WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.140 Welcome back. Have you ever looked at a modern 00:00:02.140 --> 00:00:06.660 map of the world and just wondered why are the 00:00:06.660 --> 00:00:09.220 borders drawn exactly there? Yeah, or why certain 00:00:09.220 --> 00:00:12.720 countries have these really deep historical grievances 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:15.679 that still dominate our news feeds today. Exactly. 00:00:16.019 --> 00:00:17.879 Well, today we're taking you back to a singular 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:21.239 moment in time where the globe was quite literally 00:00:21.239 --> 00:00:24.339 carved up by a few men sitting in a room. We're 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:27.660 talking about the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:30.859 to 1920. It genuinely serves as the ultimate 00:00:30.859 --> 00:00:33.299 origin story for the 20th century. We're drawing 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:36.299 today on an incredibly detailed historical overview 00:00:36.299 --> 00:00:40.520 of the conference. And the sheer volume of cascading 00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:42.200 consequences that came out of these meetings 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:44.479 is just truly unprecedented. Yeah, it really 00:00:44.479 --> 00:00:46.740 is. Everything from the rise of totalitarianism 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:48.600 to the borders of the Middle East traces right 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.799 back to these specific negotiations. Right. So 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.200 our mission for you today on this deep dive is 00:00:54.200 --> 00:00:56.659 to explore how this conference ended World War 00:00:56.659 --> 00:01:00.020 one But simultaneously through its compromises 00:01:00.020 --> 00:01:03.140 its bitter grudges and its frankly profound blind 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:06.319 spots Planted the seeds for World War two and 00:01:06.319 --> 00:01:09.040 a century of geopolitical tension. Okay, let's 00:01:09.040 --> 00:01:11.780 unpack this setting the scene You have the victorious 00:01:11.780 --> 00:01:14.780 allies descending on Paris to dictate the terms 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:17.239 of peace to the defeated Central Powers, right? 00:01:17.469 --> 00:01:19.650 The source describes the scale of this event 00:01:19.650 --> 00:01:23.390 as almost incomprehensible. What did Paris actually 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:25.469 look like during those months? It effectively 00:01:25.469 --> 00:01:27.459 became the center of a world government. You 00:01:27.459 --> 00:01:30.019 had diplomats from 32 different countries and 00:01:30.019 --> 00:01:32.219 nationalities pouring into the city. Wow. The 00:01:32.219 --> 00:01:34.900 logistical footprint was enormous. They established 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:38.159 52 separate commissions. They held over 1600 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:41.079 sessions, pulling in experts to draft reports 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:43.819 on everything imaginable. I mean, from the fate 00:01:43.819 --> 00:01:46.760 of prisoners of war to the regulation of international 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:49.900 aviation and even the ownership of undersea cables. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:52.739 Wild. Yeah. For a brief moment, every global 00:01:52.739 --> 00:01:54.760 issue was just being funneled directly through 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:57.900 Paris. But the source makes a very sharp distinction 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:00.560 between that sprawling bureaucracy and where 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:02.799 the actual power resided, right? Oh, absolutely. 00:02:02.980 --> 00:02:05.680 That entire apparatus was essentially a facade. 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:09.379 Despite the 32 countries present, the globe was 00:02:09.379 --> 00:02:11.919 being dictated to by the big four. And that's 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:14.500 the U .S., Britain, France, and Italy. Correct. 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:17.240 Specifically, U .S. President Woodrow Wilson, 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:20.319 British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:23.020 Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, and Italian 00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:26.389 Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. These 00:02:26.389 --> 00:02:28.889 four men, along with a tight circle of advisors, 00:02:29.389 --> 00:02:33.250 met informally 145 times. Behind closed doors. 