Lesson video

Hello.

My name is Ms. Goult.

I'm a history teacher from Leeds, a place called Guiseley, and I now teach history in East London.

I am really looking forward to exploring with you how peace was made in the years after the First World War.

Now, I'm really pleased you've chosen this lesson and this inquiry.

In order to get the most out of it, you really need to have a good knowledge of the First World War.

So it might be something that you're interested in, that you've read about, or maybe you've already learned about in school.

It might be that actually you think, "I don't know loads about it," so you might want to go back and have a look at the causes of the First World War, the events, and how it ended, which are earlier inquiries on the Oak Academy website.

If you're feeling confident and you're good to go, then that's brilliant.

You need for this lesson, a pen, a pencil, and a ruler.

And let's get going.

So in this first lesson, we're looking at the question, why was it so difficult to decide what to do with Germany after the First World War? And that fits into our overall inquiry of what kind of peace was made in 1919.

I'll need to disappeared for a bit so you can see all the pictures on the rest of the lesson, but I'll pop back again to give you a quiz in a few minutes.

In order for us to think about what kind of peace was made in 1919, we need to meet three men.

So first of all, you're going to meet David Lloyd George, the prime minister of Britain, Georges Clemenceau, the prime minister of France, and Woodrow Wilson, the president of the USA.

Now these three men were the leaders of the winning countries, or the main winning countries of the First World War.

Now at the time, the First World War wasn't called the First World War, it was called the Great War or the War to End All Wars.

Now, the decisions of these three men were designed at the time to ensure that no war happened again.

We know that they weren't successful.

We know that another war had occurred within 21 years of the First World War.

That doesn't mean they weren't trying the hardest they could to make peace in Europe.

But despite the fact that they were incredibly powerful and they were the winners, they just couldn't agree.

This lesson we're going to look at, well, why couldn't they agree as the winners of the First World War? In other words, why was it difficult to decide what happened to Germany at the end of the First World War? So there's three big reasons.

One is that each of these three countries had different experiences of the First World War, and this directed the impact on their aims at the Paris Peace Conference and the Paris Peace Conference is where all these decisions about Germany were made.

They also all had different fears about the future.

So in order to think a little bit about the kind of peace that's made, there's two things that can be a bit confusing.

So I wanted to make sure that these are really clear for you.

So the first thing is the armistice, which was signed in 1918 by the German leaders in France were simply the agreement to stop fighting.

Now the Big Three didn't disagree about this, but what they did disagree on was the treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Now these were the peace terms that Germany had to follow, and they were decided by these winners, also known as the Big Three.

So Britain, France, and the USA and treaty these just means an agreement between countries and Versailles is a French word.

So that's why I'm not pronouncing it as it's written.

So the way I remember it is verse.

So there's someone singing a verse of a song.

I.

Versailles.

And it's called that because it was decided just outside Paris in a place called Versailles.

Okay, everyone.

So I'm back again to test you on it with a little quiz on what you can remember about the difference between the armistice and the treaty of Versailles, the treaty of Versailles.

Right, so in the middle of your screen, there's going to be four options, which will pop up, A, B, C, and D, as you can see there with different statements.

What I want you to do is write one title of armistice on one side of your page, one title of treaty of Versailles on the other side of your page, and when the statements pop up, pause the video, and write them down underneath the correct heading.

So the statements are going to come up now.

And what I'd like you to do is pause the video and write them down underneath the correct heading.

Okay, everyone.

Welcome back.

And you will have unpaused by now.

Let's check your answers, say, armistice.

Signed the 11th of November, 1918, and it's an agreement to stop fighting.

It's not the treaty of Versailles.

It's just the agreement to stop fighting, whereas the treaty of Versailles was signed on June 1919, and it's the peace terms for Germany decided by the Big Three.

Okay.

So with that in mind, why couldn't these Big Three agree? So let's have a look at the different experiences for Britain, France, and the USA.

And I'm going to disappear again while we go through this.

Right, so first of all, Britain, 150,000 debt, and these soldiers were known as the lost generation, because not only did so many soldiers die, but also lots came back to disables or suffering from shell shock as a result of their experiences in the trenches.

The British public blamed Germany for the war.

So there was a very much a thirst for that revenge amongst the British public and Britain had endured four years of fighting over in France.

Now France experienced 1.

4 million dead.

The northwest of France had been destroyed because of all the trench warfare that had happened, all the fighting, but it had four years of fighting; and France was right next to Germany, so had been invaded.

