Treaty Of Versailles

France had suffered most of the casualties during the War, and much of it had been fought on French soil. The country was in ruins, with much damage done to historic and important buildings and resources. George Clemenceau of France wanted reparations from Germany to rebuild and repair the damage done by the Germans. In all, 750,000 houses and 23,000 factories had been destroyed, and money was demanded to pay for recreation of a country in tatters. In 1871, France had again been at war, and Germany had taken an area of France, Alsace-Lorraine. Clemenceau also wanted to protect against the possibility of an attack ever coming from Germany again, and demanded a demilitarisation of the Rhineland in Germany, and Allied troops to patrol the area. This was called a "territorial safety zone". They also wanted to reduce drastically the numbers of soldiers in the German army to a controllable point. As part of the reparations, France wanted to be given control of many of Germany's factories. Not only did France want to utterly destroy Germany, they also wanted to preserve their great empire and their colonies. While America instituted a belief in "self-determination", France and Britain wanted to keep their valuable Empires. Clemenceau largely represented the people of France in that he wanted revenge upon the German nation. Clemenceau also wanted to protect secret treaties and allow naval blockades around Germany, so that France could control trade imported and exported from the defeated country. He was the radical member of the Big Three, as was named "Le Tigre" for this reason.

Great Britain had played a backseat role only in that the country itself was never invaded. Many soldiers died on the front line in France, and so the people in Britain wanted revenge as much as the French. Prime Minister Lloyd George still wanted reparations, but of less severity than the enraged French. Lloyd George was aware that if the demands made by France were carried out, France could become extremely powerful in Central Europe, and a delicate balance unsettled. Although he wanted to ensure this didn't happen, he also wanted to make Germany pay. Lloyd George was also worried by Woodrow Wilson's proposal for "self-determination" and, like the French, wanted to preserve the Empire. This was competition between two of the greatest empires of the world, and their battle to preserve them. Like the French, Lloyd George also supported naval blockades and secret treaties.

On the other hand, Woodrow Wilson had very different views about how to punish Germany. He decided upon the Fourteen Points, which were less harsh than what the French or British wanted. Since the American people had been in the war only since April 1917, they felt that they should get out of the European mess as rapidly as possible. However, President Wilson wanted to institute a world policy that ensured that nothing like this could ever happen again. In order to maintain peace, the first attempt at a world court was created- the League of Nations. The theory was that if weaker and more fragile nations were attacked, others would guarantee to protect them from the aggressor. On top of this, Wilson encouraged "self-determination" which encouraged countries to think, govern, & control themselves. This notion of self-determination resulted in increased patriotic sentiment in many countries that were or had once been under the control of the old empires, and also received much popular support in the home countries of the Empires. This was the beginning of the end for the empires, including those of Britain and France. This is partly the reason so many new countries were created in Eastern Europe; Wilson was not willing to increase the size of Britain, France, or Italy.

Territorial adjustments were made with the aim of grouping together ethnic minorities in their own states, free from the domination of once powerful Empires, specifically the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Secret treaties were also to be discouraged, and Britain and France greeted a reduction in armaments by all nations with disapproval. This was supposed to indirectly reduce the ability of navies to create blockades.

When the Treaty of Versailles had been concluded, Germany was forced to pay the Allies £6,600,000,000; hand over all its colonies; accept all blame for the war (the War Guilt Clause); reduce the size of its armed forces (six warships, 100,000 infantry, and no air force); and give land to many countries, including Belgium, France, Denmark, and Poland.

The Big Three were undecided in their punishment of Germany. France wanted revenge, Britain wanted a relatively strong economically viable Germany, and America wanted a permanent peace to be constructed as quickly as possible, and a destruction of the old Empires. The result was a compromise, which left nobody satisfied. Germany was neither crushed nor concilliated, which did not bode well for the future of Germany, Europe and the world as a whole.

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