暨 南 大 学
本科生课程论文
论文题目：A comparison between the post–First World War peace settlements and the post–Second World War settlements on the
impact of maintaining peace
学 院：
学 系：
专 业：
课程名称：
学生姓名：
学 号：
指导教师：
2016年 06 月 12 日
Peace Quote
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
---- Winston Churchill
Topic
A comparison between the post–First World War peace
settlements and the post–Second World War settlements on
the impact of maintaining peace.
1.1 Introduction
In the 20th century, there were two great wars broke out, which are very important to the world, the First World War and the Second World War. The reason that they are so important is that, both of them had brought some great influences to the world afterward.
The most obvious influence is that, without First World War, there won’t be Second World War, I am talking that the Second World War is the continue of the First World War. However, the largest difference between the two great wars is that, there are no large scale war or conflicts broke out after the Second World War, but not after the First World War.
There are lots of factor that lead to this difference, however, the most important factor around all these is the different peace settlements, such as the signing of different peace treaties and the holding of different peace conferences. To find out whether the peace settlements of the Second World War are more success than the peace settlements of the First World War, the best way is to compare both of them in their limitations, achievements and the impact brought by them after they signature.
1.2 Keywords
“Conference(s)” “Settlements” “Treaty” “Limitations” “Achievements”
2.1 Post-First World War Peace Conference(s)
There was only one peace conference held after the First World War, which is the Paris Peace Conference. At that conference, the defeated powers such as Germany, Turkey, Austria- Hungary were not allowed to take part in the conference and could only sign the so-call peace treaties proposed by those victories powers.
2.2 Post-First World War Peace Settlements
Since Germany was identified by the victories powers such as United States, Britain and France as the starter as she provoked to start the First World War, then she was forced by these nations to sign a peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles. By the treaty Germany was officially declared guilty of provoking the war. This was the famous “war guilt” clause which became so important later.1Along with the “war guilt” clause, there were many punishments which are aim at reducing the national power of Germany. As the disarmament of Germany had already carried out as a condition of the armistice, she had to hand over all of her submarines and battleships to the victories powers or sank them herself, along with her guns, cannons and railway stock etc.
For the terms of losing territories, Germany had to return Alsace-Lorraine to France. The Saar Coalfield and its mineral wealth had to be put under international control for 15 years, as France had the right to use its mine at any time they want. Besides this, Germany had to also abandon her own colonies, no matter they were in oversees or in Europe. In the terms of reparations, Germany was asked to pay a sum of 6.5 billion pounds to the victories power with the additions of building ships for the Allies, sending them with chemicals, coal, dye stuffs, cattle, etc. Although according to a British economist J.M. Keynes, Germany could only pay a sum of 2 billion pounds as reparation.2
The terms in the Treaty of Versailles were very unacceptable and unreasonable for German. It was too harsh to require a defeated country which was heavily damaged during the war to afford such a huge reparation along with her territories had been reduced by a lots. To demand so much from Germany was impossible at a time when Allies nations were trying to recover their own industries and agriculture.
Despite the Treaty of Versailles, there are other treaties which had been signed between other defeated powers, such as Turkey and Austria Hungary. For Austria Hungary, she had separated into two nations, Austria and Hungary, and the races which had been contained within the borders of the empire became independent. In the southern side, a new nation called Yugoslavia was formed from the former Austrian provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia, from Croatia, which had been part of Hungary, and from the western part of Bulgaria.3 The Treaty of Sevres with Turkey had given Greece all the land in Europe Turkey 1
2 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.139 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.140 3 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.142
in which people of Greek race or speech lived.
