What were Lloyd George’s aims at Versailles?
Lloyd George hoped to achieve a lasting peace at the Paris peace conference. He also needed to make Germany pay for starting the war as the British public had voted him in as Prime Minister on the promise that he would do this. He personally did not want Germany to be crippled as he feared that this would lead to resentment and could lead to them starting another war in revenge. He also did not want them crippled because Germany had been Britain’s leading trading partner before the war and he wanted this trade resumed so that Britain’s economy could grow again.
Explain why Clemenceau wanted the Treaty of Versailles to punish Germany severely.
Clemenceau wanted the Treaty of Versailles to be harsh on Germany for four main reasons. Firstly, he wanted revenge for French suffering. Most of the fighting had been carried out in north east France and many of her beautiful provinces had been devastated especially by the retreating German troops. France wanted compensation for this by punishing Germany harshly. Secondly, French people naturally hated German people. Especially after 1871 and the Franco-Prussian war when the Germans took Alsace-Lorraine from France. The public wanted Germany to pay because almost all families knew someone who had died. Also the government wanted to punish Germany harshly through Clemenceau to be popular with the public. Thirdly, Clemenceau wanted to weaken Germany economically and militarily harshly so that another war could not start. France wanted to cripple. Germany economically through her industry to stop her posing a threat in the future but also to punish her for the horrors of world war one.
The Treaty of Versailles decreased Germany’s army to 100,000 men, 36 battleships and no allowed air force, This left Germany feeling vulnerable and militarily weak.
They couldn’t help but fell defenceless when the other countries were supposed to be disarming and