allow France to begin rebuilding its
economy.
 Georges Clemenceau also wanted to weaken Germany so that it would never
invade France again.
 He insisted on disarmament and was never satisfied with the Versailles Treaty.
 He also fought for a fifteen-year buffer zone between France and Germany
through Allied occupation of the Rhineland.

Quote: Clemenceau debating with Lloyd George and

Wilson on 27 March 1919.

America is far away, protected by the ocean. Not even Napoleon himself could touch England. You are
both sheltered, we are not.

Woodrow Wilson (USA)

 President Woodrow Wilson (USA)

 Woodrow Wilson was re-elected as President of the United States of America

(USA) in 1916.
 He based his election campaign on the slogan that the USA had kept out of the
First World War.
 However, the USA entered the First World War in 1917 on the side of the Allies
when Germany carried submarine warfare to sink US ships and proposed a
military alliance with Mexico to fight the USA.
 In 1918 Wilson took personal control of negotiations with Germany including the
armistice.
 In January 1918, Wilson issued his Fourteen Points which gave his views of the
post-war world that would avoid another terrible conflict. The Fourteen Points
were as follows:
1. an end to secret diplomacy
2. freedom of the seas at all times
3. equality of trade conditions among all nations
4. reduction of armaments
5. an end to exploitation of colonies
 6. return of Russian territory and equal treatment of Russian people by other
nations
7. restoration of Belgian independence
8. return of Alsace and Lorraine to France
9. re-adjustment of the boundaries of Italy
10. independent development for the people of Austria-Hungary
11. restoration of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro
12. granting independence to nationalities under the Ottoman empire
13. creation of an independent state of Poland
14. creation of a general association of nations to protect the political independence
and territorial integrity of both great and small states
 Wilson’s main aim was a long-term solution to end warfare by forming the
League of Nations where countries could discuss their problems without going to
war.
 Wilson also wanted to make the world safe by promoting self-determination of all
nations.
 He paid special attention to creating new nations from old empires that had
collapsed during the war.
 Wilson also wanted to end war by opposing harsh terms and reparations
imposed on Germany.
 Wilson wanted the USA to join the world in fighting for democracy.

Quote: Speech by Woodrow Wilson before the US Congress on 8 January 1918

introducing his Fourteen Points

We entered this war because violation of right had occurred which touched to the quick and made life of
our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secure once for all against their
recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be
made fit and safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine
its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against
force and selfish aggression.
David Lloyd George (Britain)

David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of Britain

 David Lloyd George took over as British Prime Minister in late 1916.
 He managed the British war effort for the rest of the conflict.
 He went to the Paris Peace Conference with a clear support of the British people
after winning the December 1918 general elections with a wide margin.
 However, during his election campaign, Lloyd George had publicly declared his
support for harsh terms against Germany including payments for war damages
experienced by the British. He was aware that the British public wanted the
Germans to pay heavily for their losses during the war.
 However, Lloyd George was much more moderate when he attended the Paris
Peace Conference.
 He wanted justice but did not want revenge.
 He said that the peace must not be harsh because that would just cause another
war in a few years’ time.
 Thus Lloyd George was opposed to the demands of Clemenceau and Orlando
for massive reparations on Germany.
 He tried to provide a compromise between Wilson and Clemenceau.

Quote: Lloyd George’s reply about what he had done at

the Peace Conference

Not badly considering I was seated between Jesus Christ [Wilson] and Napoleon [Clemenceau]
  Lloyd George was also a realist who was determined to protect and expand the
interests of the British Empire.
 He also wanted to maintain British control of the seas and increase British trade.
 He knew that Germany was Britain’s best trading partner before the war and
thought that British prosperity could return if the German economy is not
destroyed.
 Lloyd George was more concerned about Communism in Russia and feared that
it could spread into Germany if the country’s economy was destroyed.

Quote: Lloyd George’s views about treatment of

Germany and future peace

We propose to demand the whole cost of the war from Germany. We want a peace which will be just, but
not vindictive. Above all, we want to protect the future against a repetition of the horrors of this war.

Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919)

 The Treaty of Versailles was signed exactly five years after the assassination of
Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
 The treaty was signed after six months of debate amongst the Big Three.
 Serious disagreements arose between Wilson and Clemenceau over how
Germany should be treated.
 A compromise was reached when Lloyd George persuaded Clemenceau to
accept the idea of the League of Nations and, Wilson to accept that Germany
should pay reparations.
 The small German delegation in Paris was not allowed to take part in the
negotiations.
 On 7 May 1919, they were at last given the treaty to sign. They rejected the
treaty and returned home.
  However, Germany had no choice but to accept whatever had been agreed by
the Big Three.
 Finally, two Germans were found who were prepared to sign the Treaty. On 28
June 1919, the Allied Powers met at the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of
Versailles, near Paris, and the two Germans were called into the room and
instructed to sign.
 The Treaty of Versailles imposed the following territorial and non-territorial terms
on Germany in the hope that this would prevent further war in the future.

