Central Powers
Surrender
• Shortly after the U.S. entered the
war (1917), the Central Powers
realized that they could not win the
war so they signed an armistice.
• The war fighting ended on:
– November 11, 1918 at
11 a.m.
• This day called:
– Armistice Day
– TODAY it is called Veterans Day
• Congress - June 1, 1954
An armistice
is an
agreement
to stop
• "Peace had to be a
peace of reconciliation,
a peace without victory,
for a victor's peace
would leave a sting, a
resentment, a bitter
memory upon which
terms of peace would
rest, not permanently,
but only as upon
quicksand.“
– Woodrow Wilson
The Paris Peace Conference
January 18, 1919
• With the armistice, World War I had not officially
ended, but the fighting had stopped.
• Diplomats from more than two dozen countries
gathered in Paris for a conference to discuss how to end
the war permanently.
The conference lasted a little more
than a year. The discussions
produced treaties (formal
agreements) with Germany,
Austria, and Bulgaria.
Georges Clemenceau (F.), Woodrow Wilson (U.S), and David Lloyd George (G.B.)
Outcome - Treaty of Versailles (June 28th 1919
Who were the leaders at the conference?
They were called the Big Four
President
Woodrow
Wilson of the
United States
Premier
Vittorio
Orlando of
Italy
French Premier Georges
Clemenceau
British Prime Minister
David Lloyd George
The conference leaders discussed a difficult problem.
What could they do to prevent another war involving so many countries?
Who was not invited?
Defeated Central Powers,
U.S.S.R. (name switch 191722), or any small Allied
Where was I?
Lenin – ended
Russia’s
involvement in
war
March 1918
*Own treaty with
Germany
Wilson mad
Let’s look at your
Homework -
President Wilson suggested a plan for peace…
Congressional
Address was
called…
Fourteen Points plan
Part of the plan called for
forming the League of Nations
to solve disagreements
between countries by talking
about the problems instead of
fighting wars.
The League of Nations was formed, but it
did not prevent another big war. Just
twenty years later, in 1939, World War II
Wilson’s Fourteen Points
This was really Wilson’s
plan for world peace
1. points 1- 5 addressed issues
that Wilson believed had
caused the war
 Name 2 from HW
2. points 6 – 13 dealt with specific
boundary changes based on
the principle of selfdetermination (def:
determining one’s own fate)
3. point 14 called for the creation of an
international organization (League of
Nations) to address diplomatic crises
like the one that sparked the war
*Most important to Wilson
European Allies reject Wilson’s 14 Points!
Punish the Central
Their goal is to:
Powers,
Actual treaty was a compromise
especially Germany
Look like
spoiled
victors
(bullies)
1. created 9 new nations (Finland, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria,
Hungary, & Yugoslavia) & shifted boundaries of
other nations
2. carved 4 areas out of the Ottoman Empire (Syria,
Lebanon, Iraq, & Palestine (modern Israel &
Jordan))
- given as mandates (def: the establishment of a responsible government over a
former German colony or other conquered territory ) to France & Great
Britain until ready for independence
Treaty did have weaknesses
1 major - Treatment of Germany weakened treaty’s
ability to serve as basis of lasting peace in Europe
HW - Other 2?
U.S. Senate never ratifies treaty
#1 issue – League of Nations
*Threat to our national sovereignty and Congressional Power
*U.S. foreign policy of staying out of “foreign entanglements
Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
League of Nations weak without U.S.
Within a year after rejection of treaty, the
United States Senate
signed a separate peace with Germany
This left Britain and France bitterly
opposed over how to proceed (accepted
treaty).
British leaders - conciliate (appease) Germany
France demanded strict enforcement of the terms.
• Historians say: It was the total failure of the victorious powers
to work closely together after 1919 to contain German power,
rather than the specific terms of the peace settlement, which
was one of the contributing factors to the outbreak of a second
world war 20 years later.
Legacy of the War
1.
