The End of the War
Right before the end…
President Wilson issues the
Fourteen Points
President Wilson issues the
Fourteen Points
 Jan.
1918
 First five points:
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End to secret agreements between nations
Freedom of the seas
Removal of trade barriers
Arms reductions
Fair settlement of colonial disputes
Fourteen Points
 Next
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8 points:
Dealt with specific territorial issues in Europe
and the Ottoman Empire.
Based on the principal of selfdetermination: the right of nations and
peoples to control their own fate and
decide what form of government they will
have.
Fourteen Points
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Last point: called for “a general association of
nations”
League of Nations
Members would work together to keep world
peace. *collective security – joint action by
member nations against an aggressor to keep
peace.
*Other Allies don’t like his plan, but keep quiet
because they needed America’s help to win the
war.
The End
 Russia
– withdraws in 1917 – Germans can
move all troops to Western Front
 March 1918- launch a massive attack on
the British – Second Battle of the Somme
 2 months of heavy fighting, both sides lost
about 500,000 men; German army gets
within artillery range of Paris!
 American forces save the Allies and push
Germans back beyond their own border.
The End
 Between
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Sept and Nov 1918:
Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, and AustriaHungary surrender
German military starts to mutiny once they
know they can’t win; revolts throughout
German cities
Nov 9: Kaiser abdicates
Armistice signed on Nov. 11 at 11 am
The Cost
 65
million men fought
 8.5 million died
 21 million wounded
 Civilian deaths/flu pandemic put death
tolls over 20 million
 $200 billion – cost of fighting the war
 $37 billion in estimated damages
The Paris Peace Conference
 Jan.
1919
 27 nations represented, but it was
dominated by the “Big Four”
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Woodrow Wilson – US
David Lloyd George – GB
Georges Clemenceau – France
Vittorio Orlando – Italy
Defeated Central Powers and Russia
(Communist) not included
Conflicting Goals
 President
Wilson wanted to spread
democracy and promoted “peace
without victory.”
 Clemenceau wanted to crush Germany
and limit their future power
 David Lloyd George – somewhere in
between
 Orlando – just wanted the land Italy had
been promised; walked out when he
discovered the Allies had lied to him
The Treaty of Versailles
 Required
Germany to accept full
responsibility for starting the war and pay
the Allies reparations

$33 billion (about $402 billion today)
 Reduced
Germany’s size and population
by about 10%
 Returned Alsace-Lorraine to France
(Franco-Prussian War 1871)
Treaty of Versailles
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Limited Germany’s military to a small navy
and a 100,000 man army with no offensive
weapons.
German troops banned from the Rhineland –
region along the French border
Germany stripped of all overseas colonies
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These harsh, unfair reparations sew seeds of
future conflict; leave Germany wanting
revenge. Explains why Hitler is appealing.
Old Empires Collapse;
New Countries Form
 The
old multi-national empires were
broken up:
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Poland was created out of land from
Germany and Russia;
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania out of
Russia.
Other nations: Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
Post-War
 The
League of Nations was formed to
oversee and settle disputes between
nations.
 Relied on collective security – joint action
by member nations against an aggressor
to keep peace.
 US Senate didn’t ratify it because of fear
of obligation in future conflicts – left the
LON powerless to keep peace.