00:02:33.409 --> 00:02:35.150 Behind closed doors. They made all the major 00:02:35.150 --> 00:02:36.870 decisions themselves, and then those decisions 00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:38.969 were just rolled out to be ratified by the rest 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:41.650 of the attendees. And the defeated nations, you 00:02:41.650 --> 00:02:43.610 know, Germany, Austria -Hungary, the Ottoman 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:46.270 Empire, they were simply not permitted a voice 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:48.830 in the deliberations. Which is a huge detail. 00:02:49.289 --> 00:02:51.490 I was reading the section detailing how the conference 00:02:51.490 --> 00:02:54.050 officially kicked off, and it mentioned a very 00:02:54.050 --> 00:02:56.509 specific date and... location chosen by the French. 00:02:57.409 --> 00:02:59.830 The conference formally opened on January 18, 00:03:00.069 --> 00:03:02.689 1919, and the eventual signing of the treaty 00:03:02.689 --> 00:03:04.710 with Germany happened in the Hall of Mirrors 00:03:04.710 --> 00:03:07.430 at the Palace of Versailles. Why was the French 00:03:07.430 --> 00:03:10.590 delegation so insistent on those exact details? 00:03:10.870 --> 00:03:13.629 Well, it was a highly calculated move to humiliate 00:03:13.629 --> 00:03:15.909 Germany. Which is a massive flex. A total flex. 00:03:16.449 --> 00:03:19.090 January 18th was the exact anniversary of the 00:03:19.090 --> 00:03:21.810 proclamation of the German Empire back in 1871, 00:03:22.129 --> 00:03:24.090 which, if you remember, occurred after France 00:03:24.090 --> 00:03:26.310 was defeated in the Franco -Prussian War. Right. 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:29.270 And that 1871 proclamation took place in that 00:03:29.270 --> 00:03:32.009 very same room, the Hall of Mirrors. So the French 00:03:32.009 --> 00:03:34.349 wanted to dismantle the German Empire in the 00:03:34.349 --> 00:03:36.960 exact physical space where it was That is so 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.280 deeply petty, but also rooted in real trauma, 00:03:39.379 --> 00:03:42.680 I imagine. Exactly. Trauma and a desperate desire 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:46.210 for security. French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau 00:03:46.210 --> 00:03:49.169 had personally witnessed two German invasions 00:03:49.169 --> 00:03:51.889 of French soil in his lifetime. So his primary 00:03:51.889 --> 00:03:55.090 objective was to weaken Germany militarily, strategically 00:03:55.090 --> 00:03:57.750 and economically so they could just never mount 00:03:57.750 --> 00:04:00.370 another invasion. That punitive approach seems 00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:03.370 to directly clash with the American delegation's 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:05.909 agenda. I mean, President Woodrow Wilson arrived 00:04:05.909 --> 00:04:08.430 in Europe as the first sitting U .S. president 00:04:08.430 --> 00:04:10.729 to ever visit the continent, and he brought his 00:04:10.729 --> 00:04:13.150 famous 14 points with him. Right. And Wilson 00:04:13.150 --> 00:04:15.830 was pushing a document bursting with idealism. 00:04:16.009 --> 00:04:18.350 He advocated for open diplomacy, free trade, 00:04:18.709 --> 00:04:20.889 national self -determination. He really wanted 00:04:20.889 --> 00:04:23.449 to construct a liberal world order governed by 00:04:23.449 --> 00:04:25.310 international law. But the Europeans weren't 00:04:25.310 --> 00:04:27.810 having it. Not at all. The European powers, who 00:04:27.810 --> 00:04:29.970 had bled for four years in the trenches, were 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:32.649 looking for tangible revenge and hard territorial 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:35.810 guarantees. They viewed Wilson as this academic 00:04:35.810 --> 00:04:38.050 who was just totally disconnected from the brutal 00:04:38.050 --> 00:04:40.930 realities of European geopolitics. Which perfectly 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.189 sets up my favorite quote from the source material. 00:04:44.009 --> 00:04:46.649 Clemenceau was so frustrated with Wilson's moralizing 00:04:46.649 --> 00:04:49.889 that he famously complained, Mr. Wilson bores 00:04:49.889 --> 00:04:52.750 me with his 14 points. Why, God Almighty has 00:04:52.750 --> 00:04:55.889 only 10. It's a great line. And that friction 00:04:55.889 --> 00:04:58.329 dominated the room, and it ultimately produced 00:04:58.329 --> 00:05:00.430 the Treaty of Versailles, the most famous of 00:05:00.430 --> 00:05:02.629 the five major treaties drafted at the conference. 00:05:03.250 --> 00:05:05.750 The centerpiece of that treaty was the notorious 00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:09.610 Article 231. The war guilt clause. Exactly. Article 00:05:09.610 --> 00:05:12.930 231 legally placed the entire liability for the 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:16.009 war and all the subsequent damages squarely on 00:05:16.009 --> 00:05:18.709 the aggression of Germany and her allies. Beyond 00:05:18.709 --> 00:05:21.129 just being a profound insult to the German public, 00:05:21.649 --> 00:05:23.610 what was the practical function of that clause? 00:05:23.790 --> 00:05:26.370 It served as the legal foundation required to 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:29.230 impose crippling financial reparations on Germany. 