END OF THE WAR - notes
The Fourteen Points
•A peace program set up by Wilson
•Called for an end to secret alliances
•Restoration of freedom of the seas
•Reduction in armaments (the arms and equipment with which a military
unit or military apparatus is supplied)
•This program reflected President Wilson’s self-determination
Paris Peace Conference
•Wilson attends as the U.S. delegate
•Believed that no one was in this for the rewards…he was wrong
•Countries wanted rewards: France wanted to humiliate and destroy
Germany so it could never conquer again
•Wilson is forced to give up his “plan”
League of Nations
•Ten days of hard work and negotiating
•It was an organization in which the nations of the world would join together
to ensure security and peace for all members
The Peace Treaty
•The “BIG FOUR” return to the peace conference a few months later:
Britain, France, Italy, United States
•Allies accepted Wilson’s plan for a League of Nations with some
exceptions:
- 15 year French control of the mineral resources in Alsace-Lorraine
- Britain and France wanted reparations (payment from enemy for
the economic injury suffered in the war)
- Ruled that Germany owed Allies $33 billion dollars
•As Wilson feared, Germany would never forget or forgive this humiliation
The Versailles Treaty
•Presented treaty to Germans on May 7, 1919
•They refused at first but at threat of invasion they had no choice but to sign
•All signed at Versailles – therefore the name