Victors not get everything they wanted

• The different victor powers wanted different things, so there was no way that they could ALL get what they wanted
• The USA and Britain wanted to destroy Germany with huge reparations
• The other powers like France did not try to get what they wanted, unfortunately their resistance almost led to the conference ending in failure
• Lloyd George and his team produced a Memorandum which forced a compromise on the victors at the conference
• The victors had to think about more than just themselves and their own national interests, as the world was changing after the Great War
• Three empires had ceased, and these needed to be made into countries, as they did not exist at that time, so they needed to rebuild the world
• There were lobbyists and representatives with a personal agenda who were trying to influence the big three to get what they wanted, like the wealthy Jews from America who wanted Palestine for a Jewish state vs Arab delegates who wanted Palestine for the Arabs
• The big three had higher ambitions and were dealing with so many people, creating a new world, and so did not try to achieve everything they wanted as it was impossible to please everyone
• The situation in 1918 was too complex, many questions needed to be determined, and it was almost impossible for the big three to solve alone
• The final figure for reparations could not be decided at the time and had to be set at a later date (May 1921 at 6,600 million pounds) by a committee under the League of Nations
• The big three did not get everything they wanted because they had to make decisions that would satisfy other people, there was always going to be a compromise, that is what happens when two or more people try to come up with a solution, neither getting everything they need, or both having to give up something to get something