Describe the measures taken to preserve the peace following World War I.  

 

After the devastation of World War I, the victorious Western Powers imposed a series of harsh treaties on the defeated countries. These treaties stripped the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, along with Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria) of important territories and imposed significant compensation payments on them.

The 1919 calendar was running. After several years of a war that was thought to last a short time, exhausted Europe was preparing for the postwar period.

The victors, just as tired as the losers, began to prepare different treaties that they would impose on the central powers, without the possibility of negotiating the conditions.

In this context, various measures were taken through the signing of the following treaties: Versailles with Germany, Saint Germain with Austria, Trianon with Hungary, Neuilly with Bulgaria and Sèvres with Turkey.

None of the States managed to reverse the conditions imposed by the allies, except for Turkey with the uprising led by Mustafa Kemal, better known as Atatürk. But if there is a peace treaty with great repercussions in world history, it is the Treaty of Versailles. We could say, without any fear of being wrong, that it is the germ of German National Socialism that led the world to World War II.

Once the armistice of war was signed, the path to negotiations began. They were built on a foundation proposed by the president of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson. In a document, he presented fourteen points with which he intended to solve the problems that had led to the war, the present situation and also to establish rules that would favor peaceful coexistence. Among these points were: the abolition of secret diplomacy, the reduction of arms, the elimination of barriers in international trade as far as possible, freedom of navigation in all seas, the creation of the League of Nations and various related with return, rectification or independence in certain territories.

In conclusion, the Treaty of Versailles tried to prevent Germany from maintaining a hegemonic role and could start a new conflict on a world scale. However, it was not an adequate policy in that it really punished the German population very harshly and paved the way for extremist and totalitarian options such as that represented by Adolf Hitler.

Step-by-step explanation

Reinforcing the above,

In January 1918, about ten months before the end of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson had written a list of proposed war goals that he called the "Fourteen Points." Eight of these points specifically dealt with territorial and political agreements related to the victory of the Entente Powers, including the idea of ??national self-determination for the ethnic populations of Europe. The rest of these principles concentrated on avoiding war in the future, and the last one proposed that a League of Nations arbitrate future international contests. Wilson hoped that his proposal would lead to a just and lasting peace, a "peace without victory" in order to end the "war to end all wars."

When German leaders signed the armistice, many of them believed that the Fourteen Points would form the basis of the future peace treaty, but when the heads of government of the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy met in Paris to discuss the terms of the treaty, the European contingent of the "Big Four" had other plans. As they saw Germany as the main instigator of the conflict, the European Allied Powers eventually imposed particularly strict obligations on the defeated Germany in the treaty.