Who was Georges Clemenceau?

1
The roles and goals of Clemenceau in creating the
Treaty of Versailles

• Who was Georges Clemenceau?
• What role did he play?
• What were his goals in creating the Treaty of
  Versailles?

2
Who was Georges Clemenceau?

• In this room you are able to see Gorges
  Clemenceaus life. His life is divided to the
  four most important parts.
• Who he really was and what roles he played
  during his political career?

3
His Youth

• Like his ancestors he would study medicine,
  and, like them, Clemenceau entered the medical
  school primarily for an education. He may have
  had ambitions for a career at a higher level in
  medical or scientific research, but, distracted
  by politics, he did not even win a place as an
  interne at one of the Paris hospitals. In any
  case he did not have the temperament for patient
  research and long-drawn-out intellectual enquiry,
  although he had the journalist's or lawyer's
  facility for rapid assimilation and clear, if
  superficial, exposition. (Secondary source by
  David Robin Watson GEORGES CLEMENCEAU- A
  Political Biography Eyrne Methuen, p.21)

• Was born in Vendée on 28th September, 1841. As a
  youth he attended Medical School, but without any
  great success. He always was fascinated in
  politics. The source describes his character as
  not helpful in his medical career. After
  finishing his medical studies he went to live in
  New York. He was impressed by the political
  freedom enjoyed by the people of the US and
  considered settling permanently in the country.
  However, in 1869 he decided to move back to
  France were he celebrated the establishmnet of
  the Third Republic.

4
Early career

• In 1871,after the Franco-Prussian war Clemenceau
  was elected to the National Assembly
• In 1876, he was re-elected to the National
  Assembly as a leader of Radical-Republicans.
• In 1902 Clemenceau became a senator and four
  years later(1906), at the age of 61, was
  appointed Minister of Home Affairs.
• Seven months later Clemenceau became France's
  Prime Minister (1906-1909)

Georges Clemenceau in 1872 (http//www.cheminsdeme
moire.gouv.fr/page/affichegh.php?idLangdeidGH32
0)
5
World War I
Liberal prime minister David Lloyd George (left)
at Versailles with the French prime minister
Georges Clemenceau and the US president Woodrow
Wilson.

• Georges Clemenceau was one of the three fathers
  of the Versailles Treaty. However his opinion
  about the Treaty and the punishment for Germany
  was quite different to the David Lloyd George and
  Woodrow Wilson. Through his aggressive type of
  negotiation he got a nickname the Tiger.

(http//www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history
/mwh/ir1/bigthreerev_print.shtml)
6
His defeat
Georges Clemenceau (http//www.musee-clemenceau.fr
/en/chronologie.html)

• By January 1920, his political star had eclipsed
  and the French public held him responsible for
  the perceived leniency of the Versailles
  Settlement.In his retirement he constantly
  preached, spoke and wrote against the dangers of
  a resurgent Germany. He became very disillusioned
  with European diplomacy which became most
  apparent in his memoirs "The Grandeur and
  Misery". Georges Clemenceau even predicted that
  1940 would be the year that France was in its
  gravest danger from Germany.
• Georges Clemenceau died in 1929.

7
What roles did he play?

• Georges Clemenceau durnig his political career
  played many different roles, and all of his
  beliefs were strongly influenced by his father
  Benjamin Clemenceau.
• However, the most important roles are the Prime
  Minister of France, Minister of the War and the
  creator of the Treaty of Versailles.

8
Political point of view influenced by his
father
Benjamin Clemenceau (http//www.musee-clemenceau.f
r/en/chronologie.html)

• As a son of a gentleman, doctor Benjamin
  Clemenceau, he inherited from his father a
  lifelong detestation of Bonapartism and a
  commitment to democratic Republicanism. This
  political belief lead him throuth his whole
  career and had a huge impact on his goals in
  creation of the Peace Treaty.

9
The Tiger
LA BAIONNETTEFrench Journal, 13 March 1919

• Clemenceau is a free-thinker of free-thinkers
  neither Heaven nor Hell has anything to say to
  him... He has thrown back to his animal ancestry.
  What is the totem of the tribe which has entered
  into him, whose instinct of depredation pervades
  his every political action? We have it! He is of
  the jungle, jungly. His spring is terrific. His
  crashing attack fatal. He looks as formidable as
  he is. In short, he is a Tiger, and there you
  are. That accounts for everything! (Primary
  Source by H. M. Hyndman Clemenceau, the Man and
  his time, 1919. p.81)

