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

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 non-Italians

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

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