"The armistice ended the war on Nov. 11, 1918, but the difficult task of making peace lay ahead.
Britain lost over 700 000 soldiers in the fighting and spent billions of dollars. It entered the war to defend Belgian neutrality against German invasion, but apart from preventing Germany from dominating Europe, had no war aims. The propaganda machine dwelt on German atrocities - eg enemy soldiers were alleged to have murdered women and children - to persuade people to support the war.
The Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, saw the need for a moderate peace and told Parliament:
'We must not allow any sense of revenge, any spirit of greed, any grasping desire to override the fundamental principles of righteousness...'
He believed that a bitter Germany would help no one. However, others wanted revenge, to 'Hang the Kaiser', and punish Germany.
The United States suffered no damage at home as a result of the war. Its armies did not arrive in Europe in large numbers until the last six months, so that its losses and casualties were lower than anyone else's. The American President , Woodrow Wilson, wanted a just peace that would make future wars impossible. He outlined Fourteen Points as the basis for peacemaking, in a speech to Congress in January 1918. The Fourteen Points guided America's approach to the peace, but Woodrow Wilson was firmly committed to making Poland and Czechoslovakia independent. Poland could not survive without a port or an outlet to the sea for trade. This however, would mean giving the Poles a corridor of land straight through German territory cutting off East Prussia from the rest of Germany. The Germans could then complain that the principle of self determination had not been applied to them.
Wilson also wanted to meet French fears of future German attacks, but did not want to accept the French proposal that the Rhineland - German territory - should become an independent buffer state. He thought that German resentment at the loss would be a future cause of war. Instead he, and the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, were prepared to guarantee French frontiers against German aggression.
France believed that Germany was to blame for the war. It wanted the enemy cut down to size and compensation for the enormous losses of life and property. France wanted the return of Alsace Lorraine, taken by the Germans in 1870. It demanded the Saar coalfield in repayment for the French mines destroyed by the Germans. France argued for the Rhineland as a buffer state against future attack. Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, supported the creation of Poland and Czechoslovakia, but was afraid that these small countries in the east would prove no match for Germany. Germany's large population and industrial strength , unbalanced by her eastern neighbours, was Europe's real problem.
Germany was badly shaken by suddenly losing a war that it thought it was going to win. Germans did not think themselves any more to blame for the war than anyone else; and expected the Fourteen Points and the principles of self-determination to be applied impartially at Versailles. It could only regard losses of German territory as outrageous".