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I got this question from an essay. Here is a summary of it. What do you think?
continued..........After the first World War, the two main powers in the world were the USA, under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson, and the USSR- the newly revolutionised, newly Communist Russia, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin.
It was decided by the European states that had been affected by the war that Germany was the responsible party, and as a result must face the consequences for her actions. This was to be discussed at conferences sat to settle up a treaty, to be known in the future as the treaty of Versailles, or the Versailles System. Even though the US and USSR were the two greatest and potentially the most influential powers in the world, neither of them were deeply involved with the Versailles system, with the US dropping out after a few talks, and the USSR not participating from the beginning.
The formation of the treaty of Versailles began on 18th January 1919 in the Quai d'Orsay (at the French Foreign Ministry). It officially concluded on the 7th of May when the peace terms were presented to the German delegation. 32 states were officially represented but the whole conference only came together six times. Ultimately, the talks were dominated by the 'big four': President Wilson of the USA, Prime Minister Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Clemenceau of France and Prime Minister Orlando of Italy. The manner of the negotiations has often been criticised by historians; Sally Marks described how the big four 'proceeded in slipshod fashion without agenda, minutes, or any record of decisions until the secretary of the British delegation, the supremely efficient Colonel Sir Maurice Hankey, insinuated himself into their midst and rescued them from disaster. Even then the agenda darted from topic to topic, and the big four were startlingly erratic in either accepting, ignoring or rejecting expert reports.'
The main points and aims of the Treaty in its final form were these. First came the War guilt clause. This was to make Germany accept blame for starting the war and this led to the reparation bill. The Reparations, possibly the most famous (and crippling and ill-advised) aspects of the treaty, came to around £6600 million. Germany was not consulted in the negotiation of this figure. There were also restrictions on Armed forces. The army was limited to 100,000, conscription was banned, Germany was not allowed submarines, aircraft or armoured vehicles, and was only granted permission to possess 6 battleships. The Rhineland area was demilitarised. There were of course carvings- up of German territories and colonies. Its overseas empire was taken away and its colonies became mandates to the UK and France. For example, the Alsace-Lorraine was to be returned to France. Finally there was the small matter of the League of Nations; Germany wasn't invited to join until she proved that she was a peace loving country.
Woodrow Wilson was responsible for the bulk of the Treaty of Versailles in its original form and its terms were greatly supported and loved by the general European public, but those in charge in France and Britain were bent on exacting revenge on Germany, for the destruction she had caused. It took much debate, but eventually Wilson encouraged the European powers to sign the treaty, but on his return home, he found it a far greater challenge to get the treaty passed through Congress. This was a challenge he failed to complete and the treaty was rejected. One reason for this rejection was the strength of Congressional opponents, who also gained popularity and support from the American public.
In shunning the treaty, America was also shunning Europe in general, with many politicians wishing to adopt an isolationist approach. Most of Americans believed that staying out of Europe would be beneficial. Wilson too saw the flaws of Versailles; he knew that excessive vengeance on Germany would cause another war, as the reparations demanded of Germany would lead to hostility and as a result form the path towards a second great war.
Even though the Americans opted out of Europe's main administration and political set up, it did not keep out of the scheme entirely. It realised that due to the reparations imposed on Germany its economy would collapse and they wouldn't be able to pay the allies anything. A direct consequence of this would be Britain not being able to repay the USA for all it had borrowed. In order to aid Germany, the United States made loans to it for reconstruction purposes. This eventually reached the amount of $2.8 billion dollars. This gesture to help the Germans was supposed to make the British and American economies stronger. Instead, it weakened the economy because Germany could not pay their out-standing debts.
In 1924 the Germans were offered what seemed like an ideal way to restore its economic sovereignty. Known as the Dawes plan, it was decided that the reparation payments would rise from 1 billion to 2.5 billion Rentenmarks. To achieve this, an international loan of 800 million Rentenmarks would be given to Germany. This money would be raised by the buying of German railways and industrial bonds;
'American banks bought the bonds at 87 (the English at 87.5); the bonds were sold to the public at 92, and were to be redeemed at 105. Germany, to receive 800 million Rentenmarks, had to issue bonds with a face value of 11.027 billion Rentenmarks.'#
For the Americans, this was a lucrative chance to gain immense profit. American and British investors bought up all of the bonds, often oversubscribing the bonds' issue, drastically increased the price, then sold them to make a huge profit. This was total expLoitation of Germany's attempts and desires to repay its debt.
This was quite strategic on America's part, as this ensured that although they were still giving money to Germany in the form of loans, the money made from selling these bonds was enough to make it worthwhile. Also, keeping an isolationist policy going meant that when the second great war began-an inevitable occurrence in Wilson's eyes- the US would not be bound by the treaty to take part in the war.
America's shunning of Europe was a direct opposite to the situation of the USSR.
In 1917 Russia dropped out of the war when revolution broke out. The provisional Government attempted to keep in the war, but any effort was pointless. By the time Lenin's Bolsheviks established control in October 1917, Russia was officially out of the war.
Russia played no noticeable part at all in Europe from then until 1922. From 1918-1921 it was entrenched in civil war. This involved the Reds, which included the Bolsheviks, which had members including Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky, and the Whites, members of which included Kornilov, Krasnov and Denekin. The Whites were also supported by the Allied forces. When Trotsky as commissar for war created the Red army, the sheer force of it made sure that by 1920 the three main offensives from the Whites had been repelled. At this point the allies withdrew, being the last contact that Russia would have with them for some time.
The new policies implemented in Russia by Vladimir Lenin were drastically different to anything seen before in Europe. The policy of War Communism introduced extensive nationalisation, forceful and often violent methods of grain requisition from the peasantry in the country side, harsh and forceful direction of labour and, possibly the most alien concept to Western capitalist culture, the temporary abolition of money as an object for measuring value. A state of war was observed in practically every area of everyday life- Lenin's original promise of 'Peace, land and bread' was put on the back burner in favour of obtaining a Bolshevik victory in the civil war.
These social and economic policies ensured it was shunned by the Capitalist West, and also had limited trade contact.
In February 1922 Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, which amongst other things abolished the requisition of grain, leaving the peasants free to sell off surplus grain for profit; restoration of private enterprises in industry, making private profit legal again, and, most importantly to Russia in the context of this question, the renewal of efforts to open up trade with foreign countries. By 1924 trading links had been renewed with many of the great powers. This made the Russian state slightly more acceptable to Europe, and it gingerly attempted to bridge the gap.
In April 1922, while Lloyd George was trying to court the Russians into his favour, the Germans developed their commitment to Russia, not wanting her as a major enemy due to the close proximity in which Russia lay to Germany. The Rapallo treaty meant that Germany and Russia now had close economic and military co-operation. 'On the Russian plains, far from the prying eyes of military control commissions, Germany could and did build factories, produce the aeroplanes, poison gases and tanks forbidden by the Versailles Treaty, test them, and train military personnel, both German and Russian, in their use. While this mutually beneficial arrangement had its ups and downs, it flourished throughout the twenties and to a lesser degree until the advent of Hitler.'#
