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