00:05:29.889 --> 00:05:32.310 The Allies needed a legal justification to demand 00:05:32.310 --> 00:05:34.730 that Germany pay for the pensions of Allied soldiers 00:05:34.730 --> 00:05:37.069 and the rebuilding of European infrastructure. 00:05:37.189 --> 00:05:39.649 So it was about the money. Yes, and it created 00:05:39.649 --> 00:05:42.329 an impossible financial burden. It was a debt 00:05:42.329 --> 00:05:44.189 Germany was supposed to pay, but essentially 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:48.009 defaulted on by 1931, which fueled deep domestic 00:05:48.009 --> 00:05:50.180 resentment. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:52.819 I noticed a detail in the source about some backdoor 00:05:52.819 --> 00:05:55.319 maneuvering by the French that happened completely 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:57.399 out of sight of the public and even out of sight 00:05:57.399 --> 00:06:00.060 of their own allies. What was the René -Massacly 00:06:00.060 --> 00:06:03.180 mission? This is a wild detail. France was so 00:06:03.180 --> 00:06:05.839 deeply paranoid about their security in the post 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:09.259 -war world that they sent a diplomat René Massili 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:13.079 on a secret mission to Berlin. Just totally bypassing 00:06:13.079 --> 00:06:15.079 the Americans and the British. Entirely behind 00:06:15.079 --> 00:06:17.920 their backs. Massili approached the German government 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:20.199 and proposed that France and Germany actually 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.300 shared a common enemy, the Anglo -Saxon powers, 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:25.519 meaning the U .S. and Britain. Unbelievable. 00:06:25.779 --> 00:06:28.879 Right. France offered to revise the harsh territorial 00:06:28.879 --> 00:06:31.759 and economic clauses of the upcoming peace treaty 00:06:31.759 --> 00:06:34.759 if Germany would agree to form a joint alliance 00:06:34.759 --> 00:06:37.500 with France to counter American and British global 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:39.800 dominance. To think that France was trying to 00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:41.879 ally with Germany against the US and Britain 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.759 before the ink was even dry on the treaty is 00:06:44.759 --> 00:06:47.639 just a crazy historical footnote. Why didn't 00:06:47.639 --> 00:06:50.019 Germany take the deal? Well, the German foreign 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.259 minister suspected it was a trap. He thought 00:06:52.259 --> 00:06:54.199 it was designed to trick them into accepting 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:56.879 the harsh treaty terms. Ironically, the German 00:06:56.879 --> 00:06:59.220 leadership also calculated that Woodrow Wilson 00:06:59.220 --> 00:07:01.540 was more likely to offer them lenient terms than 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:04.139 the French were. So they gambled on American 00:07:04.139 --> 00:07:06.740 idealism over French real politics. And lost 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:09.360 that gamble, ultimately. But France wasn't the 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:11.920 only allied power feeling deeply insecure about 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:14.480 the outcome. The Italian delegation seemed to 00:07:14.480 --> 00:07:16.560 be fighting an uphill battle from the moment 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:19.620 they arrived. True. Italy had joined the Allied 00:07:19.620 --> 00:07:22.480 war effort in 1915. specifically because they 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.439 were promised significant territorial expansions 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:28.000 in a secret agreement called the Treaty of London. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:30.639 Right. They were promised control over the Adriatic 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:32.819 Sea, including the Dalmatian coast, parts of 00:07:32.819 --> 00:07:35.660 the Tyrol and Trieste. But at the conference, 00:07:35.939 --> 00:07:38.560 Italian Prime Minister Orlando struggled to advocate 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.060 for his country. For one, he couldn't speak English, 00:07:41.379 --> 00:07:43.339 so he relied heavily on his foreign minister 00:07:43.339 --> 00:07:45.879 to negotiate, and the other powers pushed back 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.079 hard against giving Italy the city of Fiume. 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:50.620 The source mentions that Italy lost seven hundred 00:07:50.620 --> 00:07:53.600 thousand soldiers in the war and their economy 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.899 was devastated. When Orlando returned home without 00:07:56.899 --> 00:07:59.600 those promised territories, how did the Italian 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:03.180 public react? It sparked a national crisis. Italian 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:06.180 nationalists coined a term for the outcome, a 00:08:06.180 --> 00:08:08.980 mutilated victory. Utilated victory. That's a 00:08:08.980 --> 00:08:11.920 heavy phrase. It really is. That intense feeling 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:14.779 of betrayal and national humiliation became the 00:08:14.779 --> 00:08:17.420 direct fuel for the rise of Italian fascism. 