Peace in the Levant

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The First World War did not end with the German Armistice in 1918, nor with the Treaty of Versailles with Germany in 1919. In fact, peace negotiations would not be finalised until 1923 when the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey finally brought the War to a close. The peacemakers of 1919 had to deal with the fall-out from the collapse of four vast empires - German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman. This made the peace process particularly complex. Not only did the peacemakers have to redraw the national borders of countries that had fought in the War; they also had to create new states to accommodate the peoples of the empires that had collapsed. Aligning ethnicity with state frontiers was to prove an impossible task. Military historian Hew Strachan reflects on the long road to peace with the peoples of the former Ottoman Empire and the legacy of that peace settlement today. Sir Hew Strachan is Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews and an Emeritus Fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford. Producer: Catriona Oliphant Executive Producer: Alan Hall A ChromeRadio production for BBC Radio 3.