The Paris Peace Conference opened on 12th January 1919, meetings were held at various locations in and around Paris. However, negotiations were dominated by the five major powers responsible for defeating the Central Powers: the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Important figures in these negotiations included Georges Clemenceau (France) David Lloyd George (Britain), and Woodrow Wilson (United States).
Germany was punished severely by the Treaty of Versailles, and in many cases, some of the terms seemed greatly unfair towards Germany, however they knew refusing to sign would start war all over again. The treaty was put together by Woodrow Wilson who wasn’t very keen on punishing Germany too harshly, as he believed that Germany would be intent on seeking revenge in the future, Georges Clemenceau who wanted to punish Germany for France’s losses, and David Lloyd George who himself wanted a fair settlement, but also wanted to please the British Public, who were demanding that Germany would be punished for Britain’s losses.
The most unjust term in the treaty was probably the War Guilt clause, where Germany was to accept all the blame for starting the war, even though it was a Serbian terrorist that killed an Austrian-Hungarian archduke, however the treaty accused Germany. In addition, other terms included reducing German’s colonies, Alsace and Lorraine a large piece of land was reduced greatly, the Saar coalfields was given to France for 15 years and Rhineland was dematerialised therefore Germany wasn’t allowed to have its troops there. They even