In fact, beside the treaties that signed with the defeated nations, there are also some settlements carried out within the victories powers. Trace back to April 1915, a secret treaty which is the Secret Treaty of London had been signed with Italy to convince her to turn to the Allies’ side. Italy was promised the district of Trentino, the whole of Cisapine Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass, the city and district of Trieste, the country of Gradisca and Gorizia, the Istrian peninsula up to the Quarnero with Volosca and the Istrian archipelago, together with nearly all the Adriatic islands, and the retention of Valona and the Dodecanese.4
Under the peace settlements, a brand new peace keeping organization called League of Nations had been set up by the ideas of collective security. In 1919, the proposal of setting up the League of Nations was adopted at the Paris Peace Conference. The major aims of the League of Nations were to keep world peace by dealing with disputes among nations, to safeguard the independence of countries and their new borders to encourage nations to reduce their armaments, etc.
2.3 Achievements of Post-First World War Peace Settlements
The peace settlements reached after the First World War did have some contribution on keeping the world peace. The disarmament and huge reparation of Germany had made her become militarily and economically weak in a period of time, and didn’t have enough power to start wars with other countries. Second, the League of Nations had successfully solving some local conflicts, for examples, in 1921 a quarrel between Sweden and Finland over which country owned the Aaland Islands was settled in favor of Finland. In 1925, the Greek were made to end their invasion of Bulgaria and to pay a large sum of money in compensation. So long as disputes arose between some small countries the League could be successful.5
2.4 Limitations of Post-First World War Peace Settlements
However, these treaties did not suffice to restore even a formal peace to all Europe.6 Even though the peace settlements of the First World War had several achievements, it was failed to maintain prolong peace for the world. There are mainly two reasons of its failure, which are the discontent of some nations and the ineffective of the collective security.
Unlike other peace treaties, the defeated nations took no places in the discussion. The German were allowed to comment in writing on the proposed treaty but no more. At the final ceremony they were led into the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, like criminals, to sign in silence a treaty dictated to them by the victors.7 Apart from that, the terms in the Treaty of Versailles 4 Sir John A. R. Marriott, The Eastern Question An Historical Study in European Diplomacy(Oxford At The Clarendon Press, 1940), p.521 5 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.149 6 Rene Albrecht-Carrie, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd ,1965), p.370 7 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.144
were too harsh to Germany. She couldn’t afford to pay such a huge reparation to the victories powers since her economy was badly affected by the war, many economic facilities were heavily damaged during the war time. Over 6 million people had been unemployed. Under this condition, however, the victories powers even kept demanding Germany to pay her unaffordable reparation. A huge feeling of discontent and humiliation had been wide spared among German for the signing of unfair treaty and the unfair treatment during the peace conference.
Not only Germany dissatisfied with the peace settlements, some of the victories nations were the same. Italy was convinced by Allies to turn their guns pointed at their ex-alliance, Germany in 1915. Allies promised lots of condition to convince her for doing that, and Italy was attracted by the territorial gain afterward among all the conditions. Italy was also heavily damaged by the war, her economy situation was almost the same as Germany, and she wanted to recover her losses by getting the lands promised by the Allies and use the resources in those lands. However, she found that what the Allies given was actually less than what they had promised. Italians started to feel discontent about the victories powers.
The League of Nations faced a difficult task after its formation. Europe was far from being in peace, and many European countries were in a state of economic collapse. Moreover in its work it was hindered by two weaknesses. First, not all the great powers were its member, such as United States .Second, the League could make its decision but it had no military force to ensure that its order were carried out.8 For example, Abyssinia was invaded by Italy in 1935, the League imposed an economic sanction on Italy, but it couldn’t stop her invasion since only 4 countries were willing to carry out the sanction.
20 years after the end of the First World War, the Second World War broke out. This means the efforts carried out by the peace settlements of the First World War couldn’t maintain a prolong peace for the whole world, it could only delay the outbreak of the war.
3.1 Post-Second World War Peace Conference(s)
Finish discussing the peace settlements of the First World War, we move on to the peace settlements of the Second World War. Before the end of the Second World War, the major Allied powers, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union had held several conferences to sort out post-war arrangements and to re-establish international order. These decisions later became important guidelines for post-war peace settlements. There were total of 5 conference held by the major powers, which were the Moscow Conference, the Cairo Conference, the Teheran Conference, the Yelta Conference and the Potsdam Conference, and 1 post-war conference, the Paris Peace Conference.
