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PPC - Coggle Diagram
PPC
David Lloyd George
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Like Wilson, didn’t want Germany to seek revenge in future + possibly start another war
Keen for Britain+Germany to start trading again - before war Germany was Britain’s second largest trading partner.
british people may not have liked it but trade W/ Germany meant jobs for them
Like Clemenceau, lloyd George had real problems w/ public pressures at home for a harsh treaty
even his own MPs didn’t always agree w/ him and he had just won the 1918 election in Britain by ‘promising to make Germany pay’, even though he knew the dangers of this course of action
George Clemenceau
France had suffered enormous damage to its land, industry, people+self confidence
2/3+ of men who served in French army had been killed/injured
war affected almost an entire gen
Germany however seemed threatening +powerful to many French people
Since 1870 France felt threatened by its increasingly powerful neighbour Germany
war increased this feeling
German land+industry had not been as badly damaged as France
france population was in decline compared to Germany
Clemenceau+other French leaders saw treaty as opportunity to cripple Germany so that it couldn’t attack France again
french President (Poincaré) even wanted Germany broken up into collection of smaller states, but Clemenceau knew British+Americans wouldn’t agree to this
Clemenceau was a realist + knew he would probably be forced to compromise on some issues
however he had to show he was aware of public opinion in France
He demanded a treaty that would weaken Germany as much as possible
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Woodrow Wilson
Many people in France+Britain didn’t agree W/ Wilson’s some of 14 point plan - it seemed impractical
e.g. self determination: would be v difficult to give people of Eastern Europe the chance to rule themselves as they were scattered across many countries. E.g. 25% of population of new state of Czechoslovakia were neither Czechs nor Slovaks
some people were bound to end up being ruled by people from another group W/ diff customs/language
some Historians pointed out that although Wilson spoke much of Eastern Europe, he didn’t actually know much about the area
He believed in self determination (idea that nations should rule themselves rather than be ruled by others)
he wanted people of Eastern Europe (e.g. Poles, Czechs, Slovaks) to rule themselves rather than be part of Austria-Hungary’s empire
He believed nations should cooperate to achieve world peace -
Jan 1918 - he established his 14 point plan to help this
most important for Wilson was 14th point - in this he proposed setting up an international peacekeeping body: League of Nations
he believed treaty shouldn’t be too harsh
He thought if Germany was treated too harshly some day it would recover +want revenge
wilson’s main aim was to strengthen democracy in the defeated nation so that its people wouldn’t let the leaders cause another war
Wilson often seen as idealist whose aim was to build a better + more peaceful world from the ruins of the war, but he believed Germany should be punished