Why Wilson’s Peace Plan
Failed
Paris Peace Talks: The Big Four





Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Lloyd George
(#1 Power)
French Premier Georges Clemenceau (revenge)
US President Woodrow Wilson (idealism)
Italian Premier Vittorio
Orlando (territory)
Germany and Russia
excluded
Wilson’s 14 Points
Wilson's Mistakes


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
Bi-Elections of 1918: partisan
politics, Republicans gain
control House first time since
1910
American Peace Delegation:
no Senators or prominent Republicans
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge not taken
Wilson accused of Grandstanding
Treaty of Versailles


War Guilt Clause (Art. 231) Germany solely
responsible for starting war and destruction
Reparations to be paid by Germany = $56 billion
Treaty of Versailles



Germany was stripped of colonies
Germany lost Saar Basin (returned by plebiscite
1935), Posen, parts of Schleswig and Silesia and
Alsace-Lorraine
German
disarmament
New nations & problems created



Italy's 200,000
persons nonItalians
German
speaking
populations in
Poland &
Czechoslovakia
Polish Corridor
New nations & problems created



Russian loss of
territory
Japan given
Shantung, China
British & French
Mandates in
Middle East
Did not deal with


did not address issues that caused the war
reduction in arms

trade barriers
League of Nations

Wilson’s idea to resolve world conflict
without war
US Ratification Process
Opposition to the Treaty of
Versailles




Unpopular with German, Irish, & Jewish Americans
Republican feud with Wilson, esp. Henry Cabot Lodge
Reservationists
Irreconcilables = diehard
isolationists including

Hiram W. Johnson (CA)
William E. Borah (IL)

Robert La Folette (WI)

Wilson's 3-week national
speaking tour


29 cities
Pueblo CO, collapsed
Wilson's 3-week national
speaking tour


Returned to Washington, suffered a stroke
 paralyzed left side
 incapacitated 6 months
Edith Wilson acting President
Senate Vote



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45 revisions proposed
limit US obligations to
the League of Nations
Wilson opposed any
changes (He kept us out
of peace!)
Final vote -- treaty
rejected, failing by 7
votes 49-35
Wilson’s Legacy



Wilson received
Nobel Peace Prize in
1920
died embittered in
1924
his predictions of
future problems for
Europe would come
true