Clemenceau+at+Versailles



About Georges Clemenceau

Clemenceau was the French Prime Minister in 1906-1909 and again from 1917-1920. He was a smart leader and he proved this in 1917 during the treaty of Versailles, when he forced Germany into complete disarmament and also won back Alsace-Lorraine.



Aims of Clemenceau : -To take back Alsace-Lorraine, that had been taken by Germany during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-1871. -To punish Germany harshly. -To make Germany pay for all the damage from the First World War. -To weaken Germany, so that France would never be attacked again.

Motives : - Clemenceau wanted to take back Alsace-Lorraine, since he wanted to get revenge by recapturing its he rich industrial region from Germany. - 75 000 homes and 23 000 factories had been destroyed and one and a half million young french men died, only 29 per cent of all French troops escaped from death and wounding. For the reason that the war had been fought in France, France was damaged terribly. So France wanted Germany to admit it was responsible for the First World War and to pay for the cost of it. - Clemenceau believed that France should weaken Germany so harshly, that the Germans could never seek revenge again, this was a different strategy than the one thought by the other two leaders of the Big Three, who thought that by not punishing Germany too hard they would achieve the same goal.

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