[MustKnowHistory]

I got my husband to watch this last night ( I can’t keep my eyes open past 9 p.m.) He gave the scoop this morning.

What I want to know is, what are the parallels with the Congress of Vienna that had to deal with post Napoleonic Europe? It is my impression that the Congress of Vienna did a much better job, in very similar circumstances, of preserving the peace in Europe during the 1800’s. The Treaty of Versailles was a disaster.

[Bitwhacker]

I think it had to do with sticking it to France for Napoleon's adventures. Clemenceau wanted to stick it to Germany in a much grander way than the Germans had stuck it to France 100 years before, mainly because of the utter destruction of northern France in 1918 (which the Germans saw in all its appalling glory while riding the train into Paris), and the 1.3 million dead. He wanted territory ceded to France, especially Germany's colonies, and he wanted borders redrawn with as much territory as possible between France and Germany, just as borders had been redrawn and territory had been ceded at the Congress of Vienna.

Wilson irked Clemenceau no end when Wilson declared that the U.S. didn't want any reparations and no territory, on the grounds that Germany needed to be treated with respect because they would not remain a powerless nation for long and would remember what was done to them (and boy, was that ever a prescient insight ;-)). Lloyd George had run for office promising $350 Billion in reparations, so he was miffed at Wilson, too, for not blessing the looting of Germany...;-))