World History / Unit 10: The World Wars
10.4 The Peace Settlement
Notes
The Paris Peace Conference (1919) created treaties that reshaped the world but left many unhappy.
- U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points, including self-determination (peoples choosing their own government) and a League of Nations. Point 14 called for "a general association of nations... affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."
- Britain and France wanted to punish Germany. The Treaty of Versailles (1919):
- Article 231, the war guilt clause, made Germany accept "responsibility... for causing all the loss and damage" of the war.
- Germany paid huge reparations, lost its colonies and territory (such as Alsace-Lorraine), and its military was strictly limited.
- New nations formed from old empires: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and others. The Ottoman lands in the Middle East became mandates run by Britain and France.
- The League of Nations was weak: the U.S. never joined, and it had no army.
Practice
Read Wilson's Point 14 (1918): "a general association of nations... affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." This proposal led to:
Wilson wanted an international body to prevent future wars.
Why did many Germans resent the Treaty of Versailles?
Germans felt humiliated by the harsh terms.
Why was the League of Nations weak?
Without major powers and enforcement, it could not stop aggression.
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