1. The Versailles Treaty Controversy

2. USHC 5.5
Analyze the United States rejection of internationalism, including postwar disillusionment, the Senate’s refusal to ratify the Versailles Treaty, the election of 1920, and the role of the United States in international affairs in the 1920s.

4. Wilson’s Fourteen Points
PRINCIPLES:
Freedom of the Seas
Reduction of Arms
Open Treaty Negotiations
Self Determination of Peoples
League of Nations 14

5. Irony
USS George Washington

6. PEACE Without Victory

7. More Info

8. Paris Peace Conference
“The Conference was an affair of three sides – the victors, the vanquished, and Wilson.”
-- Richard Hofstadter

9. David Lloyd George (British Prime Minister)
“I was seated between Jesus Christ and Napoleon.”
David Lloyd George (British Prime Minister)

11. Article 231 The “War Guilt” Clause
Britain and France wanted Germany to claim responsibility for the war and pay reparations to the allies.

12. Wilson’s Fourteen Points
PRINCIPLES:
Freedom of the Seas
Reduction of Arms
Open Treaty Negotiations
Self Determination of Peoples
League of Nations 14

13. HOW
can the two ideas be reconciled??? 14
231

14. EASY!!!
JUST USE BOTH! 14
231

15. LINK TO MAPS

16. LINK TO MAPS

17. LINK TO MAPS

18. LINK TO MAPS

19. Proclamation of the German Empire
18 January 1871

20. Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
June 28, 1919
Five years to the day of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Look Familiar???

21. Now, for the hard part…
USS George Washington

23. Ratifying Treaties
“[The President] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur....” -- Article II, Section 2

24. The Senate vote necessary to ratify a treaty
2/3
The Senate vote necessary to ratify a treaty

25. The number of senators included in Wilson’s peace delegation to Europe.

26. The U.S. Senate

27. The U.S. Senate
Republican Majority

28. The League of Nations
An Entangling Alliance???

29. Article X of the League Covenant
The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled.

31. Three Views of the Treaty
Internationalists
Ratify the Treaty AS IS
Reservationists
Ratify the Treaty with Reservations
Irreconcilables
DON’T RATIFY the Treaty

32. SOVEREIGNTY

33. Sen. William Borah (R-ID)
Irreconcilable
“What is the result of all this? We are in the midst of all the affairs of Europe… We have joined in alliance with all the European nations… we have forfeited… the great policy of 'no entangling alliances' upon which the strength of this Republic has been founded.”
Sen. William Borah (R-ID)

34. America should avoid all foreign entanglements.
Reservationists
(Imperialist Wing)
America should engage the world on its own terms.
Irreconcilables
(Isolationist Wing)
America should avoid all foreign entanglements.

35. The Lodge Reservations14
Stipulations
Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA)
View

36. Wilson’s Dilemma
Compromise with Reservationists or stand his ground?

37. EUROPE TO US:
Reservations OK!

38. “The Senate must take its medicine.”
-- Woodrow Wilson

39. Speaking Tour
President Wilson waves to a crowd in Saint Louis, Missouri, on September 6, 1919, during a speaking tour to promote the League of Nations.

40. Political Calculation
Wilson’s Route
Political Calculation
Image Source: NPS.gov

41. STROKE!
Wilson suffered a stroke brought on by the stress of his campaign for the League. He was an invalid for the remainder of his term. (The public had no clue.)
Woodrow Wilson's first posed photograph after his stroke. He was paralyzed on his left side, so his wife Edith holds a document steady while he signs. June 1920.

42. Review: The Treaty Factions
Internationalists
Ratify the Treaty AS IS
Reservationists
Ratify the Treaty with Reservations
Irreconcilables
DON’T RATIFY the Treaty

43. Where is THIS GUY when we need him?
Answer: Dead

44. BIGGER Republican Majority
A “Solemn Referendum”
1920
BIGGER Republican Majority

45. League Membership
Map Credit: Maps & Lucy
The United States never joined the League. Wilson’s mission to intimately involve the U.S. in global affairs was a failure.

46. I went to Versailles and all I got was this lousy peace prize.
1919