Okay, now the USA has over 100,000 dead, 1.

5 years of fighting, and was far away from Germany.

Hello, everyone.

I'm back again now for a quiz on the wartime experiences of Britain, France, and the USA.

So this is a bit of a quiz on what we've just done.

So what's going to happen is the statement will pop up on the screen and you have to decide which country had this wartime experience.

Was it Britain? Was it France? Or was it the USA? Some of the experiences were shared by more than one country.

Okay? So it's not necessarily just one.

So it's your choice.

You can point at the screen.

You can say the answer.

If you want a bit of extra thinking time whenever I asked the question, you could pause your video, have a think about it, say the answer, and then come back to me, and see if you've got the answer correct.

Okay? So, question number one, who joined the war in 1917? Was it Britain, France, or the USA? Excellent.

It was the USA.

They had only 1.

5 years of fighting.

Right, let's have another one.

For which country did fighting happen on their own soil? Was it Britain, France, or the USA? Yes, it was France.

So the fighting happened in northwest France.

Okay, next one.

Which country had 750,000 dead as a result of the First World War? Excellent.

Next one, which country or countries endured four years of fighting? Britain, France, or the USA? Was in fact Britain and France.

Well done.

Which country borders Germany? Exactly, it's France.

Which country had 1.

5 years of fighting? Good.

It's the USA Which country had over a million dead? Well done.

It's France.

Okay, so I'm going to disappear again now, explain a little bit more, and then we'll come back for another quiz.

Okay, so having looked at the different experiences of the countries, we're now going to have a look at how Britain, France, and the USA had different aims at the Paris Peace Conference.

As it says at the top, what were the different aims of the Big Three at the Paris Peace Conference? Now you might already have an idea of this from what we've said their experiences of the war were, and therefore what they might want to do to Germany in order to punish them, get revenge, or perhaps to secure future peace.

Okay, so first of all, Britain.

David Lloyd George said he was going to squeeze Germany until the pips squeak, and this meant that he wanted to give Germany a really harsh punishment, and the public loved that.

Imagine the image of having a lemon in your hand and squeezing it until the pips squeak together.

Okay, the people of Britain, as we know, blame Germany for the war, so really wanted harsh punishment.

Okay.

David Lloyd George also wants to protect trade in Europe to make sure that Britain's economy was supported.

Now, France, led by George Clemenceau, and just to help you remember how to pronounce Clemenceau,, it's Clem-on-so.

That's a French name.

So that's why it's pronounced differently to how it's written.

The French people were desperate for protection from invasion.

They were saved close to Germany that they were worried that the Germans would do it again.

They wanted revenge and they all say wanted compensation or repayment for the damage that had been caused to their country.

Hello, everyone.

I'm back again for another quiz.

So similarly to the last quiz, a statement will pop up on the screen and you're going to select the country that matches with the statement which pops up.

Some statements, like the other ones, apply to more than one country.

And I've got our countries over here.

I'm just going to move myself out of the way down here.

So you'll be able to see the statements and see the countries as well.

Right, so here we go.

First statement.

Who had this aim? Remove the threats of a future invasion by Germany.

So which country is going to be most worried about the future invasion by Germany? I should have said before, for this quiz, if you want to pause it every time I ask the question to give yourself a bit more thinking time, that's fine.

And you can just say the answer or point to the screen.

So I'll ask that one again.

Which country wanted to remove the threat of a future invasion by Germany? Yes, you're right.

It's France.

Okay, next one.

Who wanted to promote his 14 points? Britain, France, USA? Which leader? Yes, you're right.

It's the USA.

Okay, next one.

Who wanted to get revenge on Germany? Britain and France absolutely wanted revenge.

and their countries' people were desperate for revenge as well.

Right, next one.

Who wanted to promote European trade? Britain and the USA.

Who wanted to agree a just or a fair peace? Now I didn't specifically say this in the explanation, but you can probably guess based on the aims that were discussed.

Yes, you're right.

It was Woodrow Wilson of the USA.

Who wanted to show the public that he was punishing Germany harshly? It was Britain.

Remember David Lloyd George said he wanted to squeeze Germany until the pips squeak, but also George Clemenceau as well, wanted to prove to his country that he was looking after them.

Okay, well done for that.

I'm going to disappear again and I'll be back again later.

So we've looked at the different experiences of war.

We've looked at the different aims of the Big Three at the Treaty of Versailles and the Paris Peace Conference.

Now we're looking at the different fears about the future, that the Big Three had.

