Versailles conference: date, participants, conditions, results

The great bloody war of the first halfof the twentieth century, for a reason it has long been called the world one. The scale of tense military disasters, the number of armed forces, dead and mutilated - all struck with its scale. Only the dead were measured by millions of people. Both the winners and the losers spent a huge amount of material resources and undermined their financial systems (except for the United States, but this is more an exception than the rule).

However, after several years of murder in 1918The First World War ended. And the triumphant winners got their bonus - after such a costly (in all understandings) victory, only they could make the future of the world order. The decisions of the Versailles Conference became the first brick in the basis of a new world order. More about this historic event below.

The Paris Peace Conference

The date of the Versailles Conference was closefrom the end of a fierce war. First, in January 1919 an international conference was started in Paris, compiled by the victor countries to formulate and sign peace agreements with the losers. The event was held (with some interruptions) until the end of January 1920. In addition to the main participants, almost all the countries that existed at the time were on the side of the Entente.

The losers were involved in the work of the conference after the negotiation of peace treaties. Soviet Russia was not invited to the conference. The leading role was occupied by the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

Then there were other international forums. Within the framework of the Paris Conference, several diplomatic meetings took place, among which the Versailles Conference is particularly prominent. Because of this, two events unite and often call simply - the Paris (Versailles) conference. The event and the truth turned out to be significant.

Challenges and opportunities

To fully publicize the results of the past war, the Versailles Conference of 1919 began to operate. Its results amaze with its global character:

1. The previous world political map was changed. The strongest monarchies have collapsed.
2. A fairly solid, though short-lived (as it turned out later) system of a worldwide agreement was created.
3. States were defined - the new leaders of the postwar world order, who became its short-lived guarantors.

However, not everything has developed so clearly and unambiguously. In the course of a gradual political peace settlement, great contradictions were determined not only around the defeated, but also among the triumphant victors. In particular, the US and some European powers were concerned about the strengthening of the situation of externally neutral Japan in the Far East, where during the war it did not have strong rivals. The country gradually increased its armed and economic forces.

During formal diplomatic negotiations inThe first post-war years, the Japanese managed to retain the occupied territories in China and the sea spaces of this region. But at the same time, the victorious United States increasingly felt like "masters" on the world arena and especially in the Pacific. After all, they were powerful even before the war, taking the leading place in the world. In the years of military confrontation, the United States suffered relatively small human and economic losses, but the total debt of European states to Americans increased to two tens of billions of dollars. It was clear that the United States would seek to obtain not only economic, but also political profit from such a situation. Because of all this, the conditions of the Versailles Conference proved to be highly controversial and ambiguous. Of course, this affected its results even in the shortest time after the event.

The participants

At the Paris (Versailles) Peace Conferencethere were a large number of countries according to the number of battles. Diplomatic negotiations, formally ending military action, attracted several groups of negotiators:

• the main participants in the war are the winners;
• loser states;
• neutral strong states (like Japan);
• newly-formed European states;
• Secondary countries of Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Among the former and current states of the Entente,it turned out to be only our country. Why did not Russia participate in the Versailles Conference? Soviet Russia refused to participate in the conference, although it was formally invited to it.

In this large assembly of countries, only a few of the winning states had the right to vote.

Terms and Conditions USA

The development of the post-war world, despite the greatthe number of participants in the Versailles Conference, largely depended on the position of the United States, which was based on 14 Wilson points. It was a radical and not entirely realistic program for the reconstruction of the world, which was not accepted by many political forces, even in the United States. Its essence:

• openness of the world order, including the openness of treaties, shipping, trade;
• solution of the colonial issue between states, taking into account the rights of the population;
• the solution of the Russian question taking into account the interests of Russia itself;
• solution of territorial issues in Europe taking into account the interests of countries (France, Belgium);
• Italy's expansion was supposed to be solved in the light of the national question;
• the creation of new European states;
• the creation of an international organization (League of Nations).

This program, quite Utopian and nottaking into account the interests of many countries, although it had a serious impact on the decisions of the Versailles Conference, was only partly embodied. Implemented only 4 Wilson points.

