Key Terms You Must Know

📖 Key Terms You Must Know

Self-determination

Wilson's principle that peoples of the same nationality should be free to choose their own government and live in the same country. Included in his Fourteen Points. The Treaty of Versailles applied self-determination selectively — it returned Alsace-Lorraine to France and created a Polish state, but denied self-determination to millions of Germans in the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia) and Austria, who were forbidden from uniting with Germany (Anschluss). This selective application was one of Hitler's most powerful propaganda tools.

Fourteen Points

President Wilson's plan for a just peace, announced January 1918. The fourteen proposals included: open diplomacy (no secret treaties), freedom of the seas, national self-determination, reduction of armaments, and — crucially — a League of Nations (Point 14). Wilson hoped the Fourteen Points would form the basis of the peace settlement. In practice, the other Allies agreed to many points in principle then abandoned them when they conflicted with their interests.

Diktat

German word meaning "dictated peace." Germany used this term for the Treaty of Versailles because German delegates were not invited to negotiate — they were summoned to sign a document already agreed by the Allies, under threat of resumed war if they refused. The word captures German fury at the process as much as the terms. It became a powerful slogan for German nationalists and was used by Hitler throughout the 1920s and 30s.

Reparations

Compensation payments demanded from Germany to pay for war damage. The amount was set in 1921 at £6.6 billion (132 billion gold marks). The reparations were legally justified by Article 231, the war guilt clause — if Germany caused the war, Germany must pay for its consequences. Germany saw reparations as both economically crushing and morally unjust. They contributed directly to the hyperinflation crisis of 1923.

Locarno Pact (1925)

Agreement between Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Belgium confirming the post-war western borders and the demilitarised Rhineland. It seemed to mark Germany's acceptance of Versailles and led to Germany joining the League in 1926. However, Germany did NOT confirm its eastern borders — a signal that Hitler would later exploit. When Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936, he broke both Versailles and Locarno.