The Treaty of Versailles.

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Daniel Clark  10BH

The Treaty of Versailles

        After the Treaty of Versailles was signed, in 1919, none of the allied leaders could truly say, they had gotten what they wanted. Although to some extent, they had all gotten something. Whether it was wealth, land, or power.

        The French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, felt that he had suffered the most during the war, because a lot of it was fought in his country. The only thing he wanted to do, was to completely destroy Germany, to take revenge. While talking to the French parliament he said “...My home policy? I wage war. My foreign policy? I wage war...always, everywhere i shall wage war...”. On the border of France is the Rineland, controlled by Germany. This was handed over to France, and German soldiers were not allowed to occupy it. Clemenceau was pleased by this because the Germans could not invade France easily, but if he wanted it, Clemenceau had an easy entrance to envade Germany.  The German army was reduced to a mere 100,000 soldiers. Also they were not allowed any tanks, planes, submarines, and only a small number of ships. This did not only mean that Germany did not have the forces to start a war. They didn’t hve enough forces to put up much resistance, if France were to attack them. Clemenceau was also pleased by the Germans having to pay reparations for war damage, and the were humiliated infront of the world.

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        The thing that most displeased Clemenceau, was the fact that he thought Germany, had gotten off lightly. He thought that this would be a good chance for revenge, for the conflict between France and Germany, in 1870. France had to suffer, their army being destroyed in sedan, the bombing of Paris by the Prussians. But possibly the worst thing of all, was the decleration of the German empire, at the palace of Versailles.

        President, Woodrow Wilson of the United States, had his own ideas about the treaty. He had a list of 14 points written up. Out of the ...

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