This post is the beginning of a blog about peace treaties throughout history. I’ve decided to write it because for the last few years I’ve been researching diplomacy and international relations in the first half of the sixteenth century. And in looking at peace treaties in this period, I’ve also become interested in the wider subject of peace and peace treaties throughout history. I thought that a blog may be a good way I could keep track of what I come across on a day-to-week-to-month basis, whilst also putting things into the public domain in case something comes in useful to anyone else who’s interested in the subject.
Although I find the political and legal aspects of treaties interesting, I’m also interested in other facets of the whole process. For instance, the way that treaties are promoted by rulers, statesmen or governments. the way that intellectuals have commented upon them, or the way that some artists have – occasionally used peace treaties as an inspiration. So what I’m putting up here is intended to open up areas and questions that I find interesting in a speculative way, rather than set out authoritative accounts or particular historical interpretations.
There have been several articles in the press this week about how today Germany makes the final payment on the interest from the reparations that were detailed in the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, which makes that as good a place to start as any. Not only because it’s timely, but also because it gives me an easy example of the kind of approach I’m interested in, as I’m as interested in the John Cale’s 1973 song Paris 1919 or Frank Moorhouse's books about the League of Nations as I am in the articles of the treaty itself as I am in John Maynard Keynes' opinions of it.
Because of this recent news, I’ve just reread article 231 of Versailles for the first time in years, the so-called War Guilt Clause, which suggested that that Germany alone was responsible for the war. Subsequent articles outlined the cost of this guilt; 226 billion Reichsmarks – the equivalent to roughly100 tonnes of gold - were to be paid to the allies to offset the cost of the war and the damage done to European civilians. After World War Two, there was some confusion about who was liable for the debt as the Weimar Republic was long gone and Germany was divided into two states. The 1953 conference in London suspended the payment on interest, although West Germany continued paying off the reparations themselves as a debt of honour.
Today Germany pays off £59.5 million, the last of the interest that resulted from these articles. There has been so little fanfare about this that some of the major newspapers in the UK haven’t reported it, which I find rather surprising, although the BBC article was interesting. Coming to think of it, I’m still not completely sure where this money is actually being transferred to and how it will be spent or used when it is.
Anyway, while writing this I’ve listened to John Cale’s Paris 1919. Another question that this has raised is why I was silly enough to not go and see him play the whole album live earlier this year…
N.
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