The Treaty of Versailles included a large sum of punishments for Germany. These punishments went too far because of America and the other Allies and should be changed. The new treaty should make it more fair to Germany in order to keep them from becoming angry and resentful. Changes that should be made include getting Serbia, Russia, and Germany to accept the blame for starting WWI, instead of blaming the entire war on Germany. Germany should also be able to keep their coal-fields, as there was no reason for the Allies to take the coal-fields away. The Allies also should not have taken as much away from Germany’s armies,with a depleted military it would be difficult for the country to defend itself. Lastly, the allies should watch over Germany in order to enforce the new rules. The logic behind why the treaty should be changed is simple. While Germany has been much too harsh and intrusive during the war, they did not originally cause it and therefore should not be fully to blame. The reason why the war started was because people from Serbia assassinated Austria-Hungary’s leader, Franz Ferdinand. Thus, Serbia should also be at fault. Another country who should also be held accountable is Russia. Russia had formed a secret alliance with Serbia and stepped into the war, escalating the situation even more. Although, the attention shouldn’t be focused all on Germany, this does not mean that they aren’t to blame. Germany should be included because they unnecessarily declared
Almost all nations desired to completely destroy Germany and make them work almost like slaves (Doc 3). The other nations act as if they had no part or fault in the war when in reality they were part of it just as much as Germany. Great Britain, France, and Italy all wanted revenge and saw this as their opportunity to get it. The treaty caused restrictions to their military and also made Germany lose their territory and colonies. The fault was entirely placed on their shoulders and the weight only became greater with the treaty. Germany was also not the one to start the war but yet were accused of it
The Treaty would do several things that would make once proud Germany a nation what was beat and would have to pay the price of war, both literally and figuratively. Woodrow Wilson, current President of the United States at the time of the war, had the philosophy that there should be no winners, as with winners there were losers. He had 14 points that would end the war, and leave little to no gunpowder to ignite another. However, they British and French did not heed these warnings, as they would go on the limit Germany’s army. Including officers, the army would be limited to 100,000 men (Document B). While it can be seen as rational, as a restricted army would limit Germany’s chance of wanting to cause another war, it could also be seen as embarrassing. As Belgium, a country that was one of the smallest at the time had 530,000 troops after Article 160 of the treaty was passed (Document B). Now if a country that is almost one-eighth the size of you, has an army that is 5 times larger than your it is quite embarrassing, especially at a time that the size of your army was almost representative of your power. The new country of Poland had 3.2 million troops, despite its young age, (Document B). All of this was just simply unbearable to the German population, but the fact that they had to agree to a guilt clause
How did the Treaty of Versailles help cause WWII? The same treaty that ended the first world war played a huge role in starting the second. WWI ended on November 11th, 1918 with 17 million casualties, 7 months later the official document to end the war, the Treaty of Versailles, was created & signed. Leaders of the United States, France, and Great Britain shaped the terms of the treaty.
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
Some of the main ideas in the Treaty of Versailles are that Germany had to take the blame for starting the war. That was a big part because people got justice out of that. Germany also had to pay a lot of money for the damage that were done during the war. Next Germany was not allowed to own submarines or have an Air Force. They were only allowed to have a navy of six battleships, and an Army of just 100,000 men. In addition, Germany was not allowed to place any soldiers next to France. And lastly Germany lost lots of land in Europe, their colonies were given to Britain and France. There are many examples of this treaty still today, in modern times. It had big effects in earlier times as well. But first here are a few examples of how much
World War II was one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. World War II cost over 60 million lives and trillions of dollars. However, the entire war could of been prevented. Many wars in history could have been prevented. Rash decisions ignite wars and change history forever. One example of a rash decision is the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay excessive reparations. This was impossible at the time, as the country was just in a long and expensive war. Another irrational decision was the laws of the League of Nations. The League of Nations was a good idea, but it had flaws. Allowing members to leave the League of Nations at anytime without consequences is an example of a flaw. Germany used this to their advantage and left it in 1933. Finally, the leaders of Europe should not have pacified Hitler, like they did in the Munich Conference in 1938. Changes to the Treaty of Versailles, and the League of Nations, and by not practicing a policy of appeasement against Hitler could have prevented World War II.
The Treaty of Versailles had many changes that impacted the course of history. Many historians believed the restrictions impeding the Germans were too harsh and was a major factor to the Second World War happening (Could the treaties be justified at the time?, 61). In my opinion, changing the treaty would not be historically possible. Not the fact that we can not go back in time, but because at the time the Treaty was thought to end all future wars and any future conflict was not considered. Furthermore, they knew the Germans would be unhappy, but not furious to the point of Hitler… (Hitler's Speech,1). Still, there are things I would change to the treaty such as not giving the French the coal mines. Taking the coal mines away from Germany was just greedy because Germany was still a nation with millions of families and civilians who need to survive. As the letter from Brockdorff-Rantzau stated that this would take away one third of their coal production and cause shortages in this
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.
Among many things, the treaty stated that Germany was responsible for all of the destruction caused by the war (war guilt). They were required to reduce the size of their military from over four million to just one-hundred thousand men and comply with restrictions regarding to its size. In addition to this, Germany had to pay massive reparations, lose all of its empire and areas of financial and cultural importance such as the Polish Corridor, Saar, Alsace-Lorraine and Rhineland. When looking at the components of the Treaty of Versailles it becomes clear that it wasn’t written in the best interests of Germany and the German people. Historically, the imposition of acts or laws that did not work in the best interests of the majority resulted in uprisings and revolutions, a mass convergence of people against a common enemy.
The Treaty of Versailles had a significant impact on Germany in 1919-1939 because of the societal,political, and economic damages it did to the country. The Treaty of Versailles was an effect of Germany losing World War 1. The allies France,