Territorial terms

 Alsace and Lorraine were returned to France

 Saar coal mines were given to France but the Saar was brought under the
League of Nations for 15 years after which a plebiscite would be held to decide
its future.
 A demilitarized zone was created in the Rhineland.
 Germany lost Eupen, Malmedy and Moresnet to Belgium
 Northern Schleswig went to Denmark.
 Danzig and Posen became part of Poland.
 A Polish corridor was created to give Poland access to the sea by taking away
Pomerania from Germany.
 Upper Silesia which was rich in iron and coal was also given to Poland and its
future was to be decided in a plebiscite.
 The German City of Danzig was placed under the control of the League of
Nations.
 Sudetenland was given to Czechoslovakia.
 Memel was handed over to Lithuania.
 The Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania which Germany had gained by
the Treaty of Brest Litovsk were granted independence.
 The union between Germany and Austria (the Anschluss) was forbidden.
 The Kiel Canal was opened to the shipping of all nations
  Germany lost all its overseas colonies and they were made mandates of the
League of Nations under the control of the Allied Powers.
 Togoland and Cameroon- France and Britain.
 German East Africa (now Tanzania)-Britain
 Rwanda and Burundi-Belgium
 German South West Africa (now Namibia)-South Africa.
 New Guinea-Australia
 Samoan islands-New Zealand
 German islands in the Pacific-Australia, Japan and New Zealand.

Non-territorial terms
Disarmament Clauses
 Article 160 of the Versailles Treaty imposed heavy restrictions on the German
armed forces.
 The provisions were meant to weaken the German army so that it could not
make offensive action in the future.
 The provisions also aimed at encouraging disarmament by other countries in
future.
 The German army was reduced to 100,000 men, and military conscription was
abolished.
 All private soldiers and non-commissioned officers were to serve in the army for
12 years to prevent the build-up of an experienced force.
 The General Staff was disbanded.
 The police force was reduced to its pre-war size and paramilitary forces were
forbidden.
 The Rhineland was demilitarized.
 All fortifications in the Rhineland and 50 kilometres east of the river were to be
destroyed and new construction was forbidden.
 The Rhineland was to be occupied by the Allied Powers for the next 15 years.
 The naval base on the island of Heligoland was destroyed.
 Germany was prohibited from the arms trade.
  Germany was prohibited from the manufacture or stockpile of chemical weapons,
armoured cars, tanks, military aircraft, and submarines.
 The German Navy was reduced to six battleships, six light cruisers, twelve
destroyers and 12 torpedo boats.
 The manpower of the navy was not to exceed 15,000 men.
War-guilty clause
 Under Article 231, Germany and its allies were forced to admit responsibility for
causing the war and all the loss and damage.
 Article 231 came to be known as the War-guilty clause.
 The Germans were, therefore, accused of being war criminals that had violated
Belgian neutrality, destroyed occupied territories, bombed civilians and sank
merchant ships

Article 231
The Allied and Associated governments affirm, and Germany and its allies accept responsibility
for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated governments and their
nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression
of Germany and its Allies.

Reparations
 Because of the war-guilty clause, Germany was forced to pay reparations for the
damage caused mainly to Belgium and France.
 A Reparations Commission was appointed to determine the total amount to be
paid by the Germans.
 In April 1921, the Reparations Commission came up with an immensely high
figure of $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK
£284 billion in 2019.
 Payment was to be made on a yearly basis and was to be spread over 30 years.
 A payment formula based on damages incurred on each of the victorious powers
was worked out as follows. France was to receive 52%, Britain 22%, Italy 10%,
Belgium 8%, and other Allies 8%.
  The Reparations Commission also recommended that part of the reparations
should be paid in the form of ships to be built mainly for Britain in the next five
years.
 France was to be paid in the form of minerals like coal and Belgium was to be
paid with cattle.
 The Allied Powers also seized all German foreign assets.
The Significance of the Treaty of Versailles
Germany lost 13.5% of its land and 7 million of its citizens. It also lost 74.5% of its iron
ore, 68.15 of its zinc, 26% of its coal deposits, and 14% of its arable land. Britain and
USA felt that the terms were too harsh but France did not back down on any of the
terms. In Germany, the treaty was not well-received as shown below in a German
newspaper.

