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DISAGREEMENTS AMONGST THE BIG 3 - Coggle Diagram
DISAGREEMENTS AMONGST THE BIG 3
Reparations
Background:
No Allied country could finance debt repayments through tax increase & cuts in expenditure → domestic social unrest.
Britain: covered 1/3 of its war expenditure through taxation.
France: 1/6 " "
France
Outward:
French Finance Minister: urged a policy of maximum claims (backed by press + Chamber of Disputes).
'Germany will pay'.
Below the surface:
Loucher (Minister of Reconstruction) pursued a more subtle policy.
F economy needed an immediate injection of cash.
His gvt would settle for a more moderate sum → Germany can raise quickly thru sale of bonds.
German gvt suspected this was merely a means of dividing G from USA- most sympathetic to German cause.
Britain
Delegation consistently maximised country's reparation claims.
Reasons:
Pressure exerted on gvt by electorate.
↑ reparation → Germany couldn't spend money on army.
↑ reparation → enough money left over for the Dominions.
Disarmament
Britain & America
Destroy conscription → believed it caused militarism.
Wanted a small professional army created along the lines of the British or US peacetime armies.
France
General Foch feared that a professional German army would become an organised group of trained men which would be capable of:
Quick expansion when the opportunity arose.
Territorial settlement
USA: Hope for a fair settlement similar to the 14 points, but supported ceding German territory to...
Poland.
France.
Belgium.
Where majority were Polish, French or Belgian.
France: Wanted every opportunity to weaken Germany by taking territory away from it.
Britain: Sought to preserve a united but democratic Germany as a counter to Bolshevik Russia.
Saarland:
Clemenceau's wants:
Return the part of the Saar which was given to Prussia in 1814.
Detach the mineral & industrial basin to the north and place in under an independent non-German administration.
Full ownership of the Saar coal mines to compensate for the destruction of the pits in N France by the Germans.
Wilson:
Saar was ethnically German so following the principle of self determination (14 points) it should go to Germany.
Ready to agree to French access to the coal mines until the production of their own mines had been restored.
Lloyd George:
Persuaded GC & WW to accept a compromise.
Mines would be F for 15 years.
Actual gvt of Saar would be entrusted to the LON.
After 15 years plebiscite over F or G.
1936 = G
Rhineland
Britain: no ambitions on the Rhine. Feared that F's harshness would cause another war + permanent tension between F + G.
French: occupation of Rhine = unique opportunity to weaken Germany permanently.
JAPAN & SHANDONG
Japan demanded it keep Shandong
China argued it had rights to all German colonies.
Wilson wanted to stop Japan's increasing influence in the Pacific so supported China.
B + F backed Japan to preserve their own rights in China (Hong Kong).
Compromise: Japan promised to return Shandong to China in 1922.
US conceded so Japan wouldn't leave conference but the US senate was angry → one of the reasons it was against TOV.
Outrage in China → widespread riots + strikes. China refused to sign TOV.