WW1

• What is War Guilt Clause?

  accept total blame for starting ww1
• State reparations needed

  to pay compensation for all damage caused in the war. 6.6 billion pounds, set in 1921. this was on top of germanys own damages to its infrastructure as well as post-war economic problems.
• what impact did reparation have towards the germans?


  causes the country to be heavily in debt. paying of reparation took away the money needed for German to rebuild after the war. As a result, this severely weakened the German economy, which further worsened the livelihood of the Germans.
• How does territorial changes affect Germany?

  loss of resource rich regions would cripple the German economy. as a result, this would serverely weaken the nation and hurt the citizens' pride for their nation. this also causes Germans who share the same identity to be forcefully separated
• gave up its overseas empire, lost all colonies in Africa and Asia Pacific
• Lost Alsace-Lorraine and profit from the Saar Coal Region to France. Resources and economy
• West Prussia and Posen were given up to form the Polish Corridor.
• Not allowed to form a union(Anschlus with Austria
• army limited to 100,000. conscription was banned.
• navy limited to only 6 battle ships
• not allowed to have an air force
• not allowed to have armored vehicles
• border area with France - the Rhineland, was demilitarised. Lack of defence against neighbouring countries, Germans would feel unsafe.
• Woodrow Wilson. Believed Germany should be punished but was not in favor of destroying it completely. main aim: strengthen democracy in Germany so that its people would not let its leaders start another war. Wanted to replace old leaders who had brought Germany into war, with ones who would be committed to democracy and peaceful relations with other states
• David Lloyd George. Aim: to achieve best possible outcomes for German. This often left him in a middle ground position between Wilson's idealism and Clemenceau's desire for harsh punishment. key priorities: protect Britain. not keen on wilsons plan for freedom of the seas. Rebuild Britain's economic prosperity. tricky as before the war, germany was Britain's second largest trading market after the US. Maintain the British empire. Why he was concerned about Wilson's idea of self determination as it would result in Britain losing its colonies.
• George Clemenceau's country, France, was invaded twice by the Germans in 1870 and 1914
• France suffered enormous damage during WWI, with 1.7 million deaths
• Out of the Big Three (France, Britain, USA), France had the largest proportion of deaths at 4%
• Clemenceau wanted to avenge the past and was worried about possible future threats posed by Germany
• He desired Germany to be broken into smaller states, but knew Lloyd George and Wilson would not agree to this
• Despite this, Clemenceau had to consider public opinion in France and protect against another German invasion
• Therefore, he demanded a treaty that would weaken Germany as much as possible