THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES AND THE END OF THE WAR. Introduction: ■December 13 th, 1918 Wilson...
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Transcript of THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES AND THE END OF THE WAR. Introduction: ■December 13 th, 1918 Wilson...
THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES AND THE END OF THE
WAR
Introduction:■December 13th, 1918 Wilson
arrived in France, the war was over
■Wilson went to write a peace treaty that would make the world, “safe for democracy”
■Wilson was welcomed as a king, everyone in Paris cheered him on
■He arrived with hopes of achieving just and lasting world peace
■European leaders did not necessarily share his vision
Wilson’s Vision■ Wilson proposed his vision for
peace to the U.S. congress during the war
■ Wilsons 14 Points: designed to protect every “peace-loving nation” from “force and selfish aggression”
■ First goal was to eliminate causes of wars– Called for an end to secret
agreements and alliances
■ Called for freedom of the seas– Merchants could trade
peacefully during peace and war time
■ Reduce armaments: wanted to reduce militarism and weapons of war
■ Second key goal was to promote self-determination – Everyone controls their own
political future
■ League of Nations: Wilson’s most important point and aimed to ensure world peace– Members from all over the
world would work together to protect independence
– Ensure territorial integrity: respecting ones borders
– Resolve conflicts before they reach war
Wilson’s Unusual Decisions■ No president had ever
traveled to Europe in office
■ Wilson decided to go to Europe to ensure lasting peace himself
■ Before Wilson left America had a mid-term election
■ Wilson called for support for the Democrats but the Republicans won
■ This led to his peace deal becoming weakened in America just before he was about to pitch it to the Europeans
■Wilson had only invited one Republican diplomat to go with him to Europe
■William Taft said Wilson wanted to “hog the whole show”
■Senate was now in republican control and lack of republican influence angered these senators
■Wilson’s oversight would come back to haunt him
Treaty of Versailles: Ideals vs. Self Interest
■ Peace conference was held at the Palace of Versailles in France
■ The Big Four:– Wilson– David Lloyd George (GB)– Georges Clemenceau
(France)– Vittorio Orlando (Italy)
■ Germany had no representatives at the talks
■ Russia did not attend
■ Wilson’s 14 Points were liked by European powers but were more interested in their own self interest
■ Clemenceau focused on French security– Wanted to weaken Germany so they
could not attack France again– Wanted Germany to have army capped
at 100,000 men
■ Lloyd George had recently won reelection with the slogan “Hang the Kaiser”– Proposed the War-Guilt Clause
■ War Guilt Clause: – Germany was forced to accept all blame
for the war– Destroyed Wilson’s idea for “peace
without victory”
■ Treaty required Germany to pay $33 billion in reparations– Payments to victors of war for their costs
during the war
■Wilson did not want to punish Germany
■The other countries wanted to punish Germany– They had lost more
lives and property– Wanted compensation
■Wilson agreed to the harsh treatment in return for support of the League of Nations
■Wilson’s commitment to self-determination helped ethnic groups in Europe leave the war with their own nations
■Other territorial decisions went against Wilson’s philosophy– Parts of Germany given to
France, Poland, Denmark and Belgium
■Other German controlled areas around the world were scooped up as mandates by European nations
■Mandates: territories controlled by the League of Nations
■Wilson’s goals were not realized
■He was able to save the League of Nations and have it included in the final treaty
■Wilson hoped that the League would fix the flaws of the treaty over time
■League was to maintain peace through collective security
■Collective Security: commitment by League members to deal with threatening nations
■Treaty was signed by the Big Four on June 18th, 1919
The U.S. Debates Ratification■The U.S. senate needed to
ratify the Treaty of Versailles
■Wilson had strong public support
■The 2/3’s vote required by the senate was hard to come by
■Many republicans were reluctant to ratify the treaty
■Reservationists: people who said they would vote yes if the treaty was changed
■Article 10: Focused on collective security by requiring members to work together and supply troops to keep peace
■This article was the main concern of the senate
■People feared that this would draw the U.S. into war without congressional approval
■Wanted Article 10 changed to say that the U.S. could only supply troops with congressional approval
Henry Cabot Lodge■ Lodge hated Wilson
■ “I never expected to hate anyone in politics with the hatred I feel towards Wilson”
■ Had personal and political reasons to oppose treaty
■ Angry about lack of Republicans in Versailles
■ Wanted to embarrass Wilson and weaken Democratic party
■ He was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
■ Delayed action on the treaty and gave critics every opportunity to speak out against it
Irreconcilables Vs. Internationalists■Irreconcilables were a
group of 16 dead set no senators
■Completely opposed any treaty
■Used George Washington’s farewell address to fight for neutrality
■Internationalists supported the treaty
■Internationalists: democrats who believed cooperation in the world would benefit everyone
■Rather than focusing on the U.S. being pulled in to war they focused on how the U.S. would be involved preventing it
Support for Treaty:■ The public support for the treaty
sputtered as the debates dragged on
■ Wilson went directly to the public for support
■ Wilson was in poor health as he planned to do a speaking tour in support of the Treaty
■ He spoke up to 4 times a day and support for the treaty seemed to be increasing
■ On September 25th, 1919 Wilson collapsed while in Colorado
■ Wilson had a severe stroke that left him partially paralyzed
■ While trying to restore his health his wife Edith ran his daily schedule
■The people had no idea just how sick Wilson was
■When the severity became known people accused Edith of making his decisions
■She became caught up in the heat of the Versailles debate
Treaty is Defeated■ Partisanship played a big role in
the treaty being shut down
■ Loyalty to party was above anything else
■ Treaty had been amended 14 times and Wilson rejected all of them
■ Wilson refused to accept any changes
■ The treaty was not ratified the first time around
■ The treaty fell 7 votes short of ratification again the second time around even with the amendments
1920 Election:■ Wilson struggled to save the
treaty
■ Dem. Candidate James M. Cox and his running mate Franklin Delano Roosevelt supported treaty
■ Rep. candidate Warren Harding was on the fence
■ Public opinion had shifted away from treaty towards domestic issues
■ Harding won by over 7 million votes
■ The treaty had officially died
The Treaty Dies
■The United States had technically fought separately from the Allies
■U.S. signed a separate treaty with Germany
■League of Nations moved into operations without the nation whose president had created it
■Partisanship had killed collective security in the U.S. until WWII