1. The End of the War

2. Right before the end… President Wilson issues the Fourteen Points

3. President Wilson issues the Fourteen Points
Jan. 1918
First five points:
End to secret agreements between nations
Freedom of the seas
Removal of trade barriers
Arms reductions
Fair settlement of colonial disputes

4. Fourteen Points Next 8 points:
Dealt with specific territorial issues in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Based on the principal of self-determination: the right of nations and peoples to control their own fate and decide what form of government they will have.

5. Fourteen Points
Last point: called for “a general association of nations”
League of Nations
Members would work together to keep world peace. *collective security – joint action by member nations against an aggressor to keep peace.
*Other Allies don’t like his plan, but keep quiet because they needed America’s help to win the war.

6. The End
Russia – withdraws in 1917 – Germans can move all troops to Western Front
March launch a massive attack on the British – Second Battle of the Somme
2 months of heavy fighting, both sides lost about 500,000 men; German army gets within artillery range of Paris!
American forces save the Allies and push Germans back beyond their own border.

7. The End Between Sept and Nov 1918:
Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary surrender
German military starts to mutiny once they know they can’t win; revolts throughout German cities
Nov 9: Kaiser abdicates
Armistice signed on Nov. 11 at 11 am

8. The Cost 65 million men fought 8.5 million died 21 million wounded
Civilian deaths/flu pandemic put death tolls over 20 million
$200 billion – cost of fighting the war
$37 billion in estimated damages

9. The Paris Peace Conference
Jan. 1919
27 nations represented, but it was dominated by the “Big Four”
Woodrow Wilson – US
David Lloyd George – GB
Georges Clemenceau – France
Vittorio Orlando – Italy
Defeated Central Powers and Russia (Communist) not included

12. Conflicting Goals
President Wilson wanted to spread democracy and promoted “peace without victory.”
Clemenceau wanted to crush Germany and limit their future power
David Lloyd George – somewhere in between
Orlando – just wanted the land Italy had been promised; walked out when he discovered the Allies had lied to him

13. The Treaty of Versailles
Required Germany to accept full responsibility for starting the war and pay the Allies reparations
$33 billion (about $402 billion today)
Reduced Germany’s size and population by about 10%
Returned Alsace-Lorraine to France (Franco-Prussian War 1871)

14. Treaty of Versailles
Limited Germany’s military to a small navy and a 100,000 man army with no offensive weapons.
German troops banned from the Rhineland – region along the French border
Germany stripped of all overseas colonies
These harsh, unfair reparations sew seeds of future conflict; leave Germany wanting revenge. Explains why Hitler is appealing.

15. Old Empires Collapse; New Countries Form
The old multi-national empires were broken up:
Poland was created out of land from Germany and Russia;
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania out of Russia.
Other nations: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia

18. Post-War
The League of Nations was formed to oversee and settle disputes between nations.
Relied on collective security – joint action by member nations against an aggressor to keep peace.
US Senate didn’t ratify it because of fear of obligation in future conflicts – left the LON powerless to keep peace.