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WORLD WAR I ENDED IN 1918

As a result of its role in World War I, the United States emerged as a dominant global power.
President Woodrow Wilson wanted to make World War I the war to end all wars.
He went to France to help write the peace treaty.

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VERSAILLES CONFERENCE

Wilson came to the peace conference at Versailles with suggestions for a fair and equitable peace treaty.
These suggestions were called Wilson’s Fourteen Points.

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Examples of Wilson’s Fourteen Points

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Casualties of the War�http://www.nv.cc.va.us/home/cevans/Versailles/greatwar/casualties.html

Total casualties: 37 million
Total killed in WWI: 10-11 million
1 in 8 young men in France died
62% of all European men fought at some point in the war.
Total wounded in WWI: 30 million
Total amount spent directly on the war: $180,000,000,000

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“THE BIG FOUR” WHO WROTE THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

Lloyd George--Great Britain
Wilson--United States
Clemenceau--France
Orlando--Italy

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WHAT THE TREATY SAID ABOUT GERMANY

Reduce its army to 100,000 men and not allowed to have conscription or draft soldiers into their army.
Reduce the navy to 6 warships and was not allowed to have any submarines.
Destroy all of its air force.
Give land to Belgium, France, Denmark and Poland. The land given to Poland became known as the "Polish Corridor”, and it separated the main part of Germany from East Prussia.
Hand over all of its colonies.
Agree to pay reparations to the Allies for all of the damage caused by the war; these came to £6,600,000,000.
Put no soldiers or military equipment within 30 miles of the east bank of the Rhine.
Accept all of the blame for the war, the "War Guilt Clause".

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THE TREATY CHANGES THE MAP

The Treaty established nine new nations--the Adriatic coast was made part of a new country called Yugoslavia, which included Serbia and Bosnia. Other new countries were created -
Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were formed from land lost by Russia. Czechoslovakia and Hungary were formed out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The boundaries of other nations were shifted
Some areas were carved out of Turkish territory and given to France and Britain as mandates or temporary colonies.The mandates included Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.

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Europe 1914 When War Began

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Europe after the Treaty of Versailles

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GERMANY IS GIVEN A NEW GOVERNMENT

The Allies also gave Germany a new form of government based on proportional representation.
It was intended to prevent Germany being taken over by a dictatorship, but it led to the creation of more than thirty political parties; none of them was big enough to form a government on its own.

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GERMANY’S REACTION TO THE TREATY

When the details of the treaty were published in June 1919, most Germans were horrified. Germany had not been allowed to attend the peace conference and was told to accept the terms or else. Many Germans did not believe that the German army had actually been defeated in 1918 because Germany had not been invaded. One of these people was Corporal Adolf Hitler, who had been in hospital in November 1918 recovering from gas-blindness. Like many others he came to believe that the army had been "stabbed in the back" by the "November Criminals", the politicians who had signed the armistice which had brought World War I to an end.
Several of the clauses of the treaty were thought to be very harsh. It was going to be almost impossible to pay the reparations. In fact, the German government gave up after only one year, and the War Guilt Clause seemed particularly unfair. How could Germany be the only country to blame for the war? After all the war had started when a Serbian shot an Austrian.
It was felt that Germany had simply been made a scapegoat by the other countries for all that had happened.

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THE TREATY WILL BE A MAJOR CAUSE 0F THE RISE OF HITLER

Feelings like these led to a great deal of unrest in Germany in the years from 1919 to 1922.
Returning soldiers formed armed gangs, the Freikorps, who roamed the streets attacking people. In March 1920, they tried to seize power.
There was an attempted revolution by the Communists in January 1919, the Spartacist Revolt.
There were many murders, including two government ministers, one of whom had signed the armistice.
A number of extremist political parties were set up, including the German Workers' Party, which Adolf Hitler took over in 1921. He based his support upon the hatred that many Germans felt for the Treaty of Versailles.

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STRENGTHS OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES

It ended World War I.
The League of Nations was formed.
Poland was reconstructed.
The Austria-Hungary Empire, the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire were divided into modern countries.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were recreated from Russian territory.

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Weaknesses of the Treaty

The Treaty of Versailles was written up by the allied powers without any input from the Germans.
It failed to create a lasting peace.
The treaty was ruinous to Germany in many ways. It contained a "war- guilt clause" under Article 231 which forced the Germans to accept all responsibility for damages caused to any of the allied countries during the war.
It forced demilitarization of the Rhine, an elimination of the German air force and near elimination of the German navy, and a maximum allowance of 100,000 troops in the German army.
The Germans were forced to give up the territories of Alsace and Lorraine to France, and a great deal of Prussian territory went to the new state of Poland.
To be given the opportunity of signing a peace treaty at all, the Germans were forced to accept a democratic government.

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THE TREATY’S WEAKNESSES

The War Guilt Clause caused all Germans to hate the treaty, and opposition to the treaty was one reason for the rise to power of Hitler.
Russia lost more land than Germany and became determined to regain as much of its former territory as possible.
Ho Chi Minh, a young Vietnamese man, asked Wilson’s help to allow Vietnam to form its own government instead of being controlled by France. Ho was denied his request, so he founded the Indochina Communist Party and led the fight during the Vietnam War.

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EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES DIFFER OVER THE TREATY

The European leaders were not interested in a just peace. They were interested in retribution. Over Wilson's protests, they ignored the Fourteen Points one by one. Germany was to admit guilt for the war and pay unlimited reparations.
German colonies were handed in trusteeship to the victorious Allies.
No provisions were made to end secret diplomacy or preserve freedom of the seas.
New nations’ borders did not reflect self determination.
Wilson did gain approval for his proposal for a League of Nations.

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UNITED STATES DOES NOT SIGN THE TREATY

Wilson presented the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate. He was met with stiff opposition. The Republican leader of the Senate, Henry Cabot Lodge, was very suspicious of Wilson and his treaty. Article X of the League of Nations required the United States to respect the territorial integrity of member states.
Many believed the League was the sort of entangling alliance the United States had avoided since George Washington's Farewell Address.
Lodge sabotaged the League covenant by declaring the United States exempt from Article X. He attached reservations, or amendments, to the treaty to this effect. Wilson, bedridden from a debilitating stroke, was unable to accept these changes. He asked Senate Democrats to vote against the Treaty of Versailles unless the Lodge reservations were dropped. Neither side budged, and the treaty went down to defeat.

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