00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:20.519 The disappointment in Paris provided the perfect 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.040 populist talking point for Benito Mussolini to 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:25.439 rally a fractured nation. Now, the diplomatic 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:27.399 tension wasn't just occurring between the different 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.480 empires. It was also fracturing the empires internally. 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:33.460 Britain attempted to speak for its entire global 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:36.529 empire at the conference, but the Dominions Countries 00:08:36.529 --> 00:08:39.350 like Canada and Australia demanded their own 00:08:39.350 --> 00:08:41.549 distinct seats at the table. Yes, they felt they 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:43.909 had earned the right to sovereign representation 00:08:43.909 --> 00:08:46.429 through their immense sacrifices on the battlefield. 00:08:46.809 --> 00:08:48.990 Could you break down the numbers the source provides 00:08:48.990 --> 00:08:51.029 regarding Canada's contribution? It really puts 00:08:51.029 --> 00:08:53.840 their demands into perspective? Sure. Canadian 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:56.059 Prime Minister Robert Borden pointed out that 00:08:56.059 --> 00:08:58.919 Canada had lost 60 ,000 men in the conflict. 00:08:59.379 --> 00:09:01.679 To put that in context, that was a larger wrong 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:04.320 number than the 50 ,000 military deaths suffered 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.679 by the United States. That is staggering. It 00:09:06.679 --> 00:09:09.600 is. Borden argued that Canada had bled as much 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:12.159 as anyone and demanded representation as a minor 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:15.279 power. Eventually, Britain and a reluctant Woodrow 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:18.639 Wilson had to concede. But the fiercest internal 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:21.000 clash came from the Australian prime minister. 00:09:21.129 --> 00:09:24.490 Billy Hughes. He clashed relentlessly with Wilson 00:09:24.490 --> 00:09:26.809 over the fate of German colonies in the Pacific, 00:09:27.250 --> 00:09:29.289 which Australia wanted to absorb as a buffer 00:09:29.289 --> 00:09:32.210 zone against future threats. There is an incredible 00:09:32.210 --> 00:09:34.769 exchange detail in the text where Wilson, growing 00:09:34.769 --> 00:09:36.929 annoyed with Australian demands, dismissively 00:09:36.929 --> 00:09:38.950 says to Hughes, but after all, you speak for 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:40.850 only five million people. And Hughes fired back 00:09:40.850 --> 00:09:43.850 immediately. I represent 60 ,000 dead. It perfectly 00:09:43.850 --> 00:09:46.129 captures the raw grief and nationalism sitting 00:09:46.129 --> 00:09:49.590 just beneath the bureaucratic arguments. Hughes 00:09:49.590 --> 00:09:52.149 was fighting ferociously for Australian interests, 00:09:52.610 --> 00:09:54.610 which brings us to one of the most pivotal and 00:09:54.610 --> 00:09:57.600 tragic moments of the entire conference. What's 00:09:57.600 --> 00:09:59.759 fascinating here is the role of the Japanese 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:02.299 delegation and their specific demands. Right, 00:10:02.299 --> 00:10:04.200 because Japan was originally considered one of 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:06.440 the leading powers at the start of the conference. 00:10:06.820 --> 00:10:08.659 Right. What were they trying to achieve in the 00:10:08.659 --> 00:10:11.740 new League of Nations? They had a sizable delegation 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:14.419 headed by a former prime minister, and alongside 00:10:14.419 --> 00:10:17.500 territorial claims, they proposed a racial equality 00:10:17.500 --> 00:10:19.740 clause to be included in the covenant of the 00:10:19.740 --> 00:10:22.899 newly formed League of Nations. Okay. It was 00:10:22.899 --> 00:10:25.379 a straightforward amendment stating that all 00:10:25.379 --> 00:10:27.730 alien nationals of League member states should 00:10:27.730 --> 00:10:31.250 receive equal and just treatment, making no distinction 00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:34.330 on account of their race or nationality. On the 00:10:34.330 --> 00:10:36.950 surface, that aligns perfectly with Woodrow Wilson's 00:10:36.950 --> 00:10:39.309 rhetoric about a liberal, equitable world order. 00:10:40.190 --> 00:10:43.029 Why did it face such fierce opposition? Because 00:10:43.029 --> 00:10:45.570 it hit a brick wall built by the colonial powers. 