Evaluate the successes and failures of the Paris Peace conference in creating a stable European Community in the post WWI era.

The Paris Peace Conference is considered by many people as a complete failure as it did not succeed to bring about long-term peace and as a result, twenty years later, the world was led to an even bloodier war, WWII. However, one needs to be objective and fair by trying to understand the conditions at the time and analyze everything. We will analyze who were the Key Players and how their conflicting interests influenced the future of Europe and we will focus on key decisions such as reparations on Germany, the formation of the League of Nations and arms restrictions in order to be able to conclude if these were successful or failed to achieve results.

The first problem with the Paris Peace Conference was the fact that although 32 countries participated, Germany and Russia were not amongst those nations. This was problematic because by excluding Germany (the looser of WWI) this created the feeling the decisions made were one-sided and that the Treaty was unfair to them. Russia also did not participate as it was under a Communist regime and their government was not recognized and not fully functional after their revolution. Therefore, all the major decisions were made by the Big 3 nations of the USA, France and England. Moreover, each of the big 3 nations had it own specific interests regarding the eventual outcome of the Paris Peace Conference.

These conflicting interests of the Big 3 Powers are considered by many as a major cause of the failure of the Paris Peace Conference and it is therefore important to understand them. The USA tried to be impartial and focused its attention in trying to create international cooperation through the creation of the League of Nations and also demanded self-determination to be recognized for many ethnic people which led to the creation of new states in Europe. At the same time France was the most aggressive and demanded revenge and punishment for Germany. France pushed hard for the severe reparations and the initial 5 to 6 billion dollars of reparations imposed on Germany in 1919 were increased to 40 billion by 1921. This is considered by many as the Key cause of Germany’s economic collapse a few years later which opened the door to Hitler and led to the rise of the nationalism and the Nazis with the known catastrophic results. France also demanded an independent Rhineland which further infuriated the German people. England, on the other hand, wanted Germany to pay but it not wish to destroy them. England pushed and achieved a reduction of the German fleet in order to protect its own Navy and at the same time succeeded in expanding their Empire by getting the overseas German lands. It is clear that the big powers each wanted a solution to fit their own needs and as a result of this the Paris Peace Conference ended with a short-term peace which did not hold for long.

As mentioned above the very high reparations imposed on Germany proved catastrophic for the country and led to its economic collapse during the Great depression. Similarly, reparations imposed on Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria also affected negatively those countries. The decision of reparations, in conjunction with the Great depression, is considered by many as a big mistake as economies were destroyed and there was huge unemployment and people struggled to survive. All these conditions created fertile ground for the rise of nationalism and a lot of social problems. It is not surprising, therefore, that after WWI the winning nations decided not to repeat their mistake of WWI reparations and they assisted the losing countries like Germany and Japan to revive and rebuilt their economies and societies.
One of the outcomes of the Paris Peace Conference was the creation of the League of Nations. As mentioned earlier, this was the idea of the American President, Woodrow Wilson. Unfortunately for him, the Congress and the American people were not in support of this. The American constitution did not allow this, plus the American people did not wish to engage themselves in anything such alliances which might lead them to war again. Eventually America never joined the League of Nations. Although the initial 32 countries of the League of Nations increased to 60 by the 1930’s it did not succeed to guarantee peace as decisions were to be taken unanimously. For example when Japan invaded Manchurian in China all the countries voted against Japan and the war did not stop but Japan simply left the League. Also the fact that the League of Nations did not have the military means to stop any aggression made it just an idealist body.

Despite all the failures of the Paris Peace Conference one could argue that they were inevitable given the conditions at the time. One cannot ignore German aggression and France’s fears. Therefore, one can argue that France rightfully demanded punishment for Germany. Certainly we cannot ignore the fact the Paris Peace Conference established the country borders in Europe which lasted for at least 20 years. If anything this was a success. Another success could be considered the distraction of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires which led to the independence and self-determination for many people. In addition the military restrictions on Germany, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria were significant. Especially the restrictions on Germany made a lot of nations feel at ease but unfortunately this did not last long.

To conclude, one could say that the Paris Peace Conference only managed to achieve short-lived results. The conflicting interests of the main Powers (USA, France and England) were not aligned and decisions such as the harsh reparations on Germany eventually proved to be a mistake. The formation of the League of Nations created a powerless body and although arm-restrictions led to a short-term peace, twenty years later the world entered into another major war.