The Treaty of Versailles Was the Most Pleasing to Woodrow Wilson or George Clemenceau?

The Treaty of Versailles Was the Most Pleasing to Woodrow Wilson or George Clemenceau?

After the First World War a treaty had to be made to punish Germany

for their actions. This had to be done as Germany had lost the war and

had signed the Armistice on the 11th November 1918. The German peoples

were hungry, war weary and demanded peace. The Paris peace

conference's job was to write the Treaty of Versailles. Britain,

America and France all had representatives at this meeting; the Big

Three. The 'Big Three' included George Clemenceau, Lloyd George and

Woodrow Wilson. In June 1919, those three powers discussed the peace

treaty thoroughly. They all wanted peace, but this was hard to come by

the wide scale disruption to Europe during the war.

The German people thought that their nation had been 'stabbed in the

back' when they learnt of the nature of the treaty. This expression is

normally used when something is killed, suggesting that German hopes

were killed. This was as they though that their country was winning

the war. This idea had been planted because of government propaganda.

The people only heard of German victories at war in newspapers, never

of losses. This was to keep the nation's morale up and to try and

prevent a revolt.

As there were three huge nations, they all had different ideas as to

how Germany should be dealt with.

France had suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans. The north of

their country

Had been left in pieces, and 1,400,000 soldiers had been killed. As a

result, they wanted a harsh treaty. France wanted to ensure that no

third attack would ever take place, and wanted Germany to be reduced

to...

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...st Prussia.

The League of Nations controlled the Saaraland and other important

areas for 15 years until the country decided what they were going to

do with themselves.

I feel that Georges Clemenceau got more from the peace treaty than

Woodrow Wilson. Clemenceau evidently did live up to his nickname, the

'Tiger'. He persisted in his opinions and generally succeeded in his

undertakings. This may be because he had somewhat of an ally in Lloyd

George. They were both Imperialists, and were both accomplished

politicians.

In my view, Wilson could have persevered and influenced more in the

treaty. He could have utilised his financial advantage to produce more

results. I think that Wilson was an idealist, and did not act on these

ideas; whereas his counterparts were more realistic and put to use his

political power.