00:10:46.269 --> 00:10:48.330 While the British delegation was theoretically 00:10:48.330 --> 00:10:51.509 open to it on a nominal level, they faced intense 00:10:51.509 --> 00:10:54.700 pressure from their dominions. Australia led 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:57.240 by Billy Hughes in South Africa, were deeply 00:10:57.240 --> 00:10:59.539 opposed to the clause because it fundamentally 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.139 threatened their own restrictive race -based 00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:04.700 immigration policies. Ah, I see. To keep the 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:07.179 British Empire united, Britain abstained from 00:11:07.179 --> 00:11:09.960 supporting the Japanese proposal. But the proposal 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:12.399 still went to a vote among the delegates. If 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:15.120 the majority supported it, how did Woodrow Wilson 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:17.710 manage to kill the amendment? Wilson was facing 00:11:17.710 --> 00:11:19.850 his own domestic pressures from a segregated 00:11:19.850 --> 00:11:22.490 America, and as the chairman of the conference, 00:11:22.789 --> 00:11:25.929 he utilized a procedural loophole. Even though 00:11:25.929 --> 00:11:28.610 11 of the 17 delegates voted in favor of the 00:11:28.610 --> 00:11:31.409 racial equality proposal, Wilson suddenly ruled 00:11:31.409 --> 00:11:33.549 that a unanimous vote was required for it to 00:11:33.549 --> 00:11:36.309 pass. A completely arbitrary ruling just to bury 00:11:36.309 --> 00:11:39.820 the clause. Precisely. And the diplomatic fallout 00:11:39.820 --> 00:11:43.279 was monumental. This public, humiliating rejection 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:46.519 deeply alienated the Japanese delegation. The 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:49.080 source explicitly links the defeat of this proposal 00:11:49.080 --> 00:11:52.340 to Japan's subsequent turn away from diplomatic 00:11:52.340 --> 00:11:54.659 cooperation with the Western world. Pushing them 00:11:54.659 --> 00:11:56.799 toward the nationalist and militarist policies 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.080 that would lead directly to World War II. Exactly. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:02.179 And Japan wasn't the only Asian nation leaving 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:05.720 Paris deeply disillusioned. The Chinese delegation... 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:08.899 led by Liu Zengxiang, demanded that former German 00:12:08.899 --> 00:12:11.299 concessions in the Shantung province be returned 00:12:11.299 --> 00:12:13.679 to Chinese sovereignty. But despite the Western 00:12:13.679 --> 00:12:16.440 powers preaching the gospel of self -determination, 00:12:16.899 --> 00:12:18.840 they opted to hand those Chinese territories 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.940 over to Japan. Yes, essentially to appease Japanese 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:24.179 territorial demands after killing their equality 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:26.899 clause. The hypocrisy was glaring. It sparked 00:12:26.899 --> 00:12:29.679 the massive May 4th student protests across China. 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:32.580 The Chinese delegation was so furious over the 00:12:32.580 --> 00:12:34.720 betrayal that they became the only delegation 00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:37.000 at the conference to flat out refuse to sign 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.220 the Treaty of Versailles. Which raises an important 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:42.279 question. Who else was being locked out while 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:44.860 the map was being redrawn? Because the silence 00:12:44.860 --> 00:12:47.460 in that room was just as influential as the arguments. 00:12:47.559 --> 00:12:49.139 That's a great point. As you listen to this, 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:52.070 you really have to consider that What did not 00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:55.009 happen in Paris shaped our modern world just 00:12:55.009 --> 00:12:57.429 as much as what Rue did. The halls were full 00:12:57.429 --> 00:12:59.929 of delegations that the Big Four actively ignored. 00:13:00.450 --> 00:13:02.730 You had Korean nationalists traveling from Hawaii 00:13:02.730 --> 00:13:05.590 and China trying to secure a hearing for independence 00:13:05.590 --> 00:13:08.830 from Japanese rule. They were ignored. You had 00:13:08.830 --> 00:13:11.309 the first Pan -African Congress, supported by 00:13:11.309 --> 00:13:14.889 W. E. B. Du Bois, petitioning to turn Germany's 00:13:14.889 --> 00:13:17.850 African colonies over to an international organization, 00:13:18.169 --> 00:13:20.470 rather than handing them to new colonial masters. 