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Person1841 – 1929

Georges Clemenceau

French prime minister (1906–1909, 1917–1920), nicknamed “the Tiger”, who led France through the last year of the war and, as president of the Paris Peace Conference, pressed for harsh terms on Germany

A doctor turned radical politician and journalist, he sided with Dreyfus and published Émile Zola’s “J’accuse” in his newspaper. In 1917, at the war’s darkest hour, he became prime minister again at seventy-six, cracked down on defeatism and vowed to fight to the end. At the Paris Peace Conference he pushed for reparations, German disarmament and the occupation of the Rhineland to secure France. After losing the presidential election of 1920 he left politics.

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2 related events

  1. 1919 – 1920Paris Peace Conferencediplomat

    Delegates of the victorious powers met in Paris to draw up the peace treaties with the defeated states. Led by Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George, the conference created the Versailles settlement.

  2. 1
    1919Treaty of Versaillesdiplomat

    The peace treaty between the Allies and Germany signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Germany accepted responsibility for the war, lost territory and colonies, had its armed forces restricted and was saddled with huge reparations.

People who appear alongside

  • Woodrow Wilson1856 – 1924

    28th US president (1913–1921) who took America into the war in 1917 and proclaimed national self-determination and a League of Nations in his Fourteen Points; Nobel Peace Prize 1919

  • David Lloyd George1863 – 1945

    British prime minister (1916–1922) who introduced social insurance as chancellor, led the wartime coalition and represented Britain at the Paris Peace Conference

  • Kim Kyu-sik1881 – 1950

    Envoy of the New Korea Youth Party to the Paris Peace Conference, later Vice-Chairman of the Provisional Government

Themes this person appears in

  • World War I and the Russian Revolution1908 – 1923

    From the Balkan crises to a war of trenches and total mobilization that toppled four empires; the Russian Revolution it unleashed, which created the first socialist state; and the Versailles settlement of national self-determination and the League of Nations