Transcript The Foundations of the Peace

The Foundations of the Peace
Section 21.108
Introduction
• WWI ended with no clearcut settlement (unlike
WWI and Versailles)
• Peace terms came
gradually during war
• Atlantic Charter (8/1941)
called for sovereign rights
of nations, free trade, 4
freedoms (derived from
Wilson's 14 pts.)
Unconditional Surrender
• Casablanca Conference (1/43) Big
Three decided on unconditional
surrender of Axis
– Adopted at Americas urging without
thought of its political ramifications
• Teheran Conference (12/43)
– Discussed post war Germany and
strategy
– FDR avoided big questions of
territory and government in E.
Europe in order to keep the Allies
together
– Churchill wanted to invade Balkans
(in order to head off Soviets and out
of fear of cross channel invasion)
– Agreed to open 2nd front by spring
of ’44 in France
– This agreement would win the war
but all but guaranteed Soviet
domination of E. Europe
The Agreements at Yalta
• 2/45
• Met in Tsars Crimean summer
resort in Crimea on Black Sea
• FDR saw himself as the
mediator and tried to make
himself seem neutral to Stalin
• FDR actually distrusted
Churchill devotion to
imperialism
• Agreed on Poland, E. Europe,
Germany division, and
creation of UN
Poland and Eastern Europe (Yalta)
• Soviets controlled Poland by the time Yalta occurred
• Stalin viewed Poland as anti-Soviet and even
aggressive (1920), and as historical pathway of
invasion (Nap, Hitler)
• Curzon line
– Allies agreed on Russian Polish border as it was
originally set in 1919 (before Poles took more)
– Poles would be compensated with German
territory
• Germany would be disarmed and divided in 4
occupations zones
• Soviet proposal of heavy reparations was rejected
(20 billion with half going to USSR)
– Said reparations should be paid but never set a
figure
• Declaration on Liberated Europe
– At Yalta Stalin ‘promised’ to that democratic
provisional government be established & free election
would occur at ‘earliest possible date’
• This never happened
The United Nations
• FDR felt it important that all Great
Powers join international body
• Act as a police to prevent future wars
• Great Powers would be permanent
members of Security Council who would
have veto power on important decisions
• Soviets wanted 16 votes in General
Assembly (said USSR was 16 sovereign
nations)
– Churchill convinced FDR and Stalin
to 3
• USSR agreed to enter Pacific war 2-3
months after Germany fell
• Would be compensated with territories
lost in Russo-Jap war (1905) and Kurile
Islands
• FDR gave in to this because he believed
that “diplomacy of friendship” could
continue after war
Potsdam Conference
•
•
•
•
7/1945
Suburb of Berlin
New Faces
Truman, Clement Attlee
(replaced Churchill in middle
of Conference), and Stalin
• US and USSR relations were
starting to chill
• But they did agree on:
– German disarmament,
demilitarization,
denazification, punishment
of war criminals
– Allies could take
reparations from their
zones and Soviets would
receive further
compensation
Germany Divided
• Poland got German territory east of
Oder-Neisse rivers
• Further westward than originally
proposed
• Got German E. Prussia in the South
– Stettin and Breslau became
Szczecin and Wroclaw
– Danzig renamed Gdansk
• Soviets took N. Prussia
– Teutonic Knight cities of
Knigsberg became Russia
Kaliningrad
• Millions of Germans were driven or
fled from homes in these areas
• Other treaties were later signed with
Italy, Japan
• No treaty ever signed with Germany
• Crisis of WWII was over but new
storm was freezing over Europe