00:13:20.649 --> 00:13:22.990 They were ignored. There was even a young man 00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:25.850 named Grian I. Kwak petitioning for the self 00:13:25.850 --> 00:13:27.909 -determination of the Vietnamese people against 00:13:27.909 --> 00:13:30.759 French colonial rule. But because Vietnam was 00:13:30.759 --> 00:13:33.200 a French colony, the great powers refused to 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.899 even entertain his petition. That young man, 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:38.480 radicalized by the rejection of Western democratic 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:41.419 processes, later became known to the world as 00:13:41.419 --> 00:13:43.980 Ho Chi Minh. But perhaps the most devastating 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:46.879 tragedy detailed in the source material revolves 00:13:46.879 --> 00:13:49.600 around Iran, which was officially known as Persia 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:52.120 at the time. Can you explain what happened to 00:13:52.120 --> 00:13:54.620 the Iranian people during the war? The Iranian 00:13:54.620 --> 00:13:57.320 delegation's experience is a grim lesson in great 00:13:57.320 --> 00:14:00.950 power politics. Iran had declared strict neutrality 00:14:00.950 --> 00:14:03.690 during World War I. However, their geographic 00:14:03.690 --> 00:14:06.690 location made them a battleground. Their territory 00:14:06.690 --> 00:14:09.730 was repeatedly violated and occupied by British, 00:14:10.070 --> 00:14:12.570 Russian, and Ottoman forces. Just caught in the 00:14:12.570 --> 00:14:16.289 crossfire. Completely. These foreign armies requisitioned 00:14:16.289 --> 00:14:18.889 local food supplies, which led to a catastrophic 00:14:18.889 --> 00:14:22.230 economic collapse and a horrific famine. The 00:14:22.230 --> 00:14:24.929 source cites estimates that as many as 8 to 10 00:14:24.929 --> 00:14:27.509 million Iranians died from starvation or disease 00:14:27.509 --> 00:14:29.840 brought on by malnutrition. 8 to 10 million. 00:14:30.019 --> 00:14:32.179 Yes, that was nearly half of the country's population 00:14:32.179 --> 00:14:34.399 at the time. So with millions of dead civilians 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.259 and their neutrality violated, the Iranian delegation 00:14:37.259 --> 00:14:39.919 travels to Paris. They demand the evacuation 00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.740 of foreign troops, reparations for wartime damages, 00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:45.639 and a restoration of their sovereignty. Why were 00:14:45.639 --> 00:14:47.539 they refused admittance to the main sessions? 00:14:48.019 --> 00:14:51.019 The opposition came largely from Britain. acknowledging 00:14:51.019 --> 00:14:53.399 Iran's rights conflicted directly with British 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:55.960 strategic interests. Britain wanted to secure 00:14:55.960 --> 00:14:58.580 access to Iranian oil and protect the geographic 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:00.820 routes leading to their colonial crown jewel, 00:15:00.940 --> 00:15:03.919 India. Unbelievable. Shortly after the conference, 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:06.559 Britain actually attempted to push through the 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:09.500 Anglo -Persian agreement of 1919, which would 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.519 have effectively turned Iran into a British protectorate. 00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:16.080 So Iran's voice was silenced simply to protect 00:15:16.080 --> 00:15:19.340 imperial access to resources. We see a very similar 00:15:19.340 --> 00:15:21.840 dynamic play out in the Middle East. The Ottoman 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:24.799 Empire had collapsed and its vast territories 00:15:24.799 --> 00:15:27.419 were being carved up. How did the League of Nations 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:30.460 handle the Arab provinces? They utilized a system 00:15:30.460 --> 00:15:33.340 called mandates. Rather than granting independence 00:15:33.340 --> 00:15:35.700 to these regions, the League of Nations effectively 00:15:35.700 --> 00:15:38.519 assigned control over the Arab provinces to Britain 00:15:38.519 --> 00:15:41.500 and France. They drew borders, creating new entities 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:45.029 like Iraq. Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, placing 00:15:45.029 --> 00:15:47.070 them under the administrative control of London 00:15:47.070 --> 00:15:49.570 and Paris. And the text points out that this 00:15:49.570 --> 00:15:52.669 was not done in ignorance of local desires. The 00:15:52.669 --> 00:15:55.049 conference heard competing claims from Zionist 00:15:55.049 --> 00:15:57.490 representatives who submitted draft resolutions 00:15:57.490 --> 00:15:59.850 for a Jewish homeland under a British mandate 00:15:59.850 --> 00:16:02.549 and from Arab leaders advocating for regional 00:16:02.549 --> 00:16:05.429 independence. To figure out what the locals actually 00:16:05.429 --> 00:16:08.409 wanted, Woodrow Wilson pushed for an international 00:16:08.409 --> 00:16:11.110 commission of inquiry. Yes. Britain and France 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:13.240 initially agreed to participate in that inquiry, 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:15.519 but quickly backed out when they realized it 00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:18.000 might threaten their colonial ambitions. Of course. 