The Legacy of the Great War by William R. Keylor After reading William R. Keylor's The Legacy of the Great War, I realized the important events that pertain to the international relations. Until our present day there has not been so many great leaders come together to address issues such as: politics, economics, and social settings in Europe. This is the beginning of the problems in European civilization. The Paris Peace conference had a total of twenty-seven countries with their highest representatives and aides who devise a peace settlement. For two months they had redrawn the map of Europe with political and economical arrangements. It took another six months for the leaders who …show more content…
He already promised Poles a free port, and France also wanted to weaken Germany by giving Poland territory. The outcome of the German-Polish Frontier is a free international port in the hands of Polish control. After the war the French wanted to destroy the German economy. The French wanted control of the German coalmines. But Wilson would not agree. He was looking out for the Germans economically. Premier Clemenceau called Wilson pro-German which obviously hurted the President. (p.29) With this going on President Wilson was self-determine to do his best for the redrawing of Europe. Most leaders in France believed the way to weaken Germany without hurting it economically was to move Germans under rule of other nations. Most of these small states have never set up a stable government for themselves and adding large amount of Germans to their native lands could be dangerous. This is one way how Wilson and his delegates were violated. One of French main goals in the Peace Conference was security from the Germans in the future. The only way for this is if the Americans and British take charge, and give the Germans a punch and never let them get up again. Germany is the strongest country on the continental Europe. The Germans have the Rhineland, which is a shield against aggression. On April 22, 1919 Wilson and George came up with a French security formula. The pledge to defend France against any German aggression,
into war. Wilson’s vowed to hold German’s in “strict accountability” (Zieger, 23) of future American rights violations. The Germans agreed to not attack ships without warning. Wilson’s harsh stance on German tactics and his non-equal treatment of Britain would lead to the resignation of his Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan and the end of the United States “true neutrality”.
Out of all the other great European powers, Germany and France had the most animosity between them and this begun after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian Wars of 1871, resulting in Germany taking control of the french region of Alsace- Loraine;”...Bismarck foresaw that France would not rest while she could hope some day to regain these provinces. The very peace therefore, which concluded the Franco-Prussian War laid the foundation of another war in the future.”3 It was enough of a disgrace for France, so grand a country, to suffer such a defeat to the newly created Germany, but with the taking of Alsace-Lorraine Germany accentuated this loss guaranteeing future conflict. In this way Germany gets the ball rolling so to speak, with these early developments paving the way to war. Through their initiating of the chain of alliances and their degradation of France, the Germans successfully set itself and Europe on the path to war long before Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was to inadvertently become the catalyst behind Germany’s causing of World War One.
In 1975 the Oxford University Press published the first edition of The Great War and Modern Memory written by Paul Fussell. As Fussell states in the opening line, “this book is about the British experience on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918.” In this paper I will argue, that despite the numerous literary awards this book has won, it contains historical inaccuracies and shortcomings in relation to the accurate information provided that takes away from the prestige of the book. Despite the numerous negative aspects of the book, this paper will also briefly highlight the few positive areas of the book, therefore providing an in-depth analysis of the book.
The situation required the formation of alliances as an insurance of support in case the war would break out. Central Powers consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary, while the Entante powers were Great Britain, France and Russia – that had many formal and secret agreements. In 1915, Germany declared war on Great Britain at sea and attacked all ships, including merchant ships. By drafting these first five points, Wilson was hoping to prevent any future conflict at the same scale as the Great War, by eliminating the actual causes of war. By bringing every nation to the same level and introducing them to the free trade and free sea navigation Wilson hoped to engage the nations into an economically beneficial alliance. The more nations joined the League of Nations – the more benefits would they have. This diplomatic solution is revolutionary because it did not only refer to the couple of countries – it referred to the global stage.
