Treaty of Versailles Flashcards
(15 cards)
Clemenceau motives + quote
‘if only we could get rid of Germany, there would be peace in Europe’
1. Revenge for Franco Prussian war
2. Secuirity from German aggression (already invaded twice)
3. WW1 Damage - 300k houses, 50% roads, 7 mil acres farmland
4. Human loss - 1.4 mil dead, 2.5 mil injured
5. Public opinion
6. Could not rely on Russia to encircle Germany
7. Realist
Clemenceau aims
- Massive reparations
- Alsace Lorraine back
- Germany to take blame
- Germany to disarm permanently
Lloyd George Motives +quote
‘Hard but fair’
1. Public opinion - dec 1920 elections upcoming
2. Restore trade w/Germany - 2nd biggest trade partner
3. Preserve/expand empire
4. Naval superiority
5. Debt to USA
6. Human loss - 1 mil dead, 2.3 mil injured
7. no communism
Lloyd George Aims
- Punish Germany WITHIN REASON
- Restore trade w/Germany
- make Germany not too weak and France not too strong
- German NAVAL disarmament
Woodrow Wilson Motives + quote
- Public opinion
- Idealist - New World Order ‘peace without victory’
- No heavy casualties - only joined war April 1917, only 117K dead, gained money from war
14 Points (Wilson Aims)
- Self determination
- Free Trade
- Global Disarmament
- League of Nations
Name + date + location of meeting
Paris Peace Conference Jan-Jun 1919, Hall of Mirrors in Palace of Versailles
Who was not invited and why?
Russia - Bolshevik revolution Oct. 1917 left war - made it a war on one front, plus communism
Term used to describe germany not being able to negotiate
DIKTAT
Date of Treaty signed
28 June 1919
Date of Treaty in effect
Jan 10 1920
Terms of Treaty
- War guilt - Germany responsible for damage and GB + FR not responsible (SCAPEGOAT)
- Anschluss forbidden
- Reparations - Blank cheque - in 1921 settled as 6600 Million pounds
- German Disarmament - 100K troops, 15K sailors, 6 ships, no military in Rhineland
- Independence for Baltic States
- League of Nations - First thing mentioned, no germany (victor’s club)
- Territorial losses - Alsace Lorraine, Saarland administrated by France til 1935, Upper SIlesia, Polish Corridor (East separated)
Principal Losses (stats)
- 100% colonies
- 50% iron
- 16% coal
- 12.5% population
- 10% of 1914 territory
Allies Reaction quotes + stats
- Lloyd George ‘a great pity’, prophesised another war
- French - too soft, Clemenceau only 6% vote in 1920
- American - if Wilson were Ger, he would not have signed
- Economist JM Keynes ‘neither just nor wise’
Germany reaction
- mass deonstration outside parliament 15 May 1919
- believed politicians had betrayed (NOVEMBER CRIMINALS)
- sunk their own ships
- Kapp Putsch (failed coup of ex soldiers)
- Ruhr Invasion 1923 - strikes (because failed to pay reps)
- hyperinflation
- Munich Putsch - Hitler first attempt to seize power