00:16:18.419 --> 00:16:21.220 So it proceeded as a purely American effort known 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:24.019 as the King Crane Commission. They toured the 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:27.139 region, took statements, and sampled public opinion 00:16:27.139 --> 00:16:29.559 regarding the future of Syria and Palestine. 00:16:29.960 --> 00:16:32.159 What happened to the King Crane Commission's 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:34.899 report once it was finished? It was buried. The 00:16:34.899 --> 00:16:37.720 findings indicated strong local opposition to 00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:40.899 French mandates and a deep desire for independence. 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:43.899 Because that conflicted with the secret deals 00:16:43.899 --> 00:16:46.279 the great powers had already made. The Sykes 00:16:46.279 --> 00:16:49.220 -Picot agreement. Exactly. Which was a backdoor 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:52.279 deal made years earlier by Britain and France 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:54.740 to divide the Arab world between themselves. 00:16:55.379 --> 00:16:58.490 So the report was kept entirely secret. It wasn't 00:16:58.490 --> 00:17:00.350 published until the New York Times broke the 00:17:00.350 --> 00:17:03.710 story years later in December 1922. The great 00:17:03.710 --> 00:17:06.650 powers simply proceeded with their imperial divisions 00:17:06.650 --> 00:17:09.210 regardless of the Commission's findings. We've 00:17:09.210 --> 00:17:11.190 been talking a lot about geographical nations 00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:13.869 being locked out of the negotiations, Iran, Vietnam, 00:17:14.210 --> 00:17:17.329 China. But there was an entire demographic spanning 00:17:17.329 --> 00:17:19.609 all of these nations that was also barred from 00:17:19.609 --> 00:17:22.369 the table. Women were entirely denied seats at 00:17:22.369 --> 00:17:24.869 the main negotiating table. Yes, they were. But 00:17:24.869 --> 00:17:27.789 a committee organized an inter -allied women's 00:17:27.789 --> 00:17:30.049 conference right there in Paris. How did they 00:17:30.049 --> 00:17:31.869 manage to force their way into the conversation? 00:17:32.609 --> 00:17:34.549 They were led by Marguerite de Vitschlenberger, 00:17:35.029 --> 00:17:37.089 the president of the French Union for Women's 00:17:37.089 --> 00:17:40.109 Suffrage. They basically refused to be sidelined 00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:43.089 by the male diplomats. They relentlessly lobbied 00:17:43.089 --> 00:17:45.369 Wilson and the other delegates, and they successfully 00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:47.569 demanded a hearing before the League of Nations 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:49.710 Commission. And their lobbying actually secured 00:17:49.710 --> 00:17:52.299 a tangible victory in the final text. They did. 00:17:52.519 --> 00:17:55.000 They forced a concrete addition into the final 00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:57.559 framework, Article 7 of the Covenant of the League 00:17:57.559 --> 00:18:01.660 of Nations. It explicitly mandated that all positions 00:18:01.660 --> 00:18:04.119 under or in connection with the League, including 00:18:04.119 --> 00:18:06.940 the Secretariat, shall be open equally to men 00:18:06.940 --> 00:18:09.720 and women. That's amazing. They managed to enshrine 00:18:09.720 --> 00:18:11.900 women's professional rights into the literal 00:18:11.900 --> 00:18:14.400 blueprint of the new international governing 00:18:14.400 --> 00:18:18.039 body. So what does this all mean? When historians 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:20.539 look back at this chaotic, multi -year process 00:18:20.539 --> 00:18:23.779 of secret deals, ignored petitions, and the carving 00:18:23.779 --> 00:18:26.619 up of empires, how do they assess what the Big 00:18:26.619 --> 00:18:29.240 Four were actually trying to accomplish? If we 00:18:29.240 --> 00:18:31.140 connect this to the bigger picture, we have to 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:33.259 look at the analysis provided by historians like 00:18:33.259 --> 00:18:36.039 Eric Hobsbawm and John Lewis Gaddis. We often 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.480 view Woodrow Wilson's push for self -determination, 00:18:38.700 --> 00:18:40.940 the idea that distinct ethnic groups should have 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:44.359 their own sovereign nations, as pure, naive idealism. 00:18:44.539 --> 00:18:47.539 But this historians argue it was actually a highly 00:18:47.539 --> 00:18:50.220 calculated strategic maneuver against the Bolsheviks 00:18:50.220 --> 00:18:52.259 in Russia. Because the Russian Revolution had 00:18:52.259 --> 00:18:54.500 just occurred and the Bolsheviks were actively 00:18:54.500 --> 00:18:57.859 calling for a global workers uprising. Exactly. 