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Why was Alsace-Lorraine returned to France after World War I?

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Treaty of Versailles The “Big Four” (left to right): David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the United States, the principal architects of the Treaty of Versailles.

Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France in 1919 under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles as a reversal of the territory's annexation by Germany following the Franco-German War of 1870–71.12

The return of the region was a significant objective for France, as the loss of the territory in 1871 had been a major source of anti-German sentiment and a driving force behind French foreign policy for decades. Beyond the nationalistic desire to recover the land, the region was economically vital to France due to its valuable iron ore deposits and established iron- and steelmaking industries, which had been lost to Germany after the 1871 defeat.13

By retroceding Alsace-Lorraine, the Allied powers sought to rectify the territorial changes imposed by Germany in 1871 and address French security and economic concerns in the aftermath of World War I.12