The Big Three
The main purpose of the Paris Peace Conference was to ultimately punish Germany. In addition to this, the Treaty of Versailles was introduced (Germany compensating for the war). All 3 members, leaders of France, Britain and USA had the initial common response that punishment was necessary. The Prime Ministers of these 3 countries were Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau. However, each man wanted different outcomes from the performed damage. The French Prime Minister (Clemenceau) wanted the most severe punishment, the goal being to ruin Germany. The USA Prime Minister and British Prime Minister had a different point of view. They wanted reparations but not to the extend of crippling Germany. British Prime Minister (George) wanted compensation but not enough to ruin Germany as they benefitted from their oversea colonies and feared that without Germany their economy would suffer. The USA Prime Minister (Wilson) did not want a repeat of the war so feared if punished too severely it would only create more incentive for Germany to seek revenge again. Wilson wanted peace to finally break the corruption of the past with these countries. The title “Big Three”, at first can appear deceiving because in fact, in the beginning there were four members. This included Vittorio Orlando who was the Italian Prime Minister. But he came to a halt when he felt his interests weren’t being fulfilled nor benefiting him. He was promised land that he felt would not be received so he went and made his own private agreement with Germany.
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