The Treaty of Versailles and the End of World War I

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The Treaty of Versailles and the End of World War
I
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End of the War

• Armistice on November 11, 1918
• Wilson gains huge popularity with the people in
  Europe after the war, but not with European
  leaders
• Wilson loses support in America after the war
• Republican victory in Congressional elections of
  1918
• Wilson travels to Europe for peace talks

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Versailles Peace Conference

• Big Four
• Wilson (U.S.A.)
• David Lloyd George (Britain)
• Premier Georges Clemenceau (France)
• Premier Vittorio Orlando (Italy)
• Wilsons Ideas
• 14 Points see your worksheet
• League of Nations is Wilsons most important
  point

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The League of Nations

• Article X called for creation of a League of
  Nations
• Collective security
• 5 permanent members proposed
• U.S., Fr., Br., It., Japan
• 42 other members
• Germany and Russia left out

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The Treaty of Versailles

• France (w/ Great Britains help) want to punish
  Germany for the war
• War-guilt clause for Germany
• Receives sole blame
• Pay reparations of 31 billion
• Military restrictions and loss of territory
• Left out of League of Nations
• Self-determination
• Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Latvia,
  Lithuania, Estonia, and Yugoslavia
• Signed June 28, 1919
• Germany forced to sign (only 4 of original 14
  points)
• Wilson just wanted to save the League of Nations

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Attempting to get U.S. Ratification

• 96 Senators (49 of which are Republicans)
• Wilson wont accept any changes to the treaty
• Henry Cabot Lodge
• Republicans threaten to kill treaty unless U.S.
  has option to leave the League of Nations
• Irreconcilables
• Opposed league in any form
• 14 Republicans, 4 Democrats

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Arguments Against the Treaty

• Anti-Germans felt too lenient
• Liberals felt too harsh
• German Italians upset that it did not help
  their native countries
• Irish-Americans said it gave British too much
  power
• African Americans upset that former German
  colonies in Africa did not receive any
  self-determination
• Jews only large group in support (British control
  of Palestine may result in Jewish homeland)

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Defeat of Versailles Treaty (1919)

• Republicans Oppose
• Wilson goes on national speaking tour to gain
  support for the treaty
• Wilson has a stroke
• Lodge Reservations
• Lodge tries to add to treaty
• Wilson requests Democrats not to ratify Treaty
• 11/19/1919 38 yeas, 53 nays

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Wilsons last comment on the Treaty of Versailles
and the League of Nations

• It was right that the United States did not join
  the League of NationsIve been thinking about
  this for a long time. If we had joined the
  League when I asked for it, it would have been a
  great personal victory. But it would not have
  worked, because deep down in their hearts the
  American people did not really believe in it.
  The great tragedy of the last six years is the
  fact that American failure to accept world
  responsibility means that the job will have to be
  done over again within twenty years and at ten
  times the cost.

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Results of the War

• World
• Russia becomes a communist state
• Britain, France, Austria, and Turkey go on the
  decline
• Germany devastated leads to Hitlers rule and
  World War II
• U.S.
• U.S. never signs Versailles Treaty
• Separate peace with Germany in July, 1921
• U.S. emerges from war as an economic and
  political leader
• Republican Warren G. Harding becomes President in
  1920 return to normalcy
• 18th and 19th Amendments