Treaty Of Versailles

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The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 made decisions that were going to influence Europe for the next 20 years. The real powers of the conference were the United States, Great Britain, and France. Germany was not allowed to participate while Russia was involved in civil war so they did not attend either. Italy was also a part of the 4 main powers but did not have as much power. Furthermore, Wilson, Lloyd George, and Clemenceau each had goals for the peace conference.

Wilson was enthusiastic about creating the League of Nations so disputes could be settled in the future without war. He came up with "Fourteen Points", which he hoped would help prevent wars in the future. His most important points were: the people of Europe should be able to decide their own future through self-determination; he also wanted to end the empires which European countries had built up.

He was not prepared to allow Italy to take the Adriatic coast though. The US was not as directly involved in this treaty as the other countries were besides citing possible solutions.

Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, believed that Germany should not be treated too harshly, but did was them to be punished in some manner. He believed it would only lead to more trouble in the future. Germany should be allowed to recover. France should not be allowed to take the Rhineland. George was only prepared to make the Rhineland "demilitarized".

Clemenceau was mainly concerned with punishing Germany. He wanted to make security for France. Clemenceau wanted to make Germany pay for all of the damage that France had suffered during the four years of fighting. He also wanted to make sure that a war like this would never happen again. He had three main demands:...