Aftermath of World War I
Contents
- Introduction
- Background of World War I
- The Beginning of the War
- Fronts of World War I
- The Russian Revolution
- America Enters the War
- The End of Fighting
- Consequences of World War I
- Peace Settlement
- Aftermath of World War I
At the peace conference it was impossible to respect the wishes of all the countries involved. The new borders in Eastern Europe, for example, did not always match with the areas of the national groups who lived there. Many Germans lived in parts of Poland and Czechoslovakia. Romania received land with a Hungarian majority. The Arabs were angry because they did not get independent nations in the Middle East.
Austria and Hungary, on the other side , lost most of their territory and became very small nations. Austria, with its German-speaking population wanted to unite with Germany but the peacemakers did not allow this because they were afraid that Germany would become too strong.
On the side of the Allies, Great Britain was allowed to keep all of its overseas colonies, but the British worried that Germany would become too weak and the new Communist movement in Russia would become too strong.
American Congress rejected the treaty because it feared that the newly created League of Nations would lead the United States into more conflicts.
Germany never accepted the treaty. Its population thought it was unfair to punish a single country so much. These views led to the rise of the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler, who promised to make Germany powerful again.
World War I- Online Exercises
Words
- accept = to agree to
- Allies = the countries that fought against Germany and Austria-Hungary , and that won the war
- border = line between two countries
- Congress = the House of Representatives and the Senate ; both bodies are responsible for making laws in America
- fear = to be afraid
- independent = free
- involve= to take part in
- League of Nations = international organisation that was created after World War I to get countries to work together peacefully and live side by side; the United States, however, never accepted this organisation
- majority = most of the people in a group
- match = to be exactly the same as
- movement = people who believe I the same things and have the same ideas
- nation = country
- overseas = on other continents
- peace conference = the place where peace was discussed
- peacemakers = those who were responsible for making peace
- punish = to make someone suffer because they have done something wrong
- receive = get
- reject = to say no
- respect = here: to be careful not to do anything against another country's wishes
- rise = here. come to power
- territory = land
- treaty = agreement
- unite = get together with; join
- views = ways of thinking