Transcript treaty of versailles peacex

• Wilson had hoped that World War I would be
the war to end all wars.
• His goals for continuing peace were outlined
January 1918 in his “Fourteen Points”
speech before Congress. The War had not
yet ended.
Wilson’s “points” included:
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• end to secret diplomacy
• freedom of the seas
Wilson
• equal economic opportunity for all nations
hoped to
have the
• reduction of armaments
world
• impartial handling of boundary disputes
follow this
plan
for
Formation of the League of Nations
peace.
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• Leaders from around the world met at
Versailles to discuss and negotiate a
treaty.
• The Big Four: Woodrow Wilson of the
The “Big Four”: Great Britain, Italy, France, U.S.
United States, Prime Minister David
Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier
Georges Clemenceau of France, and
Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando of Italy
dominated the meeting.
Germany had been barred from the conference.
• France, Britain, and Italy wanted to punish Germany.
• The Western Front had taken place mostly on French soil.
• France experienced huge casualties.
• The French also wanted payment for damages as well as buffer
zones to secure their nation against any future German attack.
• Italy wanted to claim territories that had been promised to it in secret
treaties with Allies at the start of the war.
• It also wanted the Austrian city of Flume, which Italy had seized during
the war.
• The British were anti-German because of competition for world
power.
• The British wanted control of the German colonies in Africa.
• England wanted to maintain control of the waters off its coast.
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• Nations were exhausted by
the war.
• The nations worked to draft a
treaty to settle the conflicts of
the war.
• Each leader had his own
agenda and interests, which
made it close to impossible to
negotiate a fair and lasting
• The Treaty of Versailles
treaty.
was a compromise.
• Germany lost its colonies.
• Germany was assigned
• Germany was forced to return the
full guilt for the war.
region of Alsace-Lorraine to France.
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• Germany was disarmed.
• It had to pay reparations to the Allied powers amounting to
$33 million.
• The treaty punished Germany harshly.
• Austria-Hungary was broken up and its land divided among
other nations.
• The treaty directly conflicted with President Wilson’s ideals.
• His most valued ideal, the League of Nations, became part of
the treaty.
• His insistence on the self-determination of peoples, the
nationalistic movements of the Poles, the Czechs, and the
Yugoslavs were granted independence and sovereignty.
• Wilson returned home to try to convince the
Senate to allow the United States to join the
League of Nations.
• The President faced opposition to the treaty.
• Some felt betrayed by allowing the reparations
against Germany and by allowing the war-guilt
clause.
• Isolationists felt the treaty involved the U.S. too much in world affairs.
• The battle over acceptance was also divided between republicans and
democrats.
• Congress defeated the treaty in November 1919.
• The U.S. failed to join the League, which weakened the organization.
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