Parisians welcoming President Wilson.
Londoners celebrating the armistice.
The Conclusion
of WWI
Restoring the Peace
• Europeans & Americans hoped US Pres.
Woodrow Wilson would restore world peace.
• Before the war ended, Wilson created the
Fourteen Points (peace plan  included freedom
of seas, arms limitations, & end all secret
alliances)
• 2 major international reservations to using
Wilson’s plan for peace negotiations w/Germany.
– 1) British- objected to the idea of open seas
– 2) French- reparations, payments for damages, should
be included in any settlement
The Paris Peace Conference
January 1919- 27 delegates in Paris  5 separate peace
treaties known as the Peace of Paris.
• Heads of state, “Big Four”, attended the conference:
– President Wilson of the US
– Prime Minister Clemenceau of France
– Prime Minister George of Great Britain
– Prime Minister Orlando of Italy
• Gap b/tw  idealistic goals of Wilson & the
nationalistic goals of French, British, & Italian leaders.
• Wilson’s chief aim  support the League of Nations.
The Treaty of Versailles
• Spelled out details of Allied settlement w/ Germany.
• Militarily:
– reduced the German army
– banned conscription (draft)
– banned manufacturing major war weapons
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Germany returned Alsace-Lorraine to France
Germany lost overseas colonies
For 15 years, France control the coal-rich Saar Basin
Allied forces occupied Rhineland region of Germany
Germany renounced Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia)
• Allies reestablished Poland out of Germany, A-H, & Russia
– Baltic Sea access: Poland received Polish Corridor (land
separating E. Prussia from Germany
• Allies received Germany’s overseas colonies (mandates,
territories administered by other countries)
• Allies demanded Germany accept blame for the war
• Germany pay reparations for Allied war costs & damages
• Allies signed treaty at Palace of Versailles on June 28, 1919
• 4 of Wilson’s 14 Points & 9 supplementary principles
emerged in the treaty, including Covenant of the League
of Nations.
Other Settlements
• Allies signed separate peace agreements w/Austria, Bulgaria,
Hungary, & Turkey.
• Allies recognized breakup of A-H. Austria was small,
economically weak
• From Austria, Italy received German-speaking areas in the
Alps
– Italy wanted the port on the Adriatic  Wilson refused
• New nations in E. Europe  Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, & Yugoslavia.
– Cordon sanitaire (quarantine line) buffer against threats
from Russia or Germany.
• Middle East- Allies divided what was left of the Ottoman
Empire.
• Arabs did not receive the independence that Great Britain
had promised them.
Bitter Fruits
• Disillusionment set in after WWI
– millions of people died & destroyed the homes & lives
of millions
• Germans resented their loss in WWI.
• German economic strength remained intact,
– harsh provisions of the ToV left Germany weakened,
humiliated, and deprived of great-power status.
• Germans’ festering resentment burst forth upon
the world with an even greater violence two
decades later in the form of Nazism.