So Britain, France, and the USA all had different fears about the future.

So let's look at Britain first.

Britain wasn't as close to Germany as France.

It was protected by being an Island.

So they weren't quite as worried about Germany invading again.

Britain wanted to make sure that their Navy is the strongest and they wanted to help European trade to recover.

So they were worried about the economy in Europe, that if there was lots of damage to the economy, as they had been during the war, that they wouldn't be able to trade, and they wouldn't be able to make money.

France was right next to Germany.

They were really worried about a future attack.

USA needed Europe to be peaceful so that the USA doesn't need to get involved.

Wilson wanted to be able to focus on America on the other side of the world.

They're not worried about the threat from Germany invading his country because Germany's so far away.

He was, however, worried about the fact that Germany might want revenge if they were punished too harshly.

Hello, everyone.

Me again, in time for another pause point to check your learning.

So this table is a summary of most of what we've gone through this lesson.

So you can see on the left hand side.

I'm going to get my mouse so I can show you, you've got the country name, Britain, France, and the USA, and I've left a gap for the name of the country's leader.

So I'm hoping you can have a go remembering that.

Then you've got experiences of the war.

And then we've got here aims for the PPC.

I wonder if you can guess what PPC is short for? Yes, you're right.

Paris Peace Conference, where the treaty of Versailles was decided.

So, using your pencil and your ruler that you picked up at the beginning of this lesson, I'd like you to draw this table and fill in as much as you can remember.

So aim for at least one experience of war and one aim for the Paris Peace Conference.

I bet you can get more than that though, actually.

If you do get stuck, if you escape this video and click on next, the worksheets which I'm going to direct you to next will help you as well.

You can always go back on the video as well, to help you to remember.

In a minute, we'll go through the answers and see what you got.

So, pause now and have a go.

Well, everyone, and welcome back.

So we'll have a go through the answers now.

So for Britain, the leader was, of course, David Lloyd George.

The British experience of war was 750,000 dead, four years of fighting, and they blamed Germany.

Aims for the Paris Peace Conference were harsh punishment, to keep their strong fighting ships, and to preserve and keep European trade.

For France, the leader was George Clemenceau, the experience of war was 1.

4 million dead, four years of fighting, and large parts of France destroyed.

And their aims were revenge, harsh punishment, repayment for damage, and protection from future invasion.

The USA's leader was Woodrow Wilson.

The experience of war was over 100,000 dead, 1.

5 years of fighting, and the war being far away from the USA.

Woodrow Wilson's aims for the Paris Peace Conference were long-lasting peace in Europe, to promote his 14 points, which would protect future European peace, and to protect trade as well.

So well done for bringing all of this together.

So let's see now, having come to the end of our lesson, what we can remember from the very beginning of the lesson, having brought it all together.

So at the beginning of the lesson, I went through the three main reasons which explain the answer to the question: why was it difficult to decide what happened to Germany at the end of the First World War? I'd like you, at this point, to pause your video, have a go at writing down those three bullet points for the three main factors that we went through that made it difficult to decide what happened to Germany at the end of the First World War.

So pause now and write that down.

Welcome back again.

So let's see what we've got.

Number one, the different experiences of the First World War for the Big Three made it difficult for them to decide what to do with Germany.

These different experiences meant that they had different aims at the Paris Peace Conference when they were deciding what to do with Germany.

And finally, the countries had different fears about the future, which also fed into their different aims and meant that they had different priorities.

Really well done.

You've made it to the end of the taught part of this lesson.

At this point, I'm going to ask you to pause the video, read through the slides which I referred to earlier as the worksheet on the next page, then answer the comprehension questions.

Now in the next part of this video, I actually go through the answers.

So I'd recommend doing them, then having them look at the answers that I give given.

You might even want to do the first one, then come back to this video, and watch my feedback on the answers, and then once you've got an idea of what I'm looking for, have a go at the rest of them.

Okay, let's have a look at the first question.

So the question was what was signed in November 1918? Now we know it wasn't the treaty of Versailles because we tested that knowledge, and an acceptable answer would be the armistice.

That was what was signed.

However, I've given an example of a good, much more historical answer.

So, let's have a look; and I've highlighted a couple of bits of it as well.

So in November 1918, four German leaders signed the armistice, which meant at the end of the First World War.

In signing the armistice, Germany had to surrender unconditionally, which meant that the winning countries had to decide Germany fate.

Now you can see on the this answer I've highlighted November 1918 and armistice and the end of the First World War because these are key terms. We've got a key date there.

