The twentieth-century world, Year 10: the peacemakers and the Treaty of Versailles (Inter-war years option)

Georges Clemenceau, of France

HintHis country had been invaded by Germany twice in fifty years.

The whyMuch of the Western Front had been fought on French soil, and France had lost about 1.3 million soldiers. Clemenceau wanted Germany left too weak ever to attack again.

14

HintThe last of them proposed a league of nations.

The whyThey included an end to secret treaties, freedom of the seas, disarmament, self-rule for the peoples of Europe and a League of Nations to keep the peace.

Self-determination

HintOne of Wilson's key ideas for redrawing the map of Europe.

The whyIt was applied to peoples of the defeated empires, such as the Poles and the Czechs. It was not applied to Germans: union between Germany and Austria was forbidden, and millions of German speakers were left in other countries.

Britain needed Germany to recover so that the two could trade again

HintThink about British exports and jobs.

The whyIn private he opposed revenge, believing that Europe would one day have to be reconciled with Germany. But British public opinion wanted Germany made to pay, so he had to look tough.

Freedom of the seas

HintBritain's wartime blockade had depended on the opposite.

The whyIt would have meant that no country could stop another's ships in wartime. Britain, whose power rested on its fleet, refused to be bound by this Point.

100,000; air force

HintA six-figure limit, and nothing that flies.

The whyConscription was forbidden as well, so the army had to be made up of volunteers. For a country proud of its military tradition this was a deep humiliation.

6

HintFewer than ten, and none of the newest type.

The whyThe navy was also limited to 15,000 men, and it was allowed no submarines. The fleet that had challenged Britain before 1914 was gone.

Article 231 (the war guilt clause)

HintIt was the legal basis for reparations.

The whyGermans of all parties deeply resented it. They believed the war had been forced on them and that all the powers shared the blame for 1914.

Alsace-Lorraine

HintGermany had taken it from France in 1871.

The whyGermany lost about 13 per cent of its territory and about a tenth of its population. Land was also given to the new Poland, cutting East Prussia off from the rest of Germany, and the coal-rich Saar was put under the League for fifteen years.

They became mandates, run by Allied countries on behalf of the League of Nations

HintBritain and France ended up governing most of them.

The whyGermany lost every colony it had, in Africa and the Pacific. To many Germans it looked as if the victors were simply enlarging their own empires.

None were allowed there: it was demilitarised

HintIt was meant to shield France from a surprise attack.

The whyAllied troops were to occupy the area for up to fifteen years. Germany could keep no forces or fortifications west of the Rhine, or within 50 kilometres of its east bank.

Diktat

HintGermans said the peace had been imposed, not agreed.

The whyGerman delegates were not admitted to the talks. They were handed the finished terms, and their objections changed almost nothing. They signed on 28 June 1919 under threat of invasion.

Recover its strength and attack France again

HintSome French leaders had wanted the Rhineland cut away altogether.

The whyMarshal Foch, the Allied commander, is reported to have said: 'This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years.'

It refused to approve it, so the USA never joined the League of Nations

HintWilson's own country turned him down.

The whyMany senators feared that the League would drag America into foreign quarrels. The organisation Wilson had designed began its life without the world's richest power.

John Maynard Keynes

HintHe wrote 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace'.

The whyHe had been at the conference as a Treasury adviser and resigned in protest. His book helped to persuade many people in Britain that Germany had been treated unfairly, which later fed support for appeasement.

Each contained large minorities of other nationalities

HintNo border could be drawn that put every people in a country of its own.

The whyCzechoslovakia included about three million German speakers, as well as Slovaks, Hungarians and others. The new states were also small, short of money and placed between a resentful Germany and Soviet Russia.