The Fairness of the Treaty of Versailles Essay

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

The Treaty of Versailles was unfair because Germany did not attend the Paris Peace Conference. In the conference, representatives from the Allied Powers were present and some from other countries (Doc 1) However, no representative of Germany was there. Therefore, they did not even have a say to what their consequences may be or anything in general. They could not defend themselves. This caused them to feel bitter and angry since in the end they were blamed about everything. This later caused World War 2. The treaty was supposed to conclude to peace but peace did not last.

World War I was a deadly war spurred on by a greed for economic and political power; violently effecting some twenty seven million people, it topped the charts of casualties. World War II, though, changed the playing field: it was even more deadly in more ways than one. At the end of World War I, the Versailles Treaty was drawn up by the victorious members of the war; this treaty burdened Germany with the fault of causing the war and implanted reparations in which Germany would repay others for damages done. This treaty ignited the spark that fueled World War II; Germany was forced to pay for World War I in land, gold, in giving up a majority of their military strength, and they suffered under the guilt of the war. By placing all of these reparations

I believe this was one of the many factors contributing to Germany's anger because of the amount of payment. As shown on the chart located in (Document C) when “Hitler comes to power,” he “Stops all reparations payment.” I believe the reason they stopped is that Germany felt the treaty and the payments were a sign of injustice. Using the evidence from (Document C) and my beginning statements Germany felt angry by the rules and “obligations” forced upon them such as the “obligation” to pay “within a period of thirty years.” It is not a surprise to see them

The treaty solved none of the major problems which caused the Great War in the first place. France, Great Britain, and Italy wanted to make sure Germany would never be a military threat again so they wanted to avenge the war by making Germany take all the blame for starting the war. Germany was not even permitted to send delegates to the conference. Huge reparation payments were awarded the allies and Germany was never able to make the payments which only weakened her poor economic situation, and it became worse with the onset of the Depression of the 1930s. All of Germany's colonies were taken from them and they were not permitted to have a military other than a national police force.

Germany was not permitted to attend the treaty. Had they been able to go to the treaty, it could have help resolve issues between the other countries and Germany. Although Germany may have caused great damage during the first war, they should have been treated in a way that caused the other three countries to look upon them as the aggrieved party. Document D sates “Allies saw the treaty of Versailles as an international contract.” It then stated that Germany saw it as a “ atrocious injustice” and that “it must be destroyed.” It is apparent that Germany was resented by the other countries. Document B showed how much land Germany lost due to the financial strain, but Germany should not have been held fully for their actions in the war. The Germans did not fight alone, and as tough as WWI was, the opposing countries should have taken responsibility for the damage they had done too. Together, they would need money for the damages that the war brought. With Germany being the issue from the point of view of the opposing countries, not allowing them to go to the Versailles treaty would only cause greater

The Treaty of Versailles was a major event in the 1920’s that was largely responsible for the events to follow, including the rise of Hitler and World War 2. Woodrow Wilson came up with a fourteen point plan of how to end the war with fairness and lasting peace. Germany was willing to accept the consequences because they trusted the treaty would be based off of Wilsons’ plan. Unfortunately for Germany and her allies, there were meetings with the four main allie leaders at Versailles to determine the final terms of the treaty without them. These men were determined to punish Germany, excluding Wilson, and hold them completely responsible for World War One. The consequences for Germany were unreasonable and unfair because Germany was not able

Taking away one of Germany’s significant pieces of land weakened taxes, money, and power. The Treaty did not only affect the coal production but resulted in job deficiencies and lack of space for the Germans, “Germany argued that as a result of the population growth and the shortage of jobs caused by the economic upheaval of the 1920s, Germany lacked space sufficient to accommodate all Germans … it was evident that the peace settlement had pushed Germany into a state of demographic and spatial emergency” (“The Heroic Earth Geopolitical Thought in Weimar Germany”, 1918-1933, pg 36). By taking two vital pieces of land away from Germany, not only did this hurt the Germans externally but internally. The Germans that were left back at the Saar, which was a region of Germany occupied and governed by the United Kingdom and France from 1920 to 1935 under a League of Nations, felt meaningless, “...with France receiving the profits from the German coal mines as compensation, the unhappy German miners being no better than slave laborers” (Revisionist.net). Those that used to live happily in Alsace and Lorraine were no longer delighted to work under new rules. With the Treaty

