1. PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE AND THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
WORLD WAR I
PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
AND
THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

2. PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE
The Big Four and their objectives
France – Georges Clemenceau
Wants to severely punish Germany and make sure it is never again a threat
Also wants to kill the kaiser and dismember Germany
United States – President Woodrow Wilson
Wants “peace without victory”
States that the war had been fought to “make the world safe for democracy”
Wants the treaty to include his Fourteen Points

4. Great Britain – David Lloyd George
Wants to punish Germany, but not totally weaken Germany
States he is between “Jesus and Napoleon”
Italy – Vittorio Orlando
Wants to gain territory
Russia, Germany, and the other Central powers not invited

5. Wilson’s Fourteen Points
This is the list of Wilson’s goals for peace
End to secret treaties
Freedom of the seas and free trade
Reduced armies and navies
Self-determination = allow people to decide for themselves under what gov’t they wish to live
Adjust colonial claims, change borders, and create new nations
Also includes a League of Nations – an international organization that would regulate nations and keep global peace

6. TREATY OF VERSAILLES (JUNE 28, 1919)
Extremely harsh on Germany
Territorial losses
France gets Alsace-Lorraine
Loses overseas colonies, which are given to Allied Powers
Parts of Germany go to form new nations, such as Poland
Military restrictions
Limits on army (100,000) and weapons
No navy or air force
Demilitarized zone along the French border

7. War guilt
Germany assumes sole responsibility for the war
Must make reparations = payments made to the victors to cover the costs of the war
Amounts to 33 billion dollars
League of Nations
Germany and Russia are excluded
The U.S. also doesn’t join
The U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the treaty because it contains the League of Nations
They don’t want to get involved in another war
World War I was supposed to be a war to end all wars
Instead it will be a main cause of World War II

8. German reaction to Article 238
It is demanded of us that we shall confess ourselves to be along guilty of the war. Such a confession from my lips would be a lie. We are far from declining all responsibility for the fact that this great World War took place or that it was fought in the way that it was. . . But we energetically deny that Germany and its people, who were convinced that they fought a war of defense, were alone guilty. No one would want to assert that the disaster began only at that disastrous moment when the successor of Austria-Hungary fell a victim to murderous hands. In the last fifty years, the imperialism of all European states has chronically poisoned international relations. Policies of retaliation, policies of expansion, and disregard for the right of people to determine their own destiny, have contributed to the European malady which came to a crisis in the World War. The mobilization of Russia deprived statesmen of the opportunity of curing the disease, and placed the issue in the hands of military powers.

9. Other Treaties Made separate treaties with the other Central Powers
Lands of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire broken apart
Formed the independent nations of Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Turkey
Former Ottoman lands in the Middle East turned into mandates
France gets Syria and Lebanon as mandates
Britain gets Palestine and Iraq
Europeans are only supposed to control the mandates until the territories are able to govern themselves