Moscow Conference was held in 1943, which was the first wartime conference of the major 8 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.148
Allied powers. During this conference, an important decision had been made, which is the proposal of forming a new international organization, which was the United Nations to replace the League of Nations to keep the world peace.
3.2 Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
As Germany had the largest responsibility of starting the war, she had received more punishments than the other defeated countries such as Italy and Japan. However, even Germany had to receive more penalty than the other countries, the major powers decided not to impose any punishments which as harsh as the terms in the Treaty of Versailles, since none of the major powers wanted to see Germany start another world war. To prevent the recovery of Nazi party, the major powers decided to divide Germany into 4 parts. The country was to be divided into 4 zones, the area of Greater Berlin was to be occupied in sectors or zones by the forces of the four Powers, and administered by an Inter-Allied Governing Authority. “The administration in Germany should be directed towards the decentralization of the political structure and the development of local responsibility.9” Besides the division of the country, Germany also suffered from territorial lost. For examples, she had to give up East Prussia to Poland and the Soviet Union, give the city of Danzig to Poland and restore all territories that annexed by Hitler before or during the war to their original status. Apart from that, the Nazi Party in Germany was destroyed and the Nazi leaders were executed or imprisoned. The country was also disarmed and with her education system reformed.
Other defeated countries such as Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, had also received penalty form the Allied side.
The Austrian claim to the South Tyrol was not entertained and the Austro-Italian frontier remained unchanged along the Brenner line.
Hungary and Bulgaria were reduced to their pre-1938 frontiers, save that Bulgaria retained the Southern Dobruja.10
For Italy, 5 small boundary areas were given to France and about 2/3 of the north-Adriatic province of Venezia Giulia was transferred to Yugoslavia. She also had to give up all of her oversees colonies, such as Libya and Eritrea. Moreover, Italy had to pay a reparation of 260 million to the major powers such as united State and Soviet Union. Lastly, the military force of Italy had to be reduced to a minimum.11
Japan got the simplest and shortest peace treaty when compare with other countries. First, japan had to renounce all right to southern Sakhalin Island and to the Kurile Islands, both had 9 A. J. Grant, M.A., Litt.D., Harold Temperley, Litt.D. Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1789-1950) (Longman Group Limited, 1952), p.574 10 Rene Albrecht-Carrie, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd, 1965), p.604 11 Robert Ergang, PH.D., Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company ,1967), p.652
been under Russian occupation since the end of Second World War in accordance with the Yelta Conference. 12Japan also had to concur in a trusteeship administered by the united States of the Bonins and Ryukyus, including Okinawa.
The last and the most important part of the peace settlements of the Second World War is the formation of the United Nation. In 1942, 26 nations including the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed the Declaration of the United Nations. They agreed to set up an international peacekeeping body. At the San Francisco Conference, 51 nations signed the Charter of the United Nations. The major aims of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security by acting collectively to deter aggressors and settle disputes peacefully.
3.3 Achievements of Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
With the division of the country, the Nazi Party had been completely removed from Germany. Under inter-Allied governing, Germany couldn’t redevelop a strong army to carry out any kinds of invasion. Besides, with the operation of the peace treaties, the defeated countries such as Italy and Japan did stay with their nearby countries peacefully.
The newly formed international peacekeeping body, the United Nations had more powers on solving larger conflict when compare with the abolished old League of Nations. United Nations can demand its member states to provided troops to help it carry out military operation.
Moreover, by the efforts of the post-Second World War settlements, such as the setting up of the United Nations, peace treaties with different countries, no large scale world war has broken out yet, this can be regarded as the greatest achievement of the post-Second World War settlements.