On April 2nd 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America, ??went before Congress and called for a declaration of war. Both the House and the Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of going to war with Germany.?# This was an act that led to much resistance among the American people. Not four months earlier the American people re-elected President Wilson, partly because of his success in keeping the United States out of this European war. However, a series of events, such as the Germans continuing submarine warfare and the attacks on five American ships, led President Wilson to sever diplomatic relations with Germany and send the United States into what
The treaty can be divided into territorial, military, financial and general sections. Land was taken away from Germany and given to France, Belgium, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. Germany’s military took a reduction. For
France had suffered damage to both men and building structures in World War I. After Versailles in 1919, there was a clear intention on the part of the French that France should never have to suffer such a catastrophe again. After 1920, French military favored adopting a military strategy that would simply put a stop to any form of German invasion again. The responsibility of drawing Europe’s post-World-War II war borders fell primarily to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919-20. There the victorious countries’ positions of power drafted the Treaty of Versailles with Germany. On 28 June 1919, the peace treaty that ended World War I was signed by Germany and the Allies at the Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. Allied demands were represented by the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister, French Premier, and US President Woodrow Wilson. World War I had destroyed much
Wilson's points truly made him out to the idealist that he is. He believed in things such as self-determination, where countries could rule themselves and that countries could cooperate to prevent future war. Although before the Peace Conference Clemenceau had different thoughts. While Wilson wanted leniency for Germany, Clemenceau(France) wanted justice and reparations to punish Germany. Lloyd George(Britain) who has understood that compromise was necessary to reach settlement, also favored leniency for Germany. Wilson and Lloyd George knew that treating Germany harshly would only lead the country to seek revenge in the future. Lloyd George also had Britain's trading relationship with Germany to think about.
However, the treaty clearly contradictor President Wilson. It undoubtedly force Germany to take responsibility for the war and pay for damages that occur during combat. However, Wilson envision equality and peace for countries of Europe therefore pushing for human interest. would be treated equally and have common participation in economic benefits to ensure
The Treaty of Versailles was effective because it made territorial changes and had strict military terms for Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was between Germany and the allied powers, however Germany had no control of it. It assigned the War Guilt Clause to Germany stating they were the ones who caused the damage in World War 1. It also caused Germany to lose all its colonies and weapons. Germany had reparations, to pay the allied powers’ losses.
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the Allied victors had to decide the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. The questions, which had been challenging the peacemakers, were the position of Germany in the current international system, whether it had to pay both in land and in reparations, and how could security could be provided without hindering the post-war stability. Another question, which soon was arisen, was how the French interests for security and diminishing
Paris 1919 demonstrates the various viewpoints of the negotiators who participated in the peace conference. Throughout her book, MacMillan gives examples of how George Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France, felt about Germany. MacMillan pointed out that the day the Paris Peace Conference officially opened, January 19, 1919, was also the anniversary of when Wilhelm I became the Kaiser of New Germany in 1871. When MacMillan makes this connection she also explains that Clemenceau was the one who decided that the opening of the peace conference would be on this historically significant day for Germany. MacMillan also recalls that Clemenceau told an American journalist that “[His] life hatred has been for Germany because of what she has done to France.”
Before World War I the notion of a world war was unfathomable; therefore, when an armistice was finally agreed upon in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson immediately formulated a peace proposal that aspired to prevent such hysteria from ever happening again. The document, know as The Fourteen Points, established the basis of a peace treaty and the foundation of a League of Nations, which was a “general association of nations... formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.” On January 18, 1919, President Wilson expected the Allied Powers to fully support his proposal of the Fourteen Points at the Paris Peace Conference, but to his dismay found the victors consumed with rage and too preoccupied with seeking revenge. Instead of striving to guarantee everlasting peace between all the nations, the Big Three, France, Britain, and the United States, formulated a treaty that not only blamed Germany for the war, but also made Germany as weak as possible. On June 28, 1919, Germany signed The Treaty of Versailles, which contained five separate treaties with the defeated powers of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. It was meant to assure everlasting peace in Europe and throughout the world. The transition of attitude by the Allied Powers, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States, and China, was inevitably the failure of the
Foreign policy of France in early 1940s was alliance with USSR and informal understanding with Britain all based on the assumption of main threat from Germany. In 1914 when Germany
make German territory bigger. He was compromised to take this actions he had promised them in 1924