Reparations - another key British aim as they had to repay US loans which were not going to be cancelled. However, there was a British objection to an extremely high reparations bill. This was partly because there had been little direct damage to British infrastructure (in contrast to France) because air raids from German Zeppelin and Gotha bombers had not caused significant damage.
Nonetheless the British consistently maximised their reparations claims on Germany. As Lloyd George himself said ‘the imposition of a high indemnity…would prevent the Germans spending money on an army.’ It was also argued that a high indemnity would ensure that there was a share of money for Britain once France and Belgium had made their claims. In addition, pensions were going to be paid to war widows and the disabled and these payments had to be covered as well.
of France had one very simple belief - Germany should be brought to her knees so that she could never start a war again. This reflected the views of the French public but it was also what Clemenceau himself believed in. In 1871 he had seen Germany humiliate France after the Franco-Prussian war and had overseen the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. "The Tiger" did not have to adapt his policies to suit the French public - the French leader and the French public both thought alike. He had seen the north-east corner of France destroyed and he determined that Germany should never be allowed to do this again. The homes of 750,000 French people were destroyed and the infrastructure of this region had also been severely damaged. Roads, coal mines, telegraph poles had all been destroyed and such a loss greatly hindered the area's ability to function normally.
Clemenceau thought that only an effective balance of power in Europe could act as a deterrent to future German aggression. He knew Germany in 1919 was potentially stronger than she had been in 1914 as Imperial Russia was now much weaker, Austria-Hungary had collapsed and Germany also possessed a bigger population than France. He wanted to see Germany completely disarmed, and to encourage a large, independent Polish, Czech and Yugoslav states. He also wanted maximum reparations payments to be extracted from Germany. Above all, he wanted to retain the valuable military and economic links with Britain and the USA from the war.
Clemenceau wanted the restoration to France of the Saar territory, which had been given to Prussia in 1814. He also wanted to detach the mineral and industrial basin to the north, which had never been French and place it under an independent non German administration. He also wanted full French ownership of the coal mines to compensate for the destruction of the pits in Northern France. The French also saw the occupation of the Rhine as a unique opportunity to permanently weaken Germany by detaching it from Germany. Ideally the French wanted an independent Rhineland state.
Lloyd George Clemenceau Woodrow Wilson
of had been genuinely stunned by the savagery of the Great War. He could not understand how an advanced civilisation could have created so much devastation.. Wilson was the central player of the Big Three as his country was the world’s dominant power and alone had the resources and manpower to continue the struggle; at the same time, Wilson enjoyed unprecedented popularity as the ‘prophet of peace.’
Wilson believed that Germany should be punished for what had happened in the Great War. It had after all been primarily responsible for the devastation of WW1 as he stated in a speech at Omaha in September 1919:
‘(The T of V) seeks to punish one of the greatest wrongs ever done in history, the wrong which Germany sought to do to the world and to civilisation and there ought to be no weak purpose with regard to punishment.’
What Wilson wanted to do, in extremely idealistic fashion, was to ensure that his 14 points would serve as the basis for the peace negotiations and anchor the League Constitution in the text of the peace treaties. This would smooth over any differences at the Peace conference and serve as a framework for the other clauses.
He wanted a just and lasting peace which would satisfy the competing claims of the national states and this would be partly achieved through the principle of ‘self determination.’ In his famous phrase, he wanted ‘a peace without victory.’
Reparations: America did have a reparations bill as well but it was far more modest than that of the other powers. It recommended that a modest fixed sum should be written into the Treaty.
Colonies: An area where America clashed with the 2 other powers was over the fate of the former German colonies. Wilson wanted these to be placed as mandates under the control of the League of Nations.
Orlando: Linked to the "Big Three" was led by . He was frequently left on the sidelines when the important negotiations took place despite Italy fighting on the side of the Allies. Why was Italy treated in this manner? At the start of the war in 1914, Italy should have fought with Germany and Austria as she had signed the Triple Alliance which dictated that if one of the three was attacked, the other two would go to that country's aid. Italy did not join in on Germany's side but waited until 1915 and joined the side of Britain and France. This association with Germany was enough to taint Italy in the eyes of the "Big Three". Also Italy had not played an overwhelming part in the war. Her army had been all but destroyed at the battles of Caporetto. He strategic importance was minimal and her potential military clout in 1919, should the need arise to put pressure on Germany and Austria, was effectively non-existent.
Italy’s main aims were to secure some land that the Allies had promised in 1915 in the Treaty of London and it also wanted the port of Fiume in the Adriatic.