3.4 Limitations of Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
The biggest limitation of the peace settlements of the Second World War is the ineffectiveness of United Nations on solving the direct conflicts between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
After the Second World War, immediately another war broke out, but it wasn’t the “hot war” like the First and Second World War, it was the Cold War .During the whole period of Cold war, there are lots of local military conflicts broke out. Most of these conflicts are led by either the United States or the Soviet Union. However, the United Nations couldn’t stop them from indirectly starting the military conflicts. All it could do is to be the mediator of both sides of the conflicts. Although the United Nations tried hard to stop the conflicts of the two superpowers, it failed since the United State and the Soviet Union were the two strongest 12 Robert Ergang, PH.D., Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company, 1967), p.655
member states of it. Besides, most of the member states of the United Nations had already chosen either the side of the United States or the side of the Soviet Union. If the United Nations wanted to carry out any punishments or military operations to the two superpowers, none of them could be passed since the member states of it wouldn’t allow the proposal to pass.
4.1 Conclusion
By comparing the peace settlements of the First and Second World War, we can find that the peace settlements of the Second World War is more effective in maintaining world peace than that of the First World War. The most obvious evidence is that, no large scale or world- spread war has been broken out, although there were some local military conflicts happened, and Cold War between the two superpowers had been worsen until its end.
The largest limitation of the peace settlements of the First World War is the failure of the League of Nations and the led to the discontent of the defeated nations. The treaty terms in different peace treaties were too harsh for those nations to afford, especially the one signed with Germany. Under the feeling of discontent, some politicians successfully got the power and became dictator, such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. These dictators later started their aggression to other countries. However, the League of Nations at that time couldn’t do anything to stop their invasion since it had no independent forces and couldn’t carry out their sanctions to those aggressive countries due to the unwillingness of its member states. Eventually another great world which involved the whole world broke out soon.
Compare with peace settlements of the First World War, the peace settlements of the Second World War were more moderate. The victories power had learnt for the past experience, and thus the terms and punishments in the treaties signed with the defeated countries were carefully discussed and adjusted before in order to reach an equilibrium point between the interest of the victories powers and the sufferance of the defeated countries. Thus the felling of discontent and resentment of the defeated nations were much lesser then that after signing the peace treaties of the First World War. Apart from the settlements with the defeated countries, a new international peacekeeping body was formed under the peace settlements, the United Nations. Compare with the former peacekeeping body, the League of nations, United Nations was more successful in solving conflicts, since it can demand its member states to provide troops to carry out military actions, for example, the military action carried by United Nations in Yugoslav Civil War successfully forced Serbia to stop its invasion to other republics in Yugoslavia. Although the United Nations was unable to stop the Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union, it had stop many military conflicts in the world.
To conclude, the peace settlements of the Second World War were more successful in keeping prolong world peace than the peace settlements of the First World War.
Bibliography (References)
● Grant J., Temperley Harold, Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries (1789-1950) (Longman Group Limited, 1952)
● Lindsay Donald, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press,
1978)
● Albrecht-Carrie Rene, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd, 1965)
● Ergang Robert, Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company, 1967)
● Marriott Sir John A. R., The Eastern Question An Historical Study in European
Diplomacy (Oxford At The Clarendon Press ,1940)
Reflection and Suggestion of the course (Both English and Chinese Accepted)
This is an interesting course. At first I was hoping to find a course that involved history to study as I was quite interested in it. I looked at the course category, and found this course. Judging by the name “Peace and Conflict”, I thought it would be a course of discussing the reasons and solutions of modern conflict, therefore I chose this course with no hesitation.
Then in the first day of this course, I discovered that it wasn’t the case. It turned out that this course was a relatively relaxing course, with no homework and only a handful of presentations. I remember the first presentation was a short drama show, with us divided into 3 groups, and presented 3 kinds of different conflict. It was quite fun actually, as I am kind of good at entertaining people.
It's a great pleasure of attending the lessons, the atmosphere was often lightened by jokes or laughers. I didn't need to worry about the marks or the finally result of this course or the homework, just needed to get involved in this course, interact with other classmates or the teacher. It really relaxed my mind when I was having this lesson.
