Versailles Peace Treaty – lose notes from my memory….

 

 

Characters:

q       Wilson, Woodrow 1856 - 1924

o       Young Professor at Princeton Unvierstiy 1890.

o       President of Princeton 1900

o       Very academic.

o       Very active president:

§         Prohibition

§         Women Suffragette

§         Income taxes etc etc.

o       Personality:

§         Academic.

§         Holds a grudge forever.

§         Personal vendetta against opponents.

§         Vain and very quick to take offence.

§         Thinks that he has the best solutions to any problems and rather than listen to opponents arguments he tries to convince them.

§         Simply not able to delegate anything.

o       The League of Nations and democracy is his answer to all questions.

o       Appears weak in the eyes of Lloyd George and Clemenceau.

o       Wilson has the opinion that he is the only person on earth that can bring order to the chaos and starts out with that ambition.

q       Clemenceau, Gorges 1841 -1929

o       “America is the only nation in history which, miraculously, has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”

o       30 years old during the humiliation of Franco-Prussian war. Strongly affected by this.

o       Became a political name during the Dreyfus-affair where he took sides with Dreyfus.

o       Prime minister 1917 – 1920

o       Distrusted the military “War is too important a matter to be left to the military.”

o       Feared a strong Germany

§         France had a smaller population, this has to change

§         France had no coal, this has to change

§         Germany should pay for what they had done.

§         Poland and Czechoslovakia should be buffert-zones under French influence.

§         The Rhineland should be a French protectorate.

§         Saar to France.

o       Had to come back with all this, otherwise his head on a stick.

q       Lloyd George, David 1863 – 1945.

o       Prime minister 1916 – 1922

o       Lawyer, Welshman and of simple background.

o       Liberal Party.

o       A flip-flopper, Pacifist until 1914, and changed his mind when the war broke out.

o       Won the election on the slogan “Hang the Kaiser”.

From http://www.answers.com/topic/david-lloyd-george

 

“"We shall squeeze the orange until the pips squeak" but he did express that sentiment about reparations from Germany to pay the entire cost of the war, including pensions. At Bristol, he said that German industrial capacity "will go a pretty long way." We must have "the uttermost farthing," and "shall search their pockets for it." As the campaign closed, he summarized his program:

Memorably, he replied to a question as to how he had done at the peace conference, "Not badly, considering I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon" (Wilson and Clemenceau)”

 

What happened?

 

q       Versailles Peace Treaty is a part of the Paris Peace Conference.

q       The Paris Peace Conference started in January 18 1919 and ended January 21 1920.

o       Some 30 countries participated, the Big Four

o       During this Peace was reached with:

§         Germany (Treaty of Versailles, 1919, June 28, 1919),

§         Austria (Treaty of Saint-Germain, September 10, 1919),

§         Bulgaria (Treaty of Neuilly, November 27, 1919),

§         Hungary (Treaty of Trianon, June 4, 1920),

§         and theOttoman Empire (Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August, 1920; subsequently revised by the Treaty of Lausanne, July 24, 1923).

q       Versailles Peace Treaty started January 1919 and ended with the Treaty in June 1919.

o       Wilson came with his fourteen points and the intention of getting them through at any cost.

o       But The French and The British had made secret deals with many countries that made these agreements impossible.

o       The actions of Poland and Czechoslovakia almost caused an brake-down in the negotiations.

o       England is hateful to Poland and on the edge of giving in, when the German delegationa arrives

o       The German delegation was waiting for an invitation and eventually was presented with a done deal.

§         Sent on slow trains so they could see the devestation.

§         Arrived and got the papers. Nothing like the 14 points.

§         Brockdorff-Rantzau, German Foreign minister.

·        Excellent diplomat, but hated to appear in public.

·        Made a very bad performance at the conference.

·        Wanted the Delegation to say no to the Treaty.

·        Especially the war guilt question irritated the Germans.

o       Wilson left a broken man.

o       Lloyd George feared a new war.

o       The French were upset that their claims on the Rhineland had gone and that they didn’t get the Saar-area for ever.

 

A peace treaty that nobody was happy with.