USA and the Versailles Settlement
- Created by: mel.maharjan
- Created on: 07-11-14 19:37
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- The Versailles Settlement
- American attitudes to the war
- Administration hired advertising and public relations professionals to 'rally the nation behind his crusade for a new and finer world order'
- Committee on Public Information (CPI) responsible for government propaganda, giving out information, and increasing support for war effort
- Targeted immigrants because they were worried they weren't loyal to America
- More vigorous supporters of the war turned on immigrants of German origin and many acts of violence committed against them
- Paul Boyer believed teachers, historians, editors, intellectuals, and Progressives supported the war
- Believing it was a fight between the civilised and democratic values of the Allies and the brutality of the Germans
- Hoped the war would produce reform at home and the spread of democracy abroad
- Wilson saw it as a fight for democracy - a chance to make the world a freer and better place
- German-Americans, Quakers, Socialists, and pacifist groups opposed the war - accused of being disloyal/traitors
- It was a capitalist war, immoral, and would lead to intolerance rather than reform
- 1,500 arrested under the sedition laws
- Wilson's fourteen points
- Aims of the war used to help increase support
- Prevention of alliance system
- Freedom of the seas
- Free trade among all nations
- Reduction of armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic policy
- Self-determination
- The League of Nations
- Last and most important point
- If all nations joined, then no need to form alliances - all nations work together to keep the peace
- Disputes could be discussed to resolve them
- Balance of power to be replaced with collective security
- If one country threatened or attacked another then all members would help - would prevent war
- The Treaty of Versailles
- January 1919 - Allied leaders met at Versailles to discuss the peace treaty (Germany not invited but told signed the treaty or they would be invaded
- Britain (David Lloyd George), France (Georges Clemenceau), Italy (Vittorio Orlando), America (Woodrow Wilson
- Wilson arrived in Europe declaring the US came 'asking nothing for ourselves'
- Britain and France wanted Germany to pay for the war and extend their power - unlike America
- Wilson wanted to make the world democratic
- Wanted nations to work together and be governed by international laws
- Chaired the discussions himself to make sure these values were implemented
- Wilson not a good negotiator and didn't understand the Allies position - British and French were often unhappy
- Wanted nations to work together and be governed by international laws
- Wilson didn't include any Republicans
- Open to criticism and now an easy target
- Hard to get support in the Senate when it came to ratifying the Treaties
- Spent 4 months in Europe and neglected the 1918 mid-terms
- Republicans won control of the Congress
- Fear of the spread of Communism - Russian revolution
- Britain and France had debts so repay so needed Germany to pay reparations
- $33 billion USD
- Germany lost vast amounts of territory - thousand of Germans now under foreign rule
- Germany not allowed to unite with Austria
- 'War guilt cause' - Germany had to accept blame for starting the war
- Germany's arms force reduced
- No air force, tanks, or submarines, only 6 battleships, army reduced to 100,000 men, Rhineland de-militarised
- January 1919 - Allied leaders met at Versailles to discuss the peace treaty (Germany not invited but told signed the treaty or they would be invaded
- Rejection of the treaty
- March 1919 - 39 Senators signed the 'Round Robin Resolution'
- Not likely to ratify the Treaty - went against the Monroe Doctrine
- Irreconcilables (Senator William Borah)
- Didn't want US to give up its freedom and didn't want to be tied up in the policies of other nations
- Felt the League was too idealistic and weakened the Monroe Doctrine
- Reservationists (Henry Cabot Lodge )
- More open to debate but were against collective security
- Believed only the US should decide when troops go to war, not the League
- More open to debate but were against collective security
- Failed to get the 2/3 votes it need in March 1920
- Republicans won the 1920 election
- March 1919 - 39 Senators signed the 'Round Robin Resolution'
- American attitudes to the war
- Collective security = the guarantee to help all members when they are under threat
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