暨 南 大 学
本科生课程论文
论文题目：A comparison between the post–First World War peace settlements and the post–Second World War settlements on the
impact of maintaining peace
学 院：
学 系：
专 业：
课程名称：
学生姓名：
学 号：
指导教师：
2016年 06 月 12 日
Peace Quote
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
---- Winston Churchill
Topic
A comparison between the post–First World War peace
settlements and the post–Second World War settlements on
the impact of maintaining peace.
1.1 Introduction
In the 20th century, there were two great wars broke out, which are very important to the world, the First World War and the Second World War. The reason that they are so important is that, both of them had brought some great influences to the world afterward.
The most obvious influence is that, without First World War, there won’t be Second World War, I am talking that the Second World War is the continue of the First World War. However, the largest difference between the two great wars is that, there are no large scale war or conflicts broke out after the Second World War, but not after the First World War.
There are lots of factor that lead to this difference, however, the most important factor around all these is the different peace settlements, such as the signing of different peace treaties and the holding of different peace conferences. To find out whether the peace settlements of the Second World War are more success than the peace settlements of the First World War, the best way is to compare both of them in their limitations, achievements and the impact brought by them after they signature.
1.2 Keywords
“Conference(s)” “Settlements” “Treaty” “Limitations” “Achievements”
2.1 Post-First World War Peace Conference(s)
There was only one peace conference held after the First World War, which is the Paris Peace Conference. At that conference, the defeated powers such as Germany, Turkey, Austria- Hungary were not allowed to take part in the conference and could only sign the so-call peace treaties proposed by those victories powers.
2.2 Post-First World War Peace Settlements
Since Germany was identified by the victories powers such as United States, Britain and France as the starter as she provoked to start the First World War, then she was forced by these nations to sign a peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles. By the treaty Germany was officially declared guilty of provoking the war. This was the famous “war guilt” clause which became so important later.1Along with the “war guilt” clause, there were many punishments which are aim at reducing the national power of Germany. As the disarmament of Germany had already carried out as a condition of the armistice, she had to hand over all of her submarines and battleships to the victories powers or sank them herself, along with her guns, cannons and railway stock etc.
For the terms of losing territories, Germany had to return Alsace-Lorraine to France. The Saar Coalfield and its mineral wealth had to be put under international control for 15 years, as France had the right to use its mine at any time they want. Besides this, Germany had to also abandon her own colonies, no matter they were in oversees or in Europe. In the terms of reparations, Germany was asked to pay a sum of 6.5 billion pounds to the victories power with the additions of building ships for the Allies, sending them with chemicals, coal, dye stuffs, cattle, etc. Although according to a British economist J.M. Keynes, Germany could only pay a sum of 2 billion pounds as reparation.2
The terms in the Treaty of Versailles were very unacceptable and unreasonable for German. It was too harsh to require a defeated country which was heavily damaged during the war to afford such a huge reparation along with her territories had been reduced by a lots. To demand so much from Germany was impossible at a time when Allies nations were trying to recover their own industries and agriculture.
Despite the Treaty of Versailles, there are other treaties which had been signed between other defeated powers, such as Turkey and Austria Hungary. For Austria Hungary, she had separated into two nations, Austria and Hungary, and the races which had been contained within the borders of the empire became independent. In the southern side, a new nation called Yugoslavia was formed from the former Austrian provinces of Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia, from Croatia, which had been part of Hungary, and from the western part of Bulgaria.3 The Treaty of Sevres with Turkey had given Greece all the land in Europe Turkey 1
2 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.139 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.140 3 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.142
in which people of Greek race or speech lived.
In fact, beside the treaties that signed with the defeated nations, there are also some settlements carried out within the victories powers. Trace back to April 1915, a secret treaty which is the Secret Treaty of London had been signed with Italy to convince her to turn to the Allies’ side. Italy was promised the district of Trentino, the whole of Cisapine Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass, the city and district of Trieste, the country of Gradisca and Gorizia, the Istrian peninsula up to the Quarnero with Volosca and the Istrian archipelago, together with nearly all the Adriatic islands, and the retention of Valona and the Dodecanese.4
Under the peace settlements, a brand new peace keeping organization called League of Nations had been set up by the ideas of collective security. In 1919, the proposal of setting up the League of Nations was adopted at the Paris Peace Conference. The major aims of the League of Nations were to keep world peace by dealing with disputes among nations, to safeguard the independence of countries and their new borders to encourage nations to reduce their armaments, etc.
