4/25/12   President
Global Peacemaker
  Wilson
and Germany wanted these points to
form the basis for the peace agreement, but
the proposals were discarded one by one by
the Allies.
• 
Wilson shared power with other members of the
big four: David Lloyd George of Great Britain,
Georges Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio
Orlando of Italy.
Wilson proposed a plan called the
Fourteen Points for ensuring world peace.
  His points included an end to secret treaties,
the removal of trade barriers among nations,
the reduction of military forces, and the
right of Austria-Hungary’s ethnic groups to
self-determination.
  An
international peace conference convened
in Paris in January 1919.
  Wilson decided to head the delegation; he
did not name any senior Republicans to the
group despite the need for the Senate to
approve the treaty.
  Wilson was received in Paris as a hero, but he
claimed to be interested only in forming an
agency where countries could work together
to resolve disputes.
  They
were interested in making the Central
Powers pay for their part in the war.
  They were also concerned about Russia, where a
revolution was taking place between Bolsheviks
and supporters of the old government.
  If Lenin won, he might want to claim spoils from
the war. (He did not).
  Wilson was forced to compromise on his fourteen
points, agreeing that the Allies could take over
Germany’s colonies.
1 4/25/12   Wilson
proposed a plan for a League of Nations,
an organization in which nations of the world
would join together to ensure peace for all its
members.
  The heart of the proposal was Article 10, in
which an attack on one nation would be viewed
as an attack on all nations.
  What
was Wilson’s Fourteen Points?
was the peace conference held?
  Who were the Big Four?
  Why were the Big Four worried about Lenin?
  What compromise was Wilson forced to
make?
  Where
  Since
the League had no military, it would have
to be backed up by the militaries of member
nations.
  The Republicans in the Senate rejected it,
fearing the U.S. would get drug into unpopular
foreign wars.
  The
• 
conference created 9 new nations out of the
territory of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and
Germany.
  Several were created to form a north-south
buffer zone dividing Bolshevik Russia from the
rest of Europe.
Borders were drawn with the ethnic population in
mind, but clean divisions were impossible.
 
French Premier Georges Clemenceau
demanded harsh possibilities against
Germany.
  In
the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire was
reduced to Turkey.
  Britain took control of Palestine, Transjordan,
and Iraq.
  France got Syria and Lebanon.
  Italy received less land than it expected, and
Orlando was forced to resign.
2 4/25/12   What
was the League of Nations?
was the Senate against joining the
League of Nations?
  How many new nations were formed at the
end of the war?
  What new territory did Great Britain gain?
  What new territory did France gain?
  Why
  The
Allies presented the treaty to the Germans
on May 7, 1919.
  The Germans at first refused to sign it, then gave
in when France threatened an invasion.
  On June 28, the great powers signed the Treaty
of Versailles.
  In
September, Wilson went on the road, giving
speeches across the country.
  He suffered a stroke that paralyzed one side of
his body.
  In 1919, the Senate voted on the treaty with
Lodge’s reservations. It was rejected 55-39.
  The
French and British wanted to cripple
Germany.
  They insisted that Germany supply reparations.
  In 1921, a Reparations Committee ruled that
Germany owed the Allied $33 billion, a debt it
could not pay.
  Wilson
returned home with the treaty on July
8.
  Some Senators opposed it because it
committed the U.S. to the League of Nations;
these were the irreconcilables because they
could not be made to accept the treaty.
  The reservationists, led by Henry Cabot
Lodge, accepted the League of Nations, but
wanted to impose reservations, or
restrictions, on American involvement.
  It
was voted on again without Lodge’s
recommendations. It was rejected 53-38.
  It was reconsidered in 1920 and was again
rejected.
3 4/25/12   On
May 20, 1920, Congress voted to disregard
the treaty and declare the war officially over.
  Wilson vetoed the resolution.
  On July 2, 1921, another joint resolution to
end the war was passed.
  It was signed by Warren G. Harding.
  Congress ratified separate peace treaties with
Germany, Austria, and Hungary in October.
  By
April 19, 4,000 servicemen a day were
coming home.
  The end of the war caused jobs to be scarce.
  Women left their jobs or were fired to make
room for the men.
  African Americans still faced discrimination in
housing and employment, and lynchings and
race riots continued.
  The
war spurred the U.S. economy.
countries owed the U.S. $11.5
billion.
  The decline of the European powers thrust the
U.S. into a position of unexpected strength,
but the U.S. chose to focus on concerns at
home.
  European
  Who
were the irreconcilables? Who were the
reservationists?
  What happened when the Senate tried to
ratify the peace treaty?
  How was peace finally attained?
  What was life like in the U.S. after the war
ended?
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