Treaty of Versailles.

2. Explain what Wilson hoped to achieve of the Paris peace conference?

Woodrow Wilson was the President of the USA who believed in making a peaceful and better world after the vestiges of the WW1. Like all other two leaders of “The Big three” (Georges Clemenceau- Leader of France and David Lloyd George- Leader of Britain) he also wanted to punish the Germans however not too harshly.  He thought that if the punishment towards Germany was too harsh then later on in the future they would come and seek for revenge and would lead to another disastrous war.  He alleged that gaining the peace around the world was his aim so he achieved this by writing up the fourteen points in January 1918. The fourteen points were all important and by doing those points would help him achieve his goal, however he was an idealist meaning he would say and do things but it would be unlikely for it to literally take place.  One example of the fourteen points is “All countries to work together towards disarmament”. This is means that in a certain place they would reduce the amount of weapons; clearly France would disagree because they wouldn’t be able to fight or defend and may affect other countries as well. Another prime example was point number 14, “League of Nation to be set up”. This was an international body in which members in it all unite and try preventing war breaking out. In 1870 Germany took France’s land, Alsace-Lorraine, and in one of Woodrow Wilson’s points it was suggested that it was to be returned back to France. This would please the French because they would have regained their territory back. Self-determination was the tenth point in which he inscribed and this was the idea of nations ruling themselves than by others and he felt strongly about achieving this and disagreed with the treaty taking away territories and decreasing their economy. The idea of having self-determination would have been one failure because people living in the Eastern Europe were scattered across many countries so they would be getting ruled by people with different languages or behaviour. Woodrow Wilson’s only wanted to achieve bringing peace to the world doing it in a way so everything would be reasonable and fair.

3. How far was Clemenceau satisfied with the Treaty of Versailles? Explain your answer.

I think that Clemenceau was not satisfied with the treaty of Versailles at all. Georges Clemenceau also known as “The Tiger” was the prime minister of France. His aims were to cripple Germany and bring the country so down and almost lose all their power and become weak, this was because he didn’t want Germany to attack France again. He wanted to break Germany into collection of smaller states so the country it self is weak and powerless. Clemenceau also considered compensation from Germany only when paying the reparations due to the results and treaty from the war. France had suffered from a load of damage to their country and they thought that Germany had threatened them and it was their fault to the residual.  Clemenceau felt strongly about everything that was given to Germany but was yet still not satisfied and demanded that the treaty that was to be held should destabilize Germany as far as they can. The war guilt clause was the starter in which Clemenceau decided what punishment could be accomplished after, if Germany accepted this War guilt clause then they would HAVE to accept all other consequences.  The decision if the loss of Germany’s territories and colonies pleased Clemenceau to an extent when told that they would have limitations of number of battle ships (six), number of soldiers in the army (100,000) and demilitarizing The Rhineland. Nevertheless he wanted to weaker Germany further like by having no air force, no navy and a very small army or none at all to make them pay and satisfy France.  Clemenceau approved to the League of Nations being set up because then Germany won’t attack again and altogether not bringing out another war. He contradicted when told that Germany could join later on in the League of Nations, if Germany proved them as a peaceful nation. To a degree he also thought that if Germany became a part of it would be injustice. France didn’t have any sympathy towards Germany and letting them pay £6600 million, contented France entirely. This was the amount that the damage caused by “only Germany” during the war and felt that Germany should owe it to them so France can get back its peaceful country.  

So in conclusion I think that Clemenceau was generally not satisfied with the treaty to an extent because they didn’t punish Germany enough by reducing or eradicating the army force.  Nevertheless he approved of the League of Nations being set up and the £6600 million reparations they had to pay.