Wilson Fights for Peace

1
Section 4

• Wilson Fights for Peace

2
Fourteen Points

• Wilsons plan for peace
• 5 pay attention to the colonies and their
  desired
• 14 create a League of Nations

3
Big Four

• Woodrow Wilson U. S.
• Georges Clemenceau France
• David Lloyd George Britain
• Vittorio Orlando - Italy

4
Peace Conference

• Peace conference did not include the defeated
  powers or Russia or smaller nations contrary to
  custom
• Big Four worked alone
• Rejected Wilsons plan except for 14

5
Treaty of Versailles

• 9 new nations
• Germany
• Return Alsace-Lorraine to France
• Pay war reparations
• Sign war-guilt clause

6
Weakness of the Treaty of Versailles

• Humiliated Germany
• Russia ignored (1922 USSR)
• Germany stripped of colonial possessions could
  have helped Germany pay reparations
• Ignored right of self-determination
• Lead directly to World War II

7
Opposition to the Treaty in the U. S.

• Henry Cabot Lodge led Senate opposition to the
  Treaty
• Senate felt membership in the League would drag
  the U. S. into European conflicts or wars
• Senate refused to ratify the Treaty
• U. S. did not join League of Nations

8
The Legacy of War

• During WWI, German newspapers were censored
• Many Germans were unaware that the German General
  Staff demanded an end to the war
• RESULT shock at the armistice and outrage at
  the Treaty

9
Legacy of War

• Economic Conditions poor throughout Europe
• Worse in Germany
• Colonies gone
• War reparations to pay

10
Legacy of War

• Circumstances led Germans to search for
  scapegoats
• Adolph Hitler, corporal in WWI, blamed the Jews
  and Socialists in the Weimar Republic
• 1933 Hitler and the Nazi Party won control of
  the German government