The End of the Great War (WWI p. 5)

• Woodrow Wilson proposed a set of guidelines to help rebuild European peace

• His Fourteen Points had been announced in January 1918

  • Proposed guidelines to help rebuild European peace after WWI

• The crucial point to Wilson was Point 14, which provided for the League of Nations

  • An organization of cooperating nations that would discuss and solve problems peacefully

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Wilson's Fourteen Points

• President Wilson spoke of having “peace without victory,” urging generous terms for the losing countries

• He said the winners should not make territorial gains 

• He said the losers should not be punished

• The Allied leaders met outside Paris at the Palace of Versailles on January 18, 1919, to shape the peace

• The Big Four

  • U.S. -- President Wilson

  • France -- Georges Clemenceau

  • Britain -- David Lloyd George

  • Italy -- Vittorio Orlando

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The Paris Peace Conference

• The Treaty of Versailles, between the winning countries and Germany, was the most important of the five agreements 

  • Peace treaty after WWI; placed the blame entirely on Germany and forced Germany to pay reparations

    • Germans were not permitted to take part in peace negotiations

    • They considered the treaty too harsh

• Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919

• When Wilson returned to the U.S., he faced the task of convincing the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles

  • Many senators were not pleased with it

  • Leaders refused to ratify without some changes

• Wilson opposed the changes U.S. congressional members wanted

• Wilson then suffers a stroke while in office

  • For 7 months he did not meet with his cabinet

  • The Senate vote on the treaty fell short of ratification

• The U.S. Senate never ratified the Treaty of Versailles

  • The U.S. never joined the League of Nations

• The war was so horrible that it led to despair and disillusionment

  • Some viewed Christianity with great skepticism

  • Europe was supposed to be a Christian continent

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• Great nations there had led their young men to barbaric slaughter

• Pastors and government leaders had equated fighting for ones country with service to God

• After the war, many rejected not only civil religion but also true religion

• The war had shown that sinful man was capable of committing and defending horrible deeds