8 million dead (116,000 Americans)
21 million wounded (200,000 Americans)
2.
)
cost $200 billion ($33 billion for U.S)
3. Not the “war to end all wars” –
leads to World War 2
WHY?
1 - many Germans felt Germany
had not lost…bitter feelings
• In the treaty…
IT confirmed a German defeat
. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting
war 
'War Guilt' clause
*justified its demands for punitive war costs by
laying the blame for the outbreak of the war firmly
on German shoulders
Germany was a
country which saw
itself as having been
encircled by France,
Russia and Britain in
1914 and provoked
into war.
Besides being provoked… large sections of the population
in Germany did not believe that their country had been
honourably defeated on the battlefield.
• Why? rumours sweeping
across Germany
– the push for victory of their
valiant troops on the Western
Front had been sabotaged by
traitors and pacifists at home,
including the Jews, who had
spread disaffection and
revolution.
This 'stab in the back' had prevented the
gallant soldiers from securing the victory
which was almost in their grasp.
Not the war to end all wars con’t…
2 - bad postwar economic
conditions in Europe, especially
Germany
Germany had to pay $33 billion in
reparations to Allies
Also…Why Germany upset?
Land returned to France
Germany, Austria, Hungary, & Turkey demilitarized
(def: to do away with military organization)
Germany forbidden to combine with Austria-Hungary
•
German cartoon: Versailles sends
Germany to the guillotine
The Allies constructed
the peace settlement
on the assumption
that while the
Germans would not
like many of the
terms, they would
accept them as the
Based on these 2
inevitable
German
political
consequence of
cartoons, how did
defeat
the Germans feel?
German cartoon: Wilson
goes to
c. Adolph Hitler blamed Germany’s
problems on Jews & Socialists in
the new Germany gov’t
(1). message of restoring Germany
to her glory appealing
(2). eventually Hitler’s Nazi Party
wins control of the German
government in 1933
(3). Hitler’s policies lead to World
War 2 in 1939
. . . 21 years after the end of the
Great War
Final thoughts . . .
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead, Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Written by Canadian Lt.
Colonel John McCrae (1915)
Parts used in propaganda
efforts (recruit soldiers , selling war
bonds).
Its references to the red poppies
that grew quickly over the graves
of fallen soldiers resulted in the
remembrance poppy becoming
one of the world's most
recognized memorial symbols
Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
(about the battle of Ypres in northern France /
southern Belgium – Germany first use of poison gas)
It is one of the most popular and
most quoted poems from the
war
The 2014 (100 yrs)
poppies will
commemorate and
honor the huge
sacrifices made by so
many
• The 2014 Real Poppy Campaign
Will we as Americans today give this answer. . . America’s Answer
Moina Michael (1918)
Rest in Peace, ye Flanders dead
The fight that you so bravely led
We’ve taken up. And we will keep
True faith with you who lie asleep,
With each a cross to mark his bed,
And poppies blowing overhead,
When once his own life-blood ran red
So let your rest be sweet and deep
In Flanders Fields.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
The torch ye threw to us we caught,
Ten million hands will hold it high,
And freedom’s light shall never die!
We’ve learned the lessons that ye taught
In Flanders Fields.
Schoolteacher from Georgia
Some of the soldiers were
students and friends (knew
wanted to do something).
Worked to establish the
red poppy as the symbol
to honor and remember
soldiers
. . . or this?
Grass written by American poet Carl Sandburg
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work –
I am the grass; I cover all
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years; and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
- After humans kill one another in recurring wars, they let nature cover up their dirty
work
One of the Last Doughboys
Frank Buckles died in February
2011 at the age of 110.
Served in World War I at age
16 after convincing an Army
captain he was 18
• To the end of his life, Frank was an
advocate for a National World War I
Memorial in Washington, DC.
• Sadly, despite his efforts, Frank did
not live to see the fruit of his efforts,
though his supporters fight on for his
cause