1.  In your groups come up with 3 or 4 points that
your country would want for the treaty after
the war.
 Reflect upon the hardships that your country
faced.

2. After the carnage of WWI.

3.  First Americans
landed in France in
June 1917
 Gen. Pershing kept
his troops back until
they could receive
more training
 Joined an American
Expeditionary Force
to preserve identity
and avoid Allied
disagreements over
strategy

4.  American units
helped block against
Germans at several
battles
 Sept. 12, 1918 half a
million soldiers and a
smaller number of
French soldiers
overran the German
stronghold at Saint-
Mihiel in 4 days

5.  French offensive stalled
 Mutinies and desertions
 Flanders
 British offensive, but Germans pushed them back
further from where started
 Southern Front
 Italians lost morale and started to desert

6.  Spring of 1918 allied troops under French General
Ferdinand Foch
 The Germans mounted their offensive
 wanted to split the Allies and drive the British to the sea
 came to within 37 miles of Paris before being stopped by the
Allies
 they were low on reserves and morale
 the Allies had high morale and high reserves
because of the US entering the war
 the Allied forces pushed the Germans back and slowly one
by one the resistance of the Central Powers fell
 November 11 at 11am the Germans signed the Armistice
 The Germans had lost the war while its troops still held
territory from France to the Crimean Peninsula

7.  Europe is shattered
 Millions dead, more wounded
 Country boundaries changed
 People looked to President Woodrow Wilson for
hope

8.  Germany saw that  Fourteen Points
their time had come  Peace plan whose
and they wanted an terms included
armistice international
 They hoped that recognition of
Woodrow Wilson’s 14 freedom of the seas
and trade, limitations
points would be used
of arms, an end to all
secret alliances
 Settlements of
colonial claims
 General assembly of
nations created

9.  Germany thought that the 14 points would be
used in the peace process with them
 Britain wanted control of the seas, didn’t want freedom
of the seas
 France wanted reparations (payment for damages) to
be included in any and all peace settlements
 Allied leaders didn’t want them (14 points)
 French Premier Clemenceau “President Wilson and
his 14 points bore me. Even God Almighty has only
10.”

10.  116,500 Americans died
 2.2 million Germans died
 1.7 million Russians died
 1.4 million French died
 1.2 million Austro-Hungarians died
 1 million British died
 Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919
 Victims literally died in their own bodily fluids
 1/50 died, generally ages 20-34 years of age
 25 million died world wide

11.  Big Four= Pres. Wilson
 January 1919 delegates
(US), Prime Minister
from 27 nations gathered in Clemenceau (France),
Paris to work out 5 Prime Minister David
separate peace treaties Lloyd George (Britain),
know as the Peace of Paris Prime Minister Vittorio
 Representatives from Orlando (Italy)
Russia and the Triple
Alliance were not invited
 France and Britain actually
funded against them in the
Civil War

12.  The Germans had surrendered on the basis of
Wilson’s 14 points, not knowing that the other
sides had already divided Germany up in
secret treaties
 When Wilson threatened to negotiate peace on his
own, finally Allies agreed to terms
 Britain refused to hear anything about freedom
of seas, only Germany had to disarm, and a
“guilt clause” made the Germans responsible
to pay off all war debts

13.  German Punishments  Territorially
 Military  Reduced and restricted
 Army reduced,  Alsace-Lorraine
conscription prohibited returned to France
 Navy limited  Poland established
 Forbidden to have an  Danzig freed
air force or build  Barred from uniting
weapons of aggression with other German
speaking peoples
 Stripped of colonial
possessions

14.  Economically
 Pay property damages, costs of the war and soldiers
pensions of the French and British
 Signed in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles June
28, 1919
 Only 4 of Wilson’s original 14 points and 9
supplemental principles emerged intact in the treaty
 League of Nations
 “It is definitely a guarantee of peace”
-Pres. Wilson

15.  Separate peace treaties signed with Austria-
Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey
 Greatest attention was territorial
 Broke up Austria and Hungary
 Austria was left small and economically weak
 Italy received from Austria territory near Brenner pass
in the Alps
 New nations emerged: Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
 Considered the “cordon sanitaire” or quarantine line
 France would use it as a buffer against any potential threat
from Russia or Germany

16.  While most Americans favored the League of
nations, Wilson’s rival (Henry Cabot Lodge)
was against it
 He was afraid the LON would force American to
bend to the will of other nations
 March 3, 1919 Henry Cabot Lodge was able to
get enough signatures to block the treaty
 Wilson’s only hope was compromise
 He went on campaign across the nation to tell people
why it was necessary
 In 1919 he gave the best speech of his life, then had a
stroke from which he never fully recovered

17.  One of the major arguing points was Article X
to aid League members, but Wilson refused to
accept any changes
 March 1920 enough Democrats broke from the
president to produce a majority, but not a
required 2/3
 The Treaty of Versailles was dead in the US.
Not until July 1921 did Congress enact a joint
resolution ending the war
 The US which had fought separately from the allies,
made separate peace as well

18.  Settlement left Europe and the world troubled
 Those who fought became the “lost generation”
 Peace settlements failed to heal old wounds
and opened new ones as well
 No freedom of the seas
 Economic barriers not lowered
 Only defeated powers were required to disarm
 Provisions against Germany were too harsh to
expect reconciliation with Britain and France,
but not harsh enough to destroy Germany
completely

19.  How did/does your country feel as a result of
the treaties?
 Were there any common goals?
 Were compromises made?
 Which country was most pleased with how the
negotiations turned out? Most displeased?
 Does your country feel it achieved its most
important goals?
 Were there any particular impasses or
impediments to agreements?

20.  May Day 1919 six months after the war ended
mobs in a dozen cities broke up socialist
parades, injured hundreds and killed 3 people
 Many Americans believed they were under
attack by homegrown and foreign-sponsored
radicals
 Menace of radicalism was overblown
 Radicals hoped that the success of the Russian
Revolution would lead to better feelings in the
US
 Most Americans found the idea of Bolsheviks
threatening

21.  1919 the left split
 Radical socialists formed the Communist Labor
party
 Slavic radicals created a separate Communist party
 Together they had no more than 40,000 members
 April 28, 1919 Mayor Hanson received a small
parcel which he thought was from an admirer
of his tough patriotism
 Homemade bomb
 20 such packages were sent (including to J. D.
Rockafeller, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the
postmaster general )

22.  June 2 bombs exploded simultaneously in 8
different cities
 One demolished the front porch of A. Mitchell
Palmer, the attorney general of the US
 Bomb thrower was blown to bits but enough of him
remained for identification
 Italian anarchist from Philadelphia
 Americans assumed that an organized conspiracy
was being mounted to overthrow the government

23.  In response to the bombing he launched raids
in over 30 cities
 Invaded private homes, meeting halls, pool parlors
taking several thousand alleged communists into
custody without warrants and beating those who
resisted
 Placed prisoners in jail and over 200 (with no
criminal records) were deported to the USSR
 NY expelled 5 duly elected Socialists in 1919
 Many people denounced the action

24.  Palmer
predicted
an uprising
in May, but
nothing
happened
til Sept.
Americans
saw it as
the work of
a few
demented
radicals
 35 deaths,
200 injuries