That demonstrates your real understanding of what the armistice is, and then this really good bit at the end is the explanation of what the armistice was and what it meant for Germany.

As a historian, we want to prove that we really understand the events, and this is a great way to do it.

Okay.

Let's have a look at question two.

Why did France want Germany to be punished harshly after the First World War ended? Now an acceptable answer absolutely is they'd lost lots of men, and much of their land had been damaged.

That's true.

That is true.

But this good answer, if we look, it's much more specific.

So France had lost over a million men and vast areas of land in Northwest France had been destroyed.

They wanted revenge for what they saw as criminal actions from Germany, and protection from future attack.

So what we have here is this key terminology of the fact that vast areas of land in northwest France had been destroyed, and also at the end, this explanation.

I also like as well, this "Over a million men," is a specific figure.

So it tells us that the person who's answering this really knows their stuff.

They know the facts, they know the figures.

Okay.

Go on to the next slide.

So what did Britain want out of peace negotiations? So an acceptable answer, harsh punishments to make up for all of the dead soldiers.

A good answer, which gives more specific key terminology and more explanation is the British public wanted harsh punishment for Germany because they felt Germany was to blame for the war.

The prime minister, David Lloyd George, had promised this in his election campaign.

Remember the pips squeak.

He says he's going to squeeze Germany til the pips squeak.

So he felt he needed to deliver.

And additionally Britain wanted its naval supremacy protected.

Naval supremacy just means having the best Navy, and I think we spoke about that.

And you can see I've highlighted harsh punishment 'cause that shows that that's what Britain wants.

And also David Lloyd George, that specific name of a politician shows, yes, this person knows their stuff.

We can also see here why David Lloyd George had to give this harsh punishment as well.

So that's an explanation.

Number four, summarise Woodrow Wilson's 14 points.

So this is really bringing out the work from the worksheets.

So an acceptable answer, his idea about how peace should be negotiated.

Good answer would be Woodrow Wilson came to the Paris Peace Conference with 14 points, which he felt would help to guarantee future peace in Europe.

He thought it was particularly important that the country should be able to rule themselves through self-determination.

This meant countries governing themselves instead of being governed by others.

So that's giving that extra detail that it goes into on the worksheets.

And you can see again, there's an explanation of what the 14 points were, and the use of the key words as well with more explanation.

So the more specific words that you can use that are specific to a topic and explaining them, the better.

Okay.

And then we had this challenge question.

I'm just going to move my video so that you can see the question, and then I'll move it back again in a moment.

Okay.

So explain why it was so difficult for the victors to decide on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

And remember in our lesson we went through these three reasons.

They have different aims, different experiences, and different fears.

So as an acceptable answer, you could have had any of those three.

So my one, I've put they all had different aims. They couldn't agree.

A good answer, and I'm just going to move myself here, was that each country had a different experience of the First World War.

This meant that that aims going into the peace negotiations were very different.

So we've commented on this experience and how the experience affected their aims. And then there's a specific example.

So for example, France had experienced the death of over a million men and the destruction of lots of farmland, whereas America joined the war late and no fighting took place on American soil.

This meant that the U.

S.

was willing to be more lenient, that means not as harsh, towards Germany, whereas France was keen for harsh punishment.

And what I like about this one is, if I go back, there's this comparison between the experience of France and America, which does explain why it was difficult.

Okay, let's go on to this extension question now, which I did make quite challenging.

So you don't panic if this is difficult.

This might be something that you might want to come back to after you've revised a bit of the causes of the First World War, perhaps.

Okay.

So using your knowledge of the longterm causes of the First World War from earlier lessons, can you explain why Britain and France were so keen to punish Germany harshly? Use the sentence starters and the keywords below to answer this question.

So I put this table up for you, and there's some sentence starters there, and then you'll notice the key words are actually words that you would have come across in your causes of the First World War lesson.

So I hope that this is something that you can have a go at independently and what I'd really like to do, if at all possible, would be to see some of this work.

And I'm sure that your history teacher would love to see some of this work as well.

What you can do on this occasion, if you'd like to, you can share your work with a Oak National.

So you must ask a parent or carer to do this, and you can do it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter by typing Oak National and hashtag Learn With Oak.

And in terms of sharing it with your history teacher, use the method of communication that you would have been using throughout the recent period.

Now it's been a pleasure to begin to explore this inquiry with you.

I hope you have enjoyed the lesson and I look forward to our next one.

Have a great rest of your day.