But even this did not go far enough. Clemenceau had wanted Germany weakened to the point where it would never be a danger to France ever again. He was angry that France got the Saar coalfields for only 15 years, and he was angry that the Rhineland was merely demilitarised — France had wanted it made into a powerless independent country, and Germany split up. Also, reparations were not high enough for Clemenceau.
He wanted reparations so high that Germany would be crippled and paying for ever — when the Germans defaulted in , France invaded and took them in kind. On the other hand, Wilson was dissatisfied also. He was pleased to get the League of Nations accepted, and the map of eastern Europe was mainly drawn according to his principle of self-determination.
But he found most of the rest of his 14 points ignored or rejected. Italy had to be given land given her in the secret treaty of Despite these disagreements, both Wilson and Lloyd George wanted a peace treaty that would punish Germany, but would not cripple it. Lloyd George wanted Germany to recover its economic strength. This would enable Germany to pay its reparations to Britain. The war had created many new jobs in Britain, but now the war was over they would go.
Lloyd George wanted to see new jobs created in companies that were selling goods to Germany. If Germany were crippled, that would mean unemployment in Britain as well. Finally, Lloyd George was extremely concerned about what had happened in Russia. In , the strain of war led to revolution in Russia. By early , the Bolsheviks were in power. The Bolsheviks were Communists, led by Vladimir Lenin.
They did not believe in Christianity. They did not believe in democracy. They did not believe in a free market for trading goods. They believed that there should be no bosses, only workers. Workers would control industry and the economy and share out all the profits equally. Anyone who owned property or wealth would be forced to give it up. These ideas appealed to the millions of poor and hungry people in Russia who felt that they had been exploited by the wealthy. These views were totally opposite to the views held by many people in Britain.
Most British people were Christians, supported democracy and believed in people's rights to accumulate money and own property. Lloyd George was concerned that if Germany were crippled, then this would cause misery and chaos.
This in turn might make Germans turn to ideas like Communism. The obvious solution was to not cripple Germany. If Germans could see the chance of being prosperous again, then they would not be tempted to support Communism. All these arguments made sense to Lloyd George, but he had two problems.
One was the French leader Clemenceau see below. The other was the opinion of British people. They wanted a harsh treaty that would punish Germany severely.
In this difficult position Lloyd George was probably the ideal politician. He was clever, smooth, charming and a bit slippery. However, the Great Powers were often reluctant to do so. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply. After a number of notable successes and some early failures in the s, the League ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers in the s.
Germany withdrew from the League, as did Japan, Italy, Spain, and others. The onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose to prevent any future world war. The League lasted for 26 years; the United Nations UN replaced it after the end of the Second World War in April and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.
House to draft a U. The two principal rchitects of the covenant of the League of Nations were Lord Robert Cecil a lawyer and diplomat and Jan Smuts a Commonwealth statesman.
He also proposed the creation of a mandate system for captured colonies of the Central Powers during the war. Cecil focused on the administrative side and proposed annual Council meetings and quadrennial meetings for the Assembly of all members. After lengthy negotiations between the delegates, the Hurst-Miller draft was finally produced as a basis for the Covenant.
After more negotiation and compromise, the delegates finally approved of the proposal to create the League of Nations on January 25, On June 28, 44 states signed the Covenant, including 31 states that took part in the war on the side of the Triple Entente or joined it during the conflict.
The League would consist of a General Assembly representing all member states , an Executive Council with membership limited to major powers , and a permanent secretariat. Opposition in the Senate, particularly from two Republican politicians, Henry Cabot Lodge and William Borah, and especially in regard to Article X of the Covenant, ensured that the United States would not ratify the agreement.
Their objections were based on the fact that by ratifying such a document, the United States would be bound by international contract to defend a League of Nations member if it was attacked. They believed that it was best not to become involved in international conflicts.
The League held its first council meeting in Paris on January 16, , six days after the Versailles Treaty and the Covenant of the League of Nations came into force. On November 1, the headquarters of the League was moved from London to Geneva, where the first General Assembly was held on November The aftermath of the First World War left many issues to be settled, including the exact position of national boundaries and which country particular regions would join.
Most of these questions were handled by the victorious Allied powers in bodies such as the Allied Supreme Council. The Allies tended to refer only particularly difficult matters to the League.
This meant that during the early interwar period, the League played little part in resolving the turmoil resulting from the war. The questions the League considered in its early years included those designated by the Paris Peace treaties. As the League developed, its role expanded, and by the middle of the s it had become the center of international activity.
This change can be seen in the relationship between the League and non-members. The United States and Russia, for example, increasingly worked with the League. During the second half of the s, France, Britain, and Germany were all using the League of Nations as the focus of their diplomatic activity, and each of their foreign secretaries attended League meetings at Geneva during this period. In addition to territorial disputes, the League also tried to intervene in other conflicts between and within nations.
Among its successes were its fight against the international trade in opium and sexual slavery and its work to alleviate the plight of refugees, particularly in Turkey in the period up to One of its innovations in this latter area was the introduction of the Nansen passport, the first internationally recognized identity card for stateless refugees. The onset of the Second World War demonstrated that the League had failed in its primary purpose, the prevention of another world war.
There were a variety of reasons for this failure, many connected to general weaknesses within the organization, such as voting structure that made ratifying resolutions difficult and incomplete representation among world nations. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. World War I. Search for:. The Treaty of Versailles. Two dozen nations sent delegations and there were many nongovernmental groups, but the defeated powers were not invited.
Each major power had its own agenda coming to the Conference and not every aim was represented in the final treaties. British aims at the conference were focused on securing France, settling territorial disputes, and maintaining their colonial holdings. Italy was motivated by gaining the territories promised by the Allies in the secret Treaty of London. Leading a Congress in Democratic hands, he oversaw the passage of progressive legislative policies unparalleled until the New Deal in His second term was dominated by American entry into World War I.
David Lloyd George : British Liberal politician and statesman. As Chancellor of the Exchequer — , he was a key figure in the introduction of many reforms that laid the foundations of the modern welfare state. His most important role came as the highly energetic Prime Minister of the Wartime Coalition Government —22 , during and immediately after the First World War. He was a major player at the Paris Peace Conference of that reordered Europe after the defeat of the Central Powers.
A leader of the Radical Party, he played a central role in the politics of the French Third Republic. He was one of the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference of He was a member and president of the Constitutional Assembly that changed the Italian form of government into a republic.
Learning Objectives Summarize the key themes of the Fourteen Points. Key Takeaways Key Points U. President Woodrow Wilson initiated a secret series of studies named The Inquiry, primarily focused on Europe and carried out by a group in New York that included geographers, historians, and political scientists. This group researched topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference.
It was the clearest expression of intention made by any of the belligerent nations and was generally supported by the European nations. The first six points dealt with diplomacy, freedom of the seas, and settlement of colonial claims; pragmatic territorial issues were addressed as well, and the final point regarded the establishment of an association of nations to guarantee the independence and territorial integrity of all nations—a League of Nations.
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