1. Why Wilson’s Peace Plan Failed

2. Paris Peace Talks: The Big Four
Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Lloyd George (#1 Power)
French Premier Georges Clemenceau (revenge)
US President Woodrow Wilson (idealism)
Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando (territory)
Germany and Russia excluded

3. Wilson’s 14 Points

4. Wilson's Mistakes
Bi-Elections of 1918: partisan politics, Republicans gain control House first time since
American Peace Delegation: no Senators or prominent Republicans
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge not taken
Wilson accused of Grandstanding

5. Treaty of Versailles
War Guilt Clause (Art. 231) Germany solely responsible for starting war and destruction
Reparations to be paid by Germany = $56 billion

6. Treaty of Versailles Germany was stripped of colonies
Germany lost Saar Basin (returned by plebiscite 1935), Posen, parts of Schleswig and Silesia and Alsace-Lorraine
German disarmament

7. New nations & problems created
Italy's 200,000 persons non-Italians
German speaking populations in Poland & Czechoslovakia
Polish Corridor

8. New nations & problems created
Russian loss of territory
Japan given Shantung, China
British & French Mandates in Middle East

9. Did not deal with did not address issues that caused the war
reduction in arms
trade barriers

10. League of Nations
Wilson’s idea to resolve world conflict without war

11. US Ratification Process

12. Opposition to the Treaty of Versailles
Unpopular with German, Irish, & Jewish Americans
Republican feud with Wilson, esp. Henry Cabot Lodge
Reservationists
Irreconcilables = diehard isolationists including
Hiram W. Johnson (CA)
William E. Borah (IL)
Robert La Folette (WI)

13. Wilson's 3-week national speaking tour
29 cities
Pueblo CO, collapsed

14. Wilson's 3-week national speaking tour
Returned to Washington, suffered a stroke
paralyzed left side
incapacitated 6 months
Edith Wilson acting President

15. Senate Vote 45 revisions proposed
limit US obligations to the League of Nations
Wilson opposed any changes (He kept us out of peace!)
Final vote -- treaty rejected, failing by 7 votes 49-35

16. Wilson’s Legacy Wilson received Nobel Peace Prize in 1920
died embittered in 1924
his predictions of future problems for Europe would come true