The results of the Versailles Peace Treaty

The results of the Versailles Conference were very great for the world. Diplomatic negotiations ended with a number of agreements that can be divided into several groups:

• Germany lost part of its territories in Europe;
• the country lost all its existing colonies in Africa and Asia;
• recognized the independence of the territories thatthe composition of the Russian Empire at the beginning of the war, abolished all agreements concluded with the Soviet state, recognized all the countries created in this or that part of Russia;
• recognized all new states;
• Germany sharply reduced the army, it paid reparations to the winners.

The Versailles Peace Treaty, developed at the Paris Peace Conference, concurrently completed the last war and opened a new era in international relations. But the new world did not last long.

The League of nations

The actual consequence of the Versaillesinternational conference was the emergence of a new international organization. The problems of spheres of influence and the number of members of the new international organization led to serious discussions at the conference. Previously, the League of Nations was formed with the tasks of defending peace and preventing a new war based on the formation of international cooperation.

However, during the conference it became clear that there are several rather contradictory problems of the creation and functioning of the League of Nations.

The project of a new international organization from FranceIt was clearly anti-German and took into account the contents of the documents of the Versailles Peace Conference. At the same time, Germany itself did not have the right to be included in this structure. The League provided for the establishment of international troops and the General Staff.

That is, France advocated the creation of realstructures that would be able to ensure the implementation of the decisions of the League of Nations. However, such a project did not attract the country's leading allies - neither Britain nor the US - their projects were more moderate.

The English project had only some schemearbitration in the sphere of interaction of large states, which merged into an alliance. His task is to prevent an unexpected attack by one of the members of the association on another. The British believed that this would provide an opportunity to save their considerable colonial possessions.

The American project increased the number of members in theThe league is at the expense of smaller states. The principle of obligations of territorial unity and political sovereignty of any member of the organization began to work. However, the possibility of changing the existing state formations and their borders was allowed, provided that 75% of the League members see them as not meeting the current national circumstances and the principles of the sovereignty of nations.

As a result, this document was an agreement betweenUSA and England and reflected their interests and understanding of the development of the world. The main tasks of the League of Nations were to confront the war and preserve the current world order.

Charter

The League of Nations was clearly created taking into account the current international situation and the decisions of the Versailles Conference. The first article of the document established membership in it. In the League there were three kinds of countries:

• the founding states that approved the Charter as part of the peace agreement on ending the war were the countries that participated in the war;
• States that did not take part in the war (thirteen states of Europe, Latin America and Persia);
• The remaining countries admitted to the League of Nations by a general vote.

Bodies of the League

The leading bodies of the organization were the Assembly - the general meeting, the Council - the current executive body and the permanent Secretariat.

The first structure was collected once this year and could analyze all issues related to the current situation and the adherence to contracts.

The second organ of the League consisted of unchangedrepresentatives of the five leading powers and four variables. The Council must meet once a year and study a large list of issues that are within the scope of the League's work.

The Secretariat, subject to the regulations, was in Geneva. He consisted of several employees and led the ongoing work of the League of Nations.

The Washington Summit of 1921-1922.

The leaders of the Asian and European countries, which have in the water area of ​​the Pacific, solved a number of issues that had accumulated over the turbulent years of the second half of the 10th. XX century.

The conference was held from November 1921.until February 1922 in Washington. Losing in the war, Germany and Soviet Russia were not invited to the conference. But representatives of these countries conducted informal talks on issues of interest to them.

A number of important legal agreements were signed at the conference.

One of the main treaties was the agreementon the preservation of colonial possessions in the light of the changes that are taking place. Previous agreements were abolished and new ones signed, indicating the growing influence of the United States, Japan and, in part, China.

Another treaty that determined the situation in the worldsubsequent years, was an agreement on the containment of naval weapons. It defined the list of states with the right of priority development of the Navy, their specific weight in this process and the maximum size of military courts. At the same time, it was forbidden to build large volumes of military ships and fortified seaside structures.

The conference in the US capital continued and largely modified the agreements of the Versailles Conference.

Instability of the system

International agreements adopted in severalpostwar years, recorded the situation, noted the ways and scale of further development and, ultimately, stabilized the international situation for some time. However, this only brought temporary stabilization, since the system turned out to be unstable and inefficient. There are several reasons for such consequences:

1. The Versailles Peace Conference covered only a part of the states, especially the negative impact of the absence of the USSR and the US are two big countries, without them the preservation of the situation in Europe was impossible.
2. The system itself was in an unstable position.The contradictions between Britain and France, the humiliated position of Germany, the new states that did not fit into the old structure-all this was bound to affect sooner or later.
3. A serious drawback of the system was fixedin it the principle of economic activity of European states. This division seriously destroyed economic ties in the regions of Europe. The single market was broken not dozens of small ones, but it was not possible to neutralize this problem. Europe was not able to make common decisions on economic issues. And the global economic crisis in the middle of the interwar era contributed to a strong drop in relations between countries.