The Treaty of Versailles contributed to WWII by severely weakening Germany economically through territorial losses. Before the war Germany was using 139,000,000 tons of coal from their land. Once their industrial land was given away, Germany only had access to about 78,000,000 tons of coal per year. They lost 60,800,000 tons of coal from the lost areas. Germany coal production was reduced by 40%. Germany had lost Alsace and Lorraine, and was returned back to France. The Treaty required Germany to permanently give up its colonies. German colonies included all or part of the modern nations of Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon, Namibia, and Botswana, as well well as Pacific territories such as Samoa and the Marshall Islands. The British took over most of Germany’s overseas colonies. (Doc. A) With all this loss of land how is Germany supposed to pay back all the payments. “...the restoration of the frontiers of 1914 could be achieved only by blood. Only childish and naive minds can lull themselves in the idea that they can bring about a correction of Versailles by wheedling and begging, No nation can remove this hand from tits throat except by the sword.” -Adolf Hitler. Hitler had already thought about war before he had came

There can never be an excuse for Nazi atrocities. World War I resulted in the death of 17 million people. The victorious Allies met at Versailles in 1919 to establish the terms of peace. The hope was that the treaty would make World War I the “war to end all wars.” The Treaty of Versailles punished Germany too harshly in four key ways: Loss of land, military reduction, reparations, and war guilt.

“The Allies continued to regard the treaty as an international contract” (Doc D) Laurence V. Moyer, Victory Must be Ours: Germany in the Great War 1914-1915, 1995 since Germany accepted the fact that the war was caused because of Germany’s aggression and her allies, and caused all the loss and damage to the allies. After continuous years of the treaty, Germans saw the Versailles treaty as an “evil thing which must be destroyed,” and as an act of humiliation because they were made to be seen as a disgrace and cast off from other nations. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Germans admired him because he made them feel a sense of pride, reawakened a sense of self-respect and forced the world to look at Germany from a new perspective. (Doc D) Leading to a huge impact on why it helped cause World War II since Germany now saw how betrayed they were by the treaty, and felt the need to put their trust on a new leader such as Hitler, who could restore Germany into a powerful nation again, in their

In the Treaty of Versailles, Article 232 states that Germany must make monetary payments to the allies as the result of the damage Germany created during the battle (Hooper). This article creates a biased point of view since it was originally a peace treaty. The allies made such ridiculous requests relating forcing Germany pay for all the damages when everyone was at fault. Germany’s economy spiraled down due to the reparations they had to pay; they lost all of their money because they gave it away to the allies due to the damages they made in the war. As their economy quickly fell apart, their currency lost its value. The downfall of the economy affected the people because millions of people lost their jobs due to lack of money. In addition to the downfall of the German economy, Adolf Hitler gained power due to the promises he made to the German people (Smith 2). He promised to stop the reparation payments, to give jobs and food to the people, which make them forget the humiliation they had post-WWI making them proud to be a part of Germany again. Hitler was able to get the necessary attention due to the promises he made, which got him the power he

Article 232 states, “The [Allies]... require that she [Germany] will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population… and to their property.” (Document E). Germany was not allowed to defend themselves or speak out against their agreement, and were compelled to accept the responsibility for starting World War I. Document F shows a chart titled “Reparations Established by Versailles Treaty with Later Revisions” and shows the dates 1921, 1929, and 1933. It displays how much Germany had to pay and how they responded/paid. In 1921 Germany had to pay 132 billion gold marks yet they paid very little due to their feelings of anger and humiliation. The amount they owed was reduced to 112 billion gold marks in 1929 and they only paid 2 billion marks over the next three years. When Hitler came to power in 1933, he stopped the process of paying the reparations. It wasn’t until 2010 that Germany would pay off their massive debt, and this was mainly their fault for not raising taxes and making their economy even worse by just printing out more money, causing

How significant was the Treaty of Versailles to Germany? This is the question that has been posed to us for our first analytical history essay. I will go into depth about my opinions on both the long-term and short-term effects of the Treaty of Versailles. I believe that the Treaty had a powerful impact on Germany- it practically ruined their economy, and gave the Germans all the more reason to hate the Allies, eventually contributing to the beginning of World War 2. Although the Allies had a right to demand certain things from Germany (as they were the instigators of the war), they should have been more lenient and taken Germany’s poor economic situation into account. The war was a mistake on the part of the German government, but it was the people who payed the price. I have taken into account Germany’s loss of territory, the war guilt, the economical effects of the Treaty, and the armaments and discussed them in this essay.

The Treaty of Versailles was a very unfair document towards Germany. According to Mike Dowling, the treaty had taken away Germany's overseas colonies and their coal source. Germany could not build large ships and their army was a joke.