Aims of France at Versailles

Throughout World War One, France suffered greatly throughout World War One. Over half of the soldiers which France sent to the front were wounded and over an eighth were killed. France has been invaded by Germany a number of times in the preceding decades and many French people were incredibly weary of the Germans and their military ambitions. With this in mind there was a significant feeling among the French that they could use the Treaty of Versailles as an opportunity to weaken Germany severely.

The French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau wanted to weaken Germany as much as possible to ensure that Germany could not mount an attack against France again. However, Clemenceau, did realise that he would have to compromise at some point on this. He did not want to look weak in front of the French people, so decided that the treaty should punish Germany as much as possible.