All this together with serious internalproblems of many states plunged the existing system of the Versailles Conference. In addition, the events led to another world war, this time even more ambitious.

The position of Germany and the USSR

Versailles-Washington Conference broughta much needed, but very unstable and unjust peace. According to the results of the Versailles Agreement, two major states - Germany and Soviet Russia - were victims, which led to a mutual rapprochement of the two states. Germany created illegal military equipment in the USSR and taught its personnel to the military. The USSR formally received the status of a significant European state (1922), in the end it was gradually forced to recognize the Entente states, otherwise Germany alone would have a special position in trade relations with Russia.

Both countries considered Versailles decisionsconference unfair. The states of the Entente cast off any responsibility for the past war, although in practice it was a cumulative European problem, and all the belligerents were to blame for the bloodshed.

The significant amount of reparations required withGermany, contributed to inflation and depletion of serious segments of the local population. In fact, because of this, the Nazi regime emerged, which formulated populist appeals for revenge.

The League of Nations, which began work in early 1920, controlled by the Entente. Having not stopped the French attack on Germany (the seizure of the Ruhr basin in 1923), the League of Nations lost its authority and ability to jam the larger conflicts of these years, and, ultimately, was unable to stop the new world war.

results

Results of the Versailles-Washington Conference weresignificant. The new inter-war system of world relations is the world order, the base of which was founded by the Versailles Agreement of 1919, as well as by a number of legal documents between the countries. The European component of the existing system (otherwise - Versailles) was largely created under the influence of the interests and position of the winning countries while ignoring the interests of the losers and the newly created states (only in Europe - nine countries), which made this structure sensitive to collapse, including because of the requirements for its reform, and did not allow long-term consistency in world affairs.

The negative response of the United States to the questionabout work in the existing system, the isolation of Soviet Russia and the anti-German focus were made of it in a poorly stable and not narrowly targeted machine. Because of this, the possibility of a new global conflict soon grew. The United States became a sovereign country and broke the current order. Difficult for Germany points of the Versailles peace (the amount of reparations, etc.) insulted the population and stirred up revanchist emotional tendencies, which resulted in one of the reasons for the seizure of power by the fascists, who started a new bloody world war.

Washington military-political system,covering the Pacific region was a much more significant balance, but was also not perfect. Its instability caused the vagueness of the political formation of China, the military nature of Japan’s foreign policy development, the isolationism of US policy and other important factors.

Another typical sign of the Versailles system that appeared was anti-Soviet aspiration. In many points for diplomatic politeness, the countries showed bloodthirstiness towards Soviet Russia.

The largest profit created by Versaillessystems found England, France and the United States. At that time, a civil war continued in Russia, and the Communists won. At first, they tried to establish diplomatic ties with neighboring Afghanistan, with the newly emerged Baltic states and Finland. There was an attempt to improve diplomatic relations with a hostile Poland, but Pilsudski carried out openly anti-Soviet actions, the Polish army was on the territory of neighboring Ukraine. In response, Communist Russia tried to re-attach these two parts of former Tsarist Russia, but the Poles put up resistance and the USSR suffered a serious defeat, and as a result, the Bolshevik government was forced to agree with Poland. This country has reserved a part of the Soviet territory.

Contracts signed in the post-war periodoccurred due to a number of problems in the content of agreements aimed at eliminating contradictions in certain regions of the Earth. In this regard, Washington was both the next part of Versailles and the beginning of its change. Although the system created during the Versailles-Washington Conference showed its incapacity very quickly, it nevertheless contributed to stabilization, albeit temporary.

Then the world order reeled again. This time, no less significantly. After a generation (even a little less) a new war broke out, again Germany became the aggressor. Again, Soviet Russia opposed. The "new order" collapsed. The world froze in anticipation, but the war turned out to be significant, although no one expected the repetition of the horrors of the First World War. The Versailles-Washington system collapsed, and forever. After the establishment of peace, completely different people decided the world law and order.

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