Treaty of Versailles Revision Notes
Background
The Treaty was drawn up at the Paris Peace Conference, which was held in Versailles in France.
The purpose of the Conference was to allow the leaders of the victorious powers to meet in order to decide how to deal with the defeated powers.
The Conference last for a year, with the Treaty of Versailles finally being signed in June 1919.
The Leaders
Georges Clemenceau (Prime Minister of France)
A hard, tough politician with a reputation for being uncompromising.
David Lloyd George (Prime Minister of Britain)
A realist and very experienced politician.
Woodrow Wilson (President of the USA)
An idealist and a reformer.
The Aims of the Leaders
Georges Clemenceau (France)
France had suffered very severely in terms of damage to the country and loss of life during WWI. They were determined not to allow such devastation to ever happen again.
They wanted Germany to pay for all of the damages from the war.
They wanted Germany to lose all of the land they had gained and more.
They wanted the German armed forces to be destroyed completely.
The purpose behind all of these demands was to ensure that Germany was crippled so that it could not attack France again.
David Lloyd George (Britain)
Britain had suffered during WWI, but not to the same extent as France. Lloyd George was aware that there would have to be compromises.
He thought that Germany should be punished justly (not too harshly)
His main aim was to stop Germany from having a navy as he wanted Britain to ‘rule the seas’ so that they could maintain their empire.
Woodrow Wilson (USA)
The USA had not suffered much during the war as they had joined late and there was no fighting in their own country.
At the Treaty of Versailles Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points, which he believed would end the war fairly and prevent another war in the future.
His two main ideas at the Conference were self-determination (independence/the right to...