Politics of the Extreme and World War I (^) ‹ 177
Shortly after the signing of the treaty, Russia was engulfed by civil war. Anti-communist
groups, generally called the Whites in contrast to the communist Reds, were led by mem-
bers of the old tsarist elite intent upon defending their privileges. Both sides received sup-
port from foreign governments, and for more than three years, from December 1917 to
November 1920, the Bolshevik regime was engaged in a life-and-death struggle, which it
ultimately won.
Germany’s Disintegration and the Peace Settlement
Germany launched one last great offensive in March 1918 through the Somme toward
Paris. The “Allies,” as the French, British, and American coalition came to be known,
responded by uniting their troops under a single commander, the French General
Ferdinand Foch, for the first time. French troops were reinforced by fresh British conscripts
and 600,000 American troops. By July 1918, the tide had turned in the Allies’ favor for
good. German forces retreated slowly along the whole Western Front. By early September,
the German high command informed their government that peace had to be made at once.
On November 9, 1918, German Kaiser William II abdicated, and two days later—at the
eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month—representatives of a new German
government agreed to terms that amounted to unconditional surrender.
Peace negotiations began in Paris in January 1919 and were conducted by the
victors; Germany was forced to accept the terms dictated to it. The French delega-
tion was led by Georges Clemenceau, whose desire was to make sure that Germany
could never threaten France again. The U.S. delegation was led by President Woodrow
Wilson, who approached the peace talks with bold plans for helping to build a new
Europe that could embrace the notions of individual rights and liberty, which he
believed characterized the United States. Great Britain was led by Prime Minister
David Lloyd George, who tried to mediate between the vindictive Clemenceau and the
idealistic Wilson.
The result was a series of five treaties that have, collectively, come to be known as the
Treaty of Versailles. The overall settlement, sometimes also referred to as the Peace of Paris,
contained much that was unprecedented and much that would sow the seeds of further
conflict. Among the more significant aspects of the settlement were the following:
• Germany was forced to pay $5 billion annually in reparations in 1921, with no guarantee
as to the total amount (the final amount was set at $33 billion in 1921). (Germany made
its final reparation payment in October 2010.)
• New independent nations were established in Eastern Europe as Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
and Yugoslavia were created out of the old Austria-Hungary; Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania were created out of the western part of the old Russian Empire; and
Poland was created out of lands formerly part of Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary.
• Germany, in what came to be known as “the war guilt clause,” was forced to accept full
blame for the war.
• Germany was stripped of all its overseas colonies.
• The territory of Alsace-Lorraine, taken by Germany during the Franco-Prussian War of
1870–1871, was returned to France.
• The Allies were given the right to occupy German territories on the west bank of the
Rhine River for 15 years.
• Germany’s armed forces were limited to 100,000 soldiers and saddled with armament
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