Short+term+effects

__**SHORT TERM EFFECTS (1918-1919)**__ __**Wilson's Fourteen Points**__ On January 8, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson proposed points to Congress to justify the Great War and to show it's inevitability and positive outcome. The speech is significant because it was not overtly harsh on the Ottoman Empire, and established the United Nations. German Imperial Chancellor,, sent a letter to Wilson requesting prompt armistice and peace negotiations with the allies. The speech was also directed at [|Vladamir Lenin], who had called for an immediate withdrawal from World War I in his Decree on Peace. Wilson's Fourteen Points were direct and his call for the evacuation of countries may have been justified, but Congress was not interested in monitoring European Affairs. Because of this, they rejected Wilson's proposal of joining the League of Nations. After the end of the First World War, the Germans were optimistic. Although they lost the War, they welcomed their soldiers with open arms. German politicians, notably Peace Delegate Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau, were expecting to be treated fairly by the Allies, due to the fact that Wilson was very lax on the Ottoman empire in his **Fourteen Points.** However, upon arriving in Paris on 1919, Brockdorff-Rantzau found himself rooming in a 3rd class hotel, heavily monitored by guards (Allies stated it was for his protection) and said he was forced to signed the Treaty. The signers of the Treaty accused **German Emperor Wilhelm II** of supreme offense against international morality. The collective countries decided to charge him as a war criminal. To understand the short term effects of the war, we must determine the effects this monumental document had on key world countries (most that played a role in the Paris Peace of Conference of 1919). After the war, British political enemies Conservative and Liberal parties formed a coalition, and represented Labor parties. They did this because of the extensive industrial demands the war had required, and the wide unrest the working class had as Russia brazenly revolutionized their government. Britain was indebted to many other countries, after their extreme spending on munitions and supplies to fuel their war effort. Although this deficit-financing may have encouraged the world economy to flourish, it spawned inflation which impoverished many citizens. Not invited to the Paris Peace Conference, Lenin-led communist Russia had drastic changes after the war. Lenin resented imperialist nations, and wanted no part in the war. Further more, he repudiated all Russian foreign debts, obliterating the savings of international investors. Russia under the Bolsheviks was very focused on agrarian reforms, and forcibly seized estates and surpluses. Due to the huge industrial requirements of the War, coupled with the civil war that Russia had just ended, industry took many years to recover. To prevent the economy from collapsing, [|Lenin allowed small businesses to open for private profit], while the state still controlled banks and foreign trade. International trade was much more cautious after the great war. The effectively split up the Ottoman Empire, after the [|Treaty of Sevres] allowed the Allies to take over all finances, and restrict the Ottoman empire to 50,000 men. The title of Caliph was abolished on March 3, 1924. After the war, Britain and France ruled the Ottoman lands, receiving mandates from the League of Nations under the pretense the people there could not govern themselves. It was no mistake that the Middle East was extremely prevalent in oil. Ottomans had to renounce their empire, and were forced to give up garrisons in Hedjaz, Yemen, Syria, Mesopotamia, Tripolitania, and Cyrenaica. Allies were able to control the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus. Had the Treaty of Sevres been enacted, Kurdistan would have recieved independence and Armenia would have been able to widen their borders. However, Turkey became caught up in a bloody war for independence, bitter from being forced to recede. The revolution was led by Mustafa Kemal Pacha. Austria-Hungary went through perhaps the most detrimental changes after the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. After their defeat, the empire collapsed, and leftist maverick parties emerged. The Allies acknowledged nationalist movements, and it became apparent that these would nit stop until self-governance was granted. Austria and Hungary separated, after the final Hapsburg King Karl I announced that he would not involve himself in Austrian affairs. Hungary eventually became a Soviet republic, while Austria shakily entered world politics in the 1920s, tottering on their new-independence and facing economical isolation. The Treaty of Versailles established Czechoslovakia (then known as Czecho-Slovakia), and Poland, with annexed land. Germany lost nearly all of their African settlements, as [|Cameroon, Togoland, and Ruanda-Urundi] were divided by France, Britain, and Belgium (respectively). They were forbidden from merging with Austria, and had German-speaking Alsace and Lorraine returned to France. Strict scrutiny was placed on the German military, which could only have 100,000 troops and and only 6 battleships. Germany was given a massive bill (138 billion gold marks, required to pay up to 1988) which they were required British economist [|John Meynerd Keynes] worried that these harsh measures would brood German extremism. France wanted Germany to face extreme punishment after the war, to ensure that they would never be attacked again (that didn't work out too well, did it?). Despite France's gain of former German territories, they faced deflation in the 1920s, and currency became nearly worthless. At this time, radical right-wing politics became popular. According to the book __The Economics of World War I__, Stephen Broadberry and Mark Harrison argue "When the war began, the U.S. economy was in recession. But a 44-month economic boom ensued from 1914 to 1918, first as Europeans began purchasing U.S. goods for the war and later as the United States itself joined the battle. 'The long period of U.S. neutrality made the ultimate conversion of the economy to a wartime basis easier than it otherwise would have been." After the war, soldiers returned home, largely unemployed. A great depression ravaged the United States, in part as a result of the huge cost of war. The U.S. allowed women the right to vote, completely changing politics, as the [|19th Amendment]became added to the Bill of Rights in 1920. America's world outlook vastly changed after World War One, and the horrors of the War came to light. The country as a whole became much more conservative in their methods for entering a war, opting to do so only after an attack by a belligerent nation. Diplomacy became completely different.
 * __Treaty of Versailles__**
 * BRITAIN**
 * RUSSIA**
 * THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE**
 * THE FORMER AUSTRIA-HUNGARY**
 * GERMANY**
 * FRANCE**
 * THE UNITED STATES**

-10 to 13 million were killed as a result of this war. -Before World War I, Europe contained 19 monarchies and 3 republics. -After the war, this changed into 13 monarchies, 14 republics and 2 regencies. New countries included Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Lithuania.

__Sources__ The Treaty of Versailles: A Reassessment after 75 years, Volume 1919 By Manfred Franz Boemeke, Manfred F. Boemeke, Gerald D. Feldman, Elisabeth **Gläser**[|?] The Economics of World War I: Cambridge Edition Edited by Stephen Broadberry and Mark Harrison http://www.wordiq.com/definition/ **Prince_Maximilian_of_Baden**[|?] http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/ **President_Wilson**[|?] % **27s_Fourteen_Points**[|?] http://www.e-referate.ro/referate/Britain_after_the_first_world_war2005-06-06.html http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/new_economic_policy.html http://homepage.newschool.edu/het//profiles/keynes.htm http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-i/europe-after-world-war-13.htm http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/History/ **ArmisticeOfMudros**[|?] .html