00:18:58.240 --> 00:19:00.420 That terrified the capitalist powers sitting 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:03.359 in Paris. Historians argue that Wilson played 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:05.799 the nationalist card to tame that revolutionary 00:19:05.799 --> 00:19:08.900 fever. By creating a whole new block of small 00:19:08.900 --> 00:19:11.299 nation states in Eastern Europe, countries like 00:19:11.299 --> 00:19:13.539 Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the Baltic states, 00:19:13.960 --> 00:19:16.539 the Allies were intentionally building a quarantine 00:19:16.539 --> 00:19:19.619 belt. A quarantine belt. Yes. It was a strategic 00:19:19.619 --> 00:19:22.019 barrier designed to stop the spread of the Russian 00:19:22.019 --> 00:19:24.859 Bolshevik Revolution from sweeping westward into 00:19:24.859 --> 00:19:28.019 a devastated and vulnerable Germany. But the 00:19:28.019 --> 00:19:30.579 source points out a deeply troubling downside 00:19:30.579 --> 00:19:33.440 to this obsession with drawing neat national 00:19:33.440 --> 00:19:36.220 borders based on ethnicity. What happens when 00:19:36.220 --> 00:19:38.579 you try to apply the concept of a pure nation 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:41.559 state to a map where populations are incredibly 00:19:41.559 --> 00:19:44.319 mixed? This is where Hobsbawm's observation is 00:19:44.319 --> 00:19:47.700 grim, but entirely necessary to understand. He 00:19:47.700 --> 00:19:49.619 points out that the logical conclusion of trying 00:19:49.619 --> 00:19:52.220 to create a map neatly divided into territorial 00:19:52.220 --> 00:19:54.599 states where each state is inhabited by a separate 00:19:54.599 --> 00:19:57.420 ethnically and linguistically homogeneous population 00:19:57.420 --> 00:20:00.160 is inherently violent. The only way to actually 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:02.640 achieve that perfect homogeneity in the real 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:05.720 world is through the mass expulsion or extermination 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.779 of minorities. When you make ethnicity the core 00:20:08.779 --> 00:20:12.019 basis of a state's legitimacy, anyone who doesn't 00:20:12.019 --> 00:20:14.920 fit that specific ethnic definition becomes a 00:20:14.920 --> 00:20:16.880 problem to be solved. Because the real world 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:20.009 isn't neatly divided. Precisely. Habsbaum notes 00:20:20.009 --> 00:20:22.970 that the terrifying reality of this ethno -nationalism 00:20:22.970 --> 00:20:25.809 wouldn't be fully demonstrated until the 1940s. 00:20:26.170 --> 00:20:28.390 The peacemakers in Paris, in their attempt to 00:20:28.390 --> 00:20:30.630 solve the political problems of 1919 and quarantine 00:20:30.630 --> 00:20:33.250 the Bolsheviks, were inadvertently laying the 00:20:33.250 --> 00:20:35.490 philosophical and geographical groundwork for 00:20:35.490 --> 00:20:37.849 the atrocities of the Second World War. As you 00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:39.609 listen to this, think about the immense value 00:20:39.609 --> 00:20:42.680 of dissecting this specific moment in time. the 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:44.960 borders of Eastern Europe, the global tensions 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:47.400 in the Pacific, the very concept of an international 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:50.940 governing body. All of it traces its messy, complicated, 00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:53.859 often hypocritical origins right back to these 00:20:53.859 --> 00:20:56.599 Pacific rooms in Paris. The world we navigate 00:20:56.599 --> 00:20:58.599 today was sketched out on their drafting tables. 00:20:58.980 --> 00:21:00.819 And I want to leave you with one final thought 00:21:00.819 --> 00:21:03.799 to mull over, specifically regarding the League 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:07.410 of Nations itself. Think about it. President 00:21:07.410 --> 00:21:10.569 Woodrow Wilson sacrificed many of his core ideals 00:21:10.569 --> 00:21:13.549 at this conference, making compromise after compromise 00:21:13.549 --> 00:21:16.250 just to ensure his ultimate dream, the League 00:21:16.250 --> 00:21:19.349 of Nations, was actually created. Yet because 00:21:19.349 --> 00:21:21.710 of domestic isolationist pushback back home, 00:21:22.009 --> 00:21:24.349 the United States never ratified the Treaty of 00:21:24.349 --> 00:21:26.470 Versailles and never even joined the League. 00:21:26.990 --> 00:21:29.470 Imagine how differently the chaotic 20th century 00:21:29.470 --> 00:21:31.710 might have unfolded if the primary architect 00:21:31.710 --> 00:21:34.309 of the New World Order had actually taken a seat 00:21:34.309 --> 00:21:37.279 at the table he built. lens through which to 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:39.319 view the modern world. Thank you so much for 00:21:39.319 --> 00:21:41.200 joining us on this deep dive into the Paris Peace 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:42.759 Conference. We'll see you next time.