2.3 Achievements of Post-First World War Peace Settlements
The peace settlements reached after the First World War did have some contribution on keeping the world peace. The disarmament and huge reparation of Germany had made her become militarily and economically weak in a period of time, and didn’t have enough power to start wars with other countries. Second, the League of Nations had successfully solving some local conflicts, for examples, in 1921 a quarrel between Sweden and Finland over which country owned the Aaland Islands was settled in favor of Finland. In 1925, the Greek were made to end their invasion of Bulgaria and to pay a large sum of money in compensation. So long as disputes arose between some small countries the League could be successful.5
2.4 Limitations of Post-First World War Peace Settlements
However, these treaties did not suffice to restore even a formal peace to all Europe.6 Even though the peace settlements of the First World War had several achievements, it was failed to maintain prolong peace for the world. There are mainly two reasons of its failure, which are the discontent of some nations and the ineffective of the collective security.
Unlike other peace treaties, the defeated nations took no places in the discussion. The German were allowed to comment in writing on the proposed treaty but no more. At the final ceremony they were led into the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, like criminals, to sign in silence a treaty dictated to them by the victors.7 Apart from that, the terms in the Treaty of Versailles 4 Sir John A. R. Marriott, The Eastern Question An Historical Study in European Diplomacy(Oxford At The Clarendon Press, 1940), p.521 5 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.149 6 Rene Albrecht-Carrie, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd ,1965), p.370 7 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.144
were too harsh to Germany. She couldn’t afford to pay such a huge reparation to the victories powers since her economy was badly affected by the war, many economic facilities were heavily damaged during the war time. Over 6 million people had been unemployed. Under this condition, however, the victories powers even kept demanding Germany to pay her unaffordable reparation. A huge feeling of discontent and humiliation had been wide spared among German for the signing of unfair treaty and the unfair treatment during the peace conference.
Not only Germany dissatisfied with the peace settlements, some of the victories nations were the same. Italy was convinced by Allies to turn their guns pointed at their ex-alliance, Germany in 1915. Allies promised lots of condition to convince her for doing that, and Italy was attracted by the territorial gain afterward among all the conditions. Italy was also heavily damaged by the war, her economy situation was almost the same as Germany, and she wanted to recover her losses by getting the lands promised by the Allies and use the resources in those lands. However, she found that what the Allies given was actually less than what they had promised. Italians started to feel discontent about the victories powers.
The League of Nations faced a difficult task after its formation. Europe was far from being in peace, and many European countries were in a state of economic collapse. Moreover in its work it was hindered by two weaknesses. First, not all the great powers were its member, such as United States .Second, the League could make its decision but it had no military force to ensure that its order were carried out.8 For example, Abyssinia was invaded by Italy in 1935, the League imposed an economic sanction on Italy, but it couldn’t stop her invasion since only 4 countries were willing to carry out the sanction.
20 years after the end of the First World War, the Second World War broke out. This means the efforts carried out by the peace settlements of the First World War couldn’t maintain a prolong peace for the whole world, it could only delay the outbreak of the war.
3.1 Post-Second World War Peace Conference(s)
Finish discussing the peace settlements of the First World War, we move on to the peace settlements of the Second World War. Before the end of the Second World War, the major Allied powers, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union had held several conferences to sort out post-war arrangements and to re-establish international order. These decisions later became important guidelines for post-war peace settlements. There were total of 5 conference held by the major powers, which were the Moscow Conference, the Cairo Conference, the Teheran Conference, the Yelta Conference and the Potsdam Conference, and 1 post-war conference, the Paris Peace Conference.