Quote (From Deutsche Zeitung, 28 June 1919

Vengeance! German nation! Today in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles a disgraceful treaty is being signed.
Never forget it! On that spot…today German honour is dragged to the grave. Never forget it! The German
people, with unceasing labour, will push forward to reconquer that place among the nations of the world to
which they are entitled. There will be vengeance for the shame of 1919.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles left Germany in political, economic and social
problems. This prepared the way for the rise to power of the Nazi Party led by Adolf
Hitler. The Nazi Party got popular when it promised to reverse the terms of the
Versailles Treaty especially it military and territorial conditions.

Treaty of Saint-Germain (10 September 1919)

 The Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed between the Allied Powers and Austria.
 The Austro-Hungarian Empire had allied with Germany during the First World
War.
 However, by September 1919, the empire had collapsed and divided into
separate countries of Austria and Hungary.
 The Allied Powers signed separate treaties with the two countries.
  When the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Renner and his delegation arrived at Saint-
Germain in May 1919, they were excluded from the negotiations led by French
Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.
 Renner was forced to sign the treaty on 10 September.

Territorial losses

 The Treaty of Saint-Germain formally dissolved the Austro-Hungarian Empire

although this had actually happened before the treaty was signed.
 It recognised the independence of Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia.
 Austria lost the Sudetenland to the new state of Czechoslovakia with its three
million German-speaking populations.
 Austria also lost Bohemia and Moravia to Czechoslovakia.
 Austria also lost Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia to the new state of
Yugoslavia.
 Land was taken from Austria and given to Italy which had joined the Allied
Powers in 1915. These were Trentino, South Tyrol, Trieste, Istria and the
Dalmatian islands.
 Bukovina was given to Romania, and Galatia went to Poland.
 The only land Austria received was Burgenland which was removed from
Hungary and brought under its control.
 Union between Austria and Germany (the Anschluss) was forbidden.
 The Allied Powers refused to allow Austria to use its first choice name of German
Austria. They insisted that the new republic should simply be called Austria to
remove any links with Germany.

Disarmament clause

 Conscription was abolished.

 The Austrian army was reduced to a small force of only 30,000 volunteers.
 The Austrian navy was reduced to three small boats stationed on the Danube.
 The Austrian airforce was also reduced.
War-guilty clause

 Under the War-guilty clause, Austria and its allies were forced to admit
responsibility for causing the war and all the loss and damage.
 Just like Germany, Austrians were, therefore, accused of being war criminals that
had destroyed much property and caused the death and injury of many people.

War-guilty Clause
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Austria accepts the responsibility of Austria and her
Allies for causing the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their
nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of
Austria-Hungary and her Allies.

Reparations

 The War-guilty clause meant that Austria, like Germany, was forced to pay war
damages or reparations.
 The total amount of reparations was not set at Saint-Germain.
 Austria had to begin payments in May 1921 and the payments were to go on for
30 years.
 In fact, no monetary payments were ever made despite the treaty.
 However, specific payments in animals were clearly set out and Austria was
expected to start immediate payment with regards to farm animals.
 Austria was forced to pay large quantities of livestock in form of cattle and sheep
as well as horses to Italy, Yugoslavia and Romania.

Significance of the Treaty of Saint-Germain

 Just like in Germany, there was great anger in Austria over the provisions of the
Treaty of Saint-Germain.
 At the start of the First World War, Austria-Hungary was a vast empire of 116,000
square miles with a total population of about 30 million people.
 After the Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed, Austria was reduced to a
landlocked country of just 32,400 square miles and a small population of 6 million
people.
  The vast loss of population, territory and resources caused serious economic
problems in Austria.
 Political instability also arose in Austria because the state had only been kept
together by loyalty to the Habsburg Monarchy.

Treaty of Neuilly (27 November 1919)

 The Treaty of Neuilly was signed between the Allied Powers and Bulgaria.
 Bulgaria had been one of the allies of Germany and Austria-Hungary during the
First World War.
 The Allied Powers were not kind with Bulgaria as they took away its land,
reduced it army and forced it to pay reparations.
 Bulgaria lost Western Thrace to Greece denying it access to the Aegean Sea.
 Bulgaria had to recognise the new state of Yugoslavia.
 Bulgaria lost land on its western border called the Western Outlands to
Yugoslavia.
 Dobruja was returned to Romania.
 Macedonia was lost to Serbia and Greece.
 The Bulgarian army was reduced to only 20,000 men.
 Bulgaria was forced to pay reparations of £100 million.

Significance

 The Treaty of Neuilly was unpopular with the people of Bulgaria.

 However, they were not in a position to do anything about the terms in 1919.
 When the Second World War broke out, Bulgaria joined Nazi Germany and
regained all the land taken from it by the Treaty of Neuilly.

