Treaty of Versailles

An unsatisfactory compromise between the victors

The "Big Three" consisted of Prime Minister Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America. Vittorio Orlando also served as an advisor from Italy and Count Makino was also sent from Japan. At the Treaty of Versailles it was difficult to decide on a common position because their aims conflicted with one another. The result was said to be a compromise that nobody liked. Henry Kissinger called the treaty a "brittle compromise agreement between American utopism and European paranoia."

Related Topics:
Lloyd George - Georges Clemenceau - Woodrow Wilson - Vittorio Orlando - Italy - Japan - Henry Kissinger

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France had suffered very heavy casualties during the war (some 1.24 million military and 40,000 civilians dead; see World War I), and much of the war had been fought on French soil. Much of the country was in ruins, with extensive damage to historic and important buildings and resources. George Clemenceau of France wanted reparations from Germany to rebuild the war-torn country. In all, approximately 750,000 houses and 23,000 factories had been destroyed, and money was demanded to pay for reconstruction. In 1871, France and Germany had also fought, with Germany recovering an area with a partly German-speaking population that had been annexed by France in the 18th century, Elsaß/Lothringen -Alsace-Lorraine. Clemenceau also wanted to guard 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 drastically reduce the number 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.

Related Topics:
World War I - Elsaß/Lothringen -Alsace-Lorraine - Rhineland

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Not only did France want to punish Germany, it wanted to preserve its empire and colonies. While America put forward a belief in national or ethnic "self-determination", France and Britain were also strongly motivated by a desire to hold onto their empires. Clemenceau largely represented the people of France in that he (and many other Frenchmen) wanted revenge upon the German nation. Clemenceau also wanted to protect secret treaties and impose naval blockades around Germany, so that France could control trade imported to and exported from the defeated country. In effect, Clemenceau and many other French wanted to impose policies deliberately meant to cripple Germany militarily, politically, and economically. He was the most radical member of the Big Three, and received the nickname "Le Tigre" for this reason.

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The United Kingdom had played a backseat role only in that the country itself was never invaded. Many British soldiers died on the front line in France, and so many people in Britain also wanted revenge as much as the French. Prime Minister Lloyd George supported severe reparations, but to a lesser extent than the 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 could be 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 British Empire. This position was part of the competition between two of the world's greatest empires, and their battle to preserve them. Like the French, Lloyd George also supported naval blockades and secret treaties.

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On the other hand, US president Woodrow Wilson had very different views about how to punish Germany. He had proposed the Fourteen Points before the war ended, 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. President Wilson, however, 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 protection from the aggressor.

Related Topics:
Woodrow Wilson - Fourteen Points

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In addition, Wilson strongly promoted the concept of "self-determination"--the idea that distinct national and/or ethnic groups should be self-governing. 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 even received popular support in some of the imperial home countries. Self-determination was, and continues to be, a source of friction between different ethnic groups around the world as each group seeks to define and enhance its position in the world.

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The acceptance by many peoples of the concept of self-determination was the beginning of the end for the empires, including those of Britain and France. Self-determination is partly the reason so many new countries were created in Eastern Europe; Wilson was not willing to agree to an increase in the size of Britain, France, or Italy. Poles fought against Germany to regain freedom in: the Greater Poland Uprising in Posen and three Silesian Uprisings in Upper Silesia.

Related Topics:
Greater Poland Uprising - Posen - Silesian Uprisings - Upper Silesia

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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 reduce indirectly the ability of navies to create blockades.

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The Big Three knew even before they met that they wanted to punish Germany. France wanted revenge, Britain wanted a relatively strong economically viable Germany as a counterweight to French dominance on Continental Europe, and the U.S. wanted the creation of a permanent peace as quickly as possible, as well as the destruction of the old empires. The result was a compromise which left nobody satisfied. Germany was neither crushed nor conciliated, which did not bode well for the future of Germany, Europe and the world as a whole. The Treaty of Versailles did cripple Germany's economy in the early 1920's and left it vulnerable to the equally devastating Great Depression of the early 1930's, which in turn paved the way for Nazism to receive popular support. Implementing reparations also failed to achieve its punitive aims insofar as Germany profited from the treaty by neither repaying most of its foreign loans in the following decade nor completing her indemnity payments.

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