Moscow Conference was held in 1943, which was the first wartime conference of the major 8 Donald Lindsay, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1978), p.148
Allied powers. During this conference, an important decision had been made, which is the proposal of forming a new international organization, which was the United Nations to replace the League of Nations to keep the world peace.
3.2 Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
As Germany had the largest responsibility of starting the war, she had received more punishments than the other defeated countries such as Italy and Japan. However, even Germany had to receive more penalty than the other countries, the major powers decided not to impose any punishments which as harsh as the terms in the Treaty of Versailles, since none of the major powers wanted to see Germany start another world war. To prevent the recovery of Nazi party, the major powers decided to divide Germany into 4 parts. The country was to be divided into 4 zones, the area of Greater Berlin was to be occupied in sectors or zones by the forces of the four Powers, and administered by an Inter-Allied Governing Authority. “The administration in Germany should be directed towards the decentralization of the political structure and the development of local responsibility.9” Besides the division of the country, Germany also suffered from territorial lost. For examples, she had to give up East Prussia to Poland and the Soviet Union, give the city of Danzig to Poland and restore all territories that annexed by Hitler before or during the war to their original status. Apart from that, the Nazi Party in Germany was destroyed and the Nazi leaders were executed or imprisoned. The country was also disarmed and with her education system reformed.
Other defeated countries such as Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, had also received penalty form the Allied side.
The Austrian claim to the South Tyrol was not entertained and the Austro-Italian frontier remained unchanged along the Brenner line.
Hungary and Bulgaria were reduced to their pre-1938 frontiers, save that Bulgaria retained the Southern Dobruja.10
For Italy, 5 small boundary areas were given to France and about 2/3 of the north-Adriatic province of Venezia Giulia was transferred to Yugoslavia. She also had to give up all of her oversees colonies, such as Libya and Eritrea. Moreover, Italy had to pay a reparation of 260 million to the major powers such as united State and Soviet Union. Lastly, the military force of Italy had to be reduced to a minimum.11
Japan got the simplest and shortest peace treaty when compare with other countries. First, japan had to renounce all right to southern Sakhalin Island and to the Kurile Islands, both had 9 A. J. Grant, M.A., Litt.D., Harold Temperley, Litt.D. Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (1789-1950) (Longman Group Limited, 1952), p.574 10 Rene Albrecht-Carrie, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd, 1965), p.604 11 Robert Ergang, PH.D., Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company ,1967), p.652
been under Russian occupation since the end of Second World War in accordance with the Yelta Conference. 12Japan also had to concur in a trusteeship administered by the united States of the Bonins and Ryukyus, including Okinawa.
The last and the most important part of the peace settlements of the Second World War is the formation of the United Nation. In 1942, 26 nations including the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed the Declaration of the United Nations. They agreed to set up an international peacekeeping body. At the San Francisco Conference, 51 nations signed the Charter of the United Nations. The major aims of the United Nations is to maintain international peace and security by acting collectively to deter aggressors and settle disputes peacefully.
3.3 Achievements of Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
With the division of the country, the Nazi Party had been completely removed from Germany. Under inter-Allied governing, Germany couldn’t redevelop a strong army to carry out any kinds of invasion. Besides, with the operation of the peace treaties, the defeated countries such as Italy and Japan did stay with their nearby countries peacefully.
The newly formed international peacekeeping body, the United Nations had more powers on solving larger conflict when compare with the abolished old League of Nations. United Nations can demand its member states to provided troops to help it carry out military operation.
Moreover, by the efforts of the post-Second World War settlements, such as the setting up of the United Nations, peace treaties with different countries, no large scale world war has broken out yet, this can be regarded as the greatest achievement of the post-Second World War settlements.
3.4 Limitations of Post-Second World War Peace Settlements
The biggest limitation of the peace settlements of the Second World War is the ineffectiveness of United Nations on solving the direct conflicts between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union.
