Reparations: David Lloyd George's Attitudes Toward Germany

Reparations: David Lloyd George showed his attitude toward Germany through reparations, he wanted reparations for Germany but not as harsh as Clemenceau. Lloyd George was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922, had made a promise to his citizens in 1918, that he would ‘Make Germany Pay’. He knew the people of Britain wanted this and would in turn vote for him if he could make it happen. This is because many young British men had been sent over to France to fight in the war and had lost their lives or had been seriously injured. However, he did not have the same hatred and need for revenge that Georges Clemenceau had. This meant he wanted to take a more cautious and diplomatic approach. He was worried that if Germany was made

He wanted a balanced agreement to build a good European economy and protect the British way of life. With these ideas, he could influence the points made in the Treaty of Versailles with Germany. Germany had to pay money to the countries affected by the war as compensation for the damage caused. Lloyd George’s perspective is shown through his attitude toward reparations where he didn’t want Germany to be economically ruined because it would prevent Germany from being a strong trading partner, which was Britain’s main income before the first world war. He believed that applying harsh reparations to Germany could potentially lead to a future World War, so he wanted to rebuild the balance of power within Europe to support national security. He did want reparations, but not as strong as France because Britain didn’t want to cripple Germany. So they could still trade. Another strong reason to not have harsh reparations was that Britain didn’t face nearly as much devastation as France so harsh reparations would be unnecessary. They lost 880,000 thousand whereas France lost 1,327,000 million

Lloyd George was the prime minister of Britain during the first world war when they faced terrible devastation such as loss of housing, crops, facilities and lives. One specific area where Britain incurred losses were in human lives. The war took a heavy toll on their military and civilian population. Approximately 908,000 British military people lost their lives, while over 2 million were wounded. The loss of manpower had profound social and economic consequences for the country. Another loss for Britain was the financial toll of the war. The cost of gathering and keeping a large military force drained the economy. The war debt accumulated by the British government amounted to billions of pounds. In addition, the war disrupted trade and industry. Many industries were repurposed for war production, while others had less production due to labor shortages. The disruption caused inflation, supply shortages, and significant economic challenges. Lloyd George didn’t particularly want to enforce as harsh reparations as France wanted to. He believed that it wasn’t necessary to charge as much as France. So Britain did want reparations for Germany but not nearly as much as in France in fear that they would cripple Germany making them no longer a good trading partner. Which would cause Britain to lose a lot of money potentially putting Britain's economy at