Georges Clemenceau is remembered as a great
statesman of France. Even in 1919 he had a
reputation of individual and agressive negotiator
however, the French nation loved him and had
great faith in his skills during the creation of
the Treaty of Versailles.
10
Prime Minister of France
I feel humble for the mistakes I have already
made and for those which I am likely to make. I
do not think I can be accused of having sought
power. But I am in power. I hope it will not be a
misfortune for my country. You tell me I have
made mistakes... I am here because these are
terrible times when those who through all the
struggle have loved their country more than they
knew see the hopes of the nation centered on
them. I am here through the pressure of public
opinion, and I am almost afraid of what it will
demand of me, of what it expects of me. Georges
Clemenceau (Primary Source by H. M. Hyndman
Clemenceau, the Man and his time, 1919. p.324)
Clemenceau as a Premier of France was focused on
his country and his nation. As presented by the
source he always spoke in the name of the French
people and he felt that his attitudes to the war
and peace were alike with his nation.
11
Creator of the Treaty of Vresailles

• Success is possible only if we remain firmly
  united.  We have come here as friends.  We must
  pass through that door as brothers... Everything
  must be subordinated to the necessity for a
  closer and closer union between the peoples which
  have taken part in this great war... I come now
  to the order of the day.  The first question is
  as follows "The responsibility of the authors of
  the war."  The second is thus expressed
  "Penalties for crimes committed during the war." 
  The third is "International legislation in
  regard to labour.
• (Primary source by Geoges Clemenceau, 18 January
  1919)

Georges Clemenceau as a creator of the Treaty of
Velrsaille played the major role as a
represenative of France and the Conference
President. The source presented extracts from the
Opening Speech on 18.01.1919, which explores his
basic goals in creating peace.
12
What were his goals in creating the Treaty of
Versailles?

• Clamenceau believed that the responsibility for
  the Great War is all Germans.
• What kind of punishment did he want to give to
  Germany? And what he achieve through his
  agressive negotiations with David Lloyd Georges
  and Woodrow Wilson? All this information is in
  this room.

13
Security of France

The most significant goal of Clemenceau was to
protect France from Germany and the future
conflicts with this country. The protection of
Great Britan and United Staces wasnt honest and
Clemenceau knew that the first future conflict
with Germany France would be left alone without
chance for deffence. By the Peace Treaty he
wanted to economicaly and militaraly harass
Germany.
French soldiers on the Wstern Front.
http//www.landships.freeservers.com/french_ww1uni
forms.htm
14
Economical punishment for Germany

• Clemenceau believed that all the harshest ways
  to punish Germany were allowed. The punishment
  would have to be that powerful that the German
  nation would never again rise to power. He
  determinably wanted Germany pay for the
  destruction of the war for all Allied nations,
  especially for France, who suffered the biggest
  losses durnig the war. Through negotiation of the
  Peace Treaty Germany needed to pay the entire
  cost of the war (6.6 bilion pounds-52 for
  France) and also France and Belgium received
  large amounts of German machinery, railway and a
  never-ending supply of coal(8,1 milion tons per
  annum for France).

• Georges Clemenceau of France had one very
  simple belief - Germany should be brought to its
  knees so that she could never start a war again.
  He had seen the north-east corner of France
  destroyed and he determined that Germany should
  never be allowed to do this again.
• Secondary source by David Robin Watson GEORGES
  CLEMENCEAU- A Political Biography Eyrne Methuen,
  p.32

15
Demobilisation of Germany
The soruce presented the territories which
germany lost after WWI. One of the most
sifnificant goals for Clemenceau was to totaly
demobilise Germany, however, Treaty of Versallies
demobilised only Rhineland (dark green on the
map) and limited German army to 100,000 soldiers,
no tanks or heavy artillery, no air forces, no
U-boats. It was a big disappointment for
Clemenceau and France.
http//www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/versailles_map.jpg
16
Mistakes of The Big Three?

• Hitler did not wage war because of the Teaty of
  Vresailles, although he found its existence a
  godsend for his poropaganda. Even if Germany had
  been left with its old brothers, even if it had
  been allowed whatever military force it wanted,
  even if it had been premitted to join with
  Austria, he would still have wanted more the
  destruction of Poland, control of Czechoslovakia,
  above all the conquest of the Soviet Union. He
  would have demaned room for the German people to
  expand and the destruction of their enemies,
  whether Jews or Bolshevics. There was nothing in
  the Treaty about that... Peacemakers of 1919 made
  mistakes, of course... If they could have done
  batter, they certainly could have done much
  worse. They tried, even cynical old Clemenceau,
  to built a better order. They could not forse the
  future and they certainly could not control it.
  When war came in 1939, it was the result of 20
  years of decisions taken or not taken, not of the
  argumants made in 1919.
• (Secondary source by Macmillan, 2001, p.499-500)

Many historians disagree about the consequences
of the Treaty of Versailles. There is no right
answer for their arguments because no-one is able
to control the future. The three different views
of peace left history with the question Who was
right? Old Clemenceau who wanted to harass
Gremany, idealistic Wilson who wanted world peace
or Lloyd George who was between them wanted
Greman colonies but didnt care much about the
peace. The source explains some aspects of this
question.