The Treaty of Guarantee

The Treaty of Guarantee

The Treaty of Guarantee was an agreement in which Britain and the United Sates guaranteed the French frontier against German aggression. It came out of a proposal by Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, at the Paris Peace Conference as a compromise to Marshal Ferdinand Foch's insistence that the Franco-German border be pushed back to the Rhine. Foch felt that this new border would prevent another German invasion into France. The Germans had invaded France from across the Rhine five times within a century in 1814, 1815, 1870, 1914, and 1918. [Shirer p145]

This treaty is not to be confused with the Treaty of Guarantee of 1960 dealing with Cyprus.

Origins at Versailles

Along with Foch, the French premier Georges Clemenceau had demanded that Germany's Western border be fixed at the Rhine. Clemenceau relented when the Treaty of Guarantee was proposed. However Foch insisted that the French occupation of the Rhineland was crucial to halting future German aggression. [Shirer p146]

Lloyd George's proposal and Foch's protest

Lloyd George suggested a compromise. If France relinquished her claims on the Rhine, Britain and the United States would guarantee France's boundary against future German aggression. Wilson agreed and treaties to that effect were drawn up.

"If we do not hold the Rhine permanently [Foch told them] there is no neutralization, no disarmament, no written clause of any nature, which can prevent Germany from breaking out across it and gaining the upper hand. No aid could arrive in time from England or America to save France from complete defeat." [Shirer p145]

Britain and the United States reject both the Treaty of Guarantee and Versailles Treaty

In return for abandoning the Rhine Clemenceau accepted solemn guarantees of his country's frontier from his two great allies. Both houses of the British parliament approved the Treaty of Guarantee in July 1919, but on the condition that the United States also ratify it. The U.S. Senate refused to approve either it or the Versailles Treaty, and the British assent was nullified. Clemenceau had been promised that aid in return for giving up the security of the Rhine, which his generals had demanded. [Shirer p146]

References

*"The Collapse of the Third Republic" by William L. Shirer

notes


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Treaty of Guarantee — The Treaty of Guarantee is a treaty between the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland promulgated in 1960. Article I bans Cyprus from participating in any political union or economic union …   Wikipedia

  • The Thirty Years War —     The Thirty Years War     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The Thirty Years War     The Thirty Years War (1618 48), though pre eminently a German war, was also of great importance for the history of the whole of Europe, not only because nearly all… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Treaty — The first two pages of the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, in (left to right) German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Ottoman Turkish and Russian A treaty is an express agreement under international law entered into by actors in international law, namely… …   Wikipedia

  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo — The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ( Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo in Spanish) is the peace treaty, largely dictated by the United Statescite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/kera/usmexicanwar/war/wars end guadalupe.html|title=War s End: Treaty of… …   Wikipedia

  • Treaty of St. Peters — may be one of two treaties conducted between the United States and Native American peoples, conducted at the confluence of the Minnesota River (then called St. Peters River ) with the Mississippi River, in what today is Mendota, Minnesota. 1805… …   Wikipedia

  • The Canadian Crown and First Nations, Inuit and Métis — The relationship between the Canadian Crown and the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of Canada stretches back to the first interactions between European colonialists and North American indiginous people. Over centuries of interaction,… …   Wikipedia

  • guarantee — n Guarantee, guaranty, surety, security, bond, bail are comparable when they mean either something that is given or pledged as assurance of one s responsibility (as for the payment of a debt, the fulfillment of a promise or obligation, or the… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • Treaty of London (1839) — The Scrap of Paper Enlist Today , Canadian War Museum. The Treaty of London, also called the First Treaty of London or the Convention of 1839, was a treaty signed on 19 April 1839 between the European great powers, the United Kingdom of the… …   Wikipedia

  • Treaty of Dovydiškės — The Treaty of Dovydiškės The Treaty of Dovydiškės (Lithuanian: Dovydiškių sutartis; Polish: Traktat w lasach dawidyskich or Traktat w Dawidyszkach), Daudiske, or Daudisken was a secret treaty sign …   Wikipedia

  • The United States of America —     The United States of America     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► The United States of America     BOUNDARIES AND AREA     On the east the boundary is formed by the St. Croix River and an arbitrary line to the St. John, and on the north by the… …   Catholic encyclopedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”