Achievements and Limitations of the Paris Peace Conference

In 1919, the victorious countries of World War I, led by the United States, Britain, and France, held the Paris Peace Conference. This peace conference was supposed to create a lasting peace, but World War II broke out less than twenty years later, reflecting its ineffectiveness in promoting peace in Europe. The following will elaborate on the limited achievements and limitations of the Peace Conference in detail.

(1) The achievements of the Paris Peace Conference in promoting peace in Europe:

An international organization was established with the purpose of maintaining world peace: After experiencing the First World War, the participating countries of the Paris Peace Conference wanted to avoid the devastation of war and maintain world peace, so they established the League of Nations at the proposal of U.S. President Wilson. Under the mediation and economic sanctions of the League of Nations, some disputes between small European countries were resolved in the 1920s, such as the territorial disputes between Yugoslavia and Albania, and the Greek invasion of Bulgaria.

Able to respond to the rise of nationalism and establish new nation-states: One of the important reasons for the outbreak of World War I was the rise of nationalism in Europe, which demanded independence from alien rule. At the Paris Peace Conference, the principle of national self-determination proposed by Wilson was adopted, and new nation-states such as Poland, Yugoslavia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were established, thus preventing any more nations from fighting for independence and establishing large-scale military affairs. Possibility of conflict.

(2) The limitations of the Paris Peace Conference in promoting peace in Europe:

The League of Nations was unable to maintain peace in Europe: The International, established to maintain world peace, had long lacked the participation of major powers. For example, the United States had always refused to join, and Germany and the Soviet Union had only been members for a few years in the mid-1920s. In addition, there were no It has its own military power, so it is difficult to check and balance the aggressive behavior of some big countries. For example, when Germany invaded the Czech Republic and Austria in 1938, the League of Nations was unable to stop it due to the appeasement policies of Britain and France.

• The redrawing of European territory has led to new ethnic disputes: As mentioned above, many new European countries were established on the principle of national self-determination. However, the interests of some ethnic minorities are still ignored and national boundaries cannot be correctly divided according to ethnic groups. For example, there are about 3.5 million Germans in the Czech Republic, about 1 million Germans in Poland, and a large number of Romanians and Magyars in Yugoslavia. These arrangements not only led to new ethnic disputes in Europe, but even provided a reason for Germany to invade the Czech Republic and Poland in the 1930s.

• Created new hatred in the defeated countries: The Paris Peace Conference was attended only by the victors of the First World War, and the defeated countries were not allowed to participate or express opinions. Therefore, the Treaty of Versailles against Germany and the Peace of Saint-Zemen against Austria The Covenant can be regarded as imposed on them. Among them, the Treaty of Versailles harshly required Germany to bear all war crimes responsibilities, cede territories and colonies, pay huge sums of money, and disarm. The Germans were very angry and hoped that a strong man would lead them in revenge. This laid the foundation for the Second World War. Voltage line.

The victorious countries were also dissatisfied with the decisions of the peace conference: all major decisions at the Paris Peace Conference were controlled by the "Big Three", namely the leaders of the United States, Britain and France. Therefore, some victorious countries did not get the results they expected, causing new international conflicts.. For example, Italy sacrificed 600,000 people in the war, but did not get the two lands of Dalmatia and Fiume that it most hoped to obtain. Many Italians regarded the results of the peace conference as a shame and believed that this was due to the cowardice and incompetence of the Italian government. , the desire for a strong leader led the totalitarian ruler Mussolini to come to power in the 1920s, and then invaded the Greek island of Corfu and Albania.

In summary, the 1919 Paris Peace Conference could only achieve very limited achievements in promoting peace in Europe, but had many limitations, which indirectly led to multiple conflicts in Europe between the two wars and the Second World War.