Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts

🧠 Memory Aids: Lock In the Key Facts

The Big Three's aims — "CCC": Crush, Compromise, Create

• C — Clemenceau = Crush: He wanted to crush Germany permanently. 1.4 million dead French soldiers. France invaded twice in 50 years. The Tiger wanted Germany on its knees forever.
• C — Lloyd George = Compromise: Caught between "Make Germany Pay" (his voters) and "don't go too far" (his instincts). He compromised — and privately feared the result.
• C — Wilson = Create: He wanted to create a new world order based on his Fourteen Points — especially the League of Nations. He was prepared to compromise everything else to get his League.

Wilson's key Fourteen Points — "SOLD": Self-determination, Open diplomacy, League of Nations, Disarmament

• S — Self-determination: peoples choose their own government
• O — Open diplomacy: no more secret treaties
• L — League of Nations: the international organisation (Point 14)
• D — Disarmament: reduce weapons to remove the means for war

Key dates for the Paris Peace Conference:

• January 1918 — Wilson announces his Fourteen Points
• November 1918 — Armistice; war ends
• December 1918 — Lloyd George wins UK election on "Hang the Kaiser"
• January 1919 — Paris Peace Conference opens
• 28 June 1919 — Treaty of Versailles signed
• November 1919 — US Senate refuses to ratify — America stays out of League

The "25 years" prediction: Both Lloyd George and Clemenceau privately predicted another war. Lloyd George: "25 years." Clemenceau: "an armistice for 20 years." Both were roughly right. WW2 broke out in September 1939 — exactly 20 years after the treaty was signed.