Treaty of Trianon (4 June 1920)

 The Treaty of Trianon was signed between Hungary and the Allied Powers at the
Trianon Place in Versailles, France.
  The Treaty was dictated by the Allied Powers and the people of Hungary had no
choice but to accept it.
 The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under pressure on 4 June 1920.
 The provisions of the treaty regulated the status of an independent Hungary and
defined its borders.
 It left Hungary as a landlocked country with losses of 72% of its original territory
and 64% of the original population.
 About 31% of Hungarians were lost to foreign countries.
 Five of Hungary’s ten largest cities were given to other countries.

Terms

 Hungary was forced to separate with Austria.

 Romania received most of the Banat and all of Transylvania as well as part of
western Hungary.
 Yugoslavia got Croatia, Slovakia, and part of Banat.
 Czechoslovakia received Slovakia, Ruthenia, the region of Pressburg, and other
minor sites.
 The area of western Hungary called Burgenland was given to Austria.
 Italy received Fiume.
 Hungary’s army was reduced to 35,000 men.
 The army was lightly armed and used to maintain internal order and to secure the
borders.
 The Hungarian navy was disbanded.
 Hungary was forced to pay reparations but the amount was to be decided after
the treaty.
 The Covenant of the League of Nations was included in the treaty just like in all
the treaties.

Significance of the Treaty

 The Treaty of Trianon created great bitterness in Hungary.

  Many Hungarians regarded the treaty as an insult to national honour as the
nation lost three-quarters of its former territory.
 They also lost 3.3 million of their population in violation of Wilson’s principle of
self-determination.
 The people demanded a return of everything and the humiliation became a
dominant subject in the inter-war period.
 The Treaty of Trianon brought many economic problems to Hungary.
 New borders divided transport links and reduced the demands of goods due to
economic barriers.
 Industries closed down, unemployment rose and industrial production fell by
65%.
 Production in agriculture also fell by more than 70%.

Treaty of Sevres (10 August 1920)

The Treaty of Sevres was signed at Sevres in France between the Allied Powers and
the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). The Treaty effectively destroyed the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey lost a lot of territory in Asia and Europe.

Terms

 Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine including Trans-Jordan became British

mandates.
 Syria and Lebanon became a French mandate.
 Greece received Smyrna.
 Italian control of the Dodecanese Islands was confirmed.
 The Straits of the Bosphorous and Dardanelles were opened to shipping of all
nations in times of war and peace.
 The Kingdom of the Hejaz was granted international recognition.
 Turkey retained Anatolia but was to grant autonomy to Kurdistan.
 Armenia became a separate republic under international guarantees.
 Turkey ceded parts of Eastern Thrace and certain Aegean islands to Greece.
  Turkey remained in control of Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
 The Ottoman army was limited to 50,700 men.
 The Ottoman Navy could only preserve six torpedo boats.
 The Ottoman state was not allowed to have an airforce.
 An Inter-Allied Commission was set up to control and supervise the military
clauses.
 The Allies took control of Turkey’s finances by supervising the nation’s budget
and controlling the Ottoman Bank.
 The treaty granted freedom of movement to people, goods and vessels passing
through Turkey.
 Goods in transit were to be free of all customs duties.
 New financial laws had to be approved by the Allied Powers.

Significance of the treaty

 The Treaty of Sevres stirred hostility and nationalist feelings amongst the Turks.
 The nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk rejected the treaty and fought
against the government that had accepted the treaty.
 Kemal’s victory in the war forced the Allied Powers to negotiate a new treaty in
1923.

Treaty of Lausanne (24 July 1923)

 The Treaty of Lausanne was signed on 24 July 1923. The Treaty of Sevres had
effectively destroyed Turkey.
 After the nationalist victory over the Greeks and the overthrow of the Sultan’s
government, Mustafa Kemal was in a position to request a new treaty.
 As a result, a meeting was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, to revise the Treaty of
Sevres.
 After six months of discussions the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923.

Terms
 Turkey recovered Eastern Thrace, several Aegean Islands and Smyrna.
 Turkey regained control of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorous but they were to
remain demilitarized and subject to an international convention.
 No limitation was placed on Turkey’s military forces.
 There were to be no war reparations.
 Turkey was forced to recognise loss of its Arab provinces.
 Plans for an independent Armenia and an autonomous Kurdistan were
abandoned.
 Britain retained control over Mosul in Iraq and France remained in control of
Alexandretta in Syria.
 The treaty recognised Turkish sovereignty over the straits.
 Turkey also recognised British possession of Cyprus and Italian control of the
Dodecanese.
 The treaty removed Allied control over the Turkish finances.
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