Aims of the Big Three at the Treaty of Versaillies

Summary

A million Frenchmen had died in the war, so the French wanted revenge, and to punish the Germans for what they had done.   They wanted to make Germany pay for the damage done during the war.   Finally, they wanted to weaken Germany, so France could never be invaded again.

America had not been ruined by the war, so the American president, Woodrow Wilson only wanted a ‘fair peace’, which would make the world safe, and end war.   Wilson also wanted disarmament, a League of Nations (where countries could talk out their problems), and self-determination for the peoples of Eastern Europe – the ‘Fourteen Points’.

 Some British people wanted to make Germany pay – ‘everything you can squeeze out of a lemon’.   Many, however, like their Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, realised that the peace must not be harsh, or there would be another war in a few years time.   Lloyd George said he wanted ‘justice’ – a halfway point between Clemenceau’s revenge and Wilson’s ideals. 

Lloyd George

• he wanted to ‘make Germany pay’ – but only because he knew that was what British people…