After the Second World War, immediately another war broke out, but it wasn’t the “hot war” like the First and Second World War, it was the Cold War .During the whole period of Cold war, there are lots of local military conflicts broke out. Most of these conflicts are led by either the United States or the Soviet Union. However, the United Nations couldn’t stop them from indirectly starting the military conflicts. All it could do is to be the mediator of both sides of the conflicts. Although the United Nations tried hard to stop the conflicts of the two superpowers, it failed since the United State and the Soviet Union were the two strongest 12 Robert Ergang, PH.D., Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company, 1967), p.655
member states of it. Besides, most of the member states of the United Nations had already chosen either the side of the United States or the side of the Soviet Union. If the United Nations wanted to carry out any punishments or military operations to the two superpowers, none of them could be passed since the member states of it wouldn’t allow the proposal to pass.
4.1 Conclusion
By comparing the peace settlements of the First and Second World War, we can find that the peace settlements of the Second World War is more effective in maintaining world peace than that of the First World War. The most obvious evidence is that, no large scale or world- spread war has been broken out, although there were some local military conflicts happened, and Cold War between the two superpowers had been worsen until its end.
The largest limitation of the peace settlements of the First World War is the failure of the League of Nations and the led to the discontent of the defeated nations. The treaty terms in different peace treaties were too harsh for those nations to afford, especially the one signed with Germany. Under the feeling of discontent, some politicians successfully got the power and became dictator, such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. These dictators later started their aggression to other countries. However, the League of Nations at that time couldn’t do anything to stop their invasion since it had no independent forces and couldn’t carry out their sanctions to those aggressive countries due to the unwillingness of its member states. Eventually another great world which involved the whole world broke out soon.
Compare with peace settlements of the First World War, the peace settlements of the Second World War were more moderate. The victories power had learnt for the past experience, and thus the terms and punishments in the treaties signed with the defeated countries were carefully discussed and adjusted before in order to reach an equilibrium point between the interest of the victories powers and the sufferance of the defeated countries. Thus the felling of discontent and resentment of the defeated nations were much lesser then that after signing the peace treaties of the First World War. Apart from the settlements with the defeated countries, a new international peacekeeping body was formed under the peace settlements, the United Nations. Compare with the former peacekeeping body, the League of nations, United Nations was more successful in solving conflicts, since it can demand its member states to provide troops to carry out military actions, for example, the military action carried by United Nations in Yugoslav Civil War successfully forced Serbia to stop its invasion to other republics in Yugoslavia. Although the United Nations was unable to stop the Cold War between United States and the Soviet Union, it had stop many military conflicts in the world.
To conclude, the peace settlements of the Second World War were more successful in keeping prolong world peace than the peace settlements of the First World War.
Bibliography (References)
● Grant J., Temperley Harold, Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries (1789-1950) (Longman Group Limited, 1952)
● Lindsay Donald, European History 1870-1960 (Hong Kong Oxford University Press,
1978)
● Albrecht-Carrie Rene, A Diplomatic History of Europe (Methuen & Co Ltd, 1965)
● Ergang Robert, Europe since Waterloo (D. C. Heath And Company, 1967)
● Marriott Sir John A. R., The Eastern Question An Historical Study in European
Diplomacy (Oxford At The Clarendon Press ,1940)
Reflection and Suggestion of the course (Both English and Chinese Accepted)
This is an interesting course. At first I was hoping to find a course that involved history to study as I was quite interested in it. I looked at the course category, and found this course. Judging by the name “Peace and Conflict”, I thought it would be a course of discussing the reasons and solutions of modern conflict, therefore I chose this course with no hesitation.
Then in the first day of this course, I discovered that it wasn’t the case. It turned out that this course was a relatively relaxing course, with no homework and only a handful of presentations. I remember the first presentation was a short drama show, with us divided into 3 groups, and presented 3 kinds of different conflict. It was quite fun actually, as I am kind of good at entertaining people.
It's a great pleasure of attending the lessons, the atmosphere was often lightened by jokes or laughers. I didn't need to worry about the marks or the finally result of this course or the homework, just needed to get involved in this course, interact with other classmates or the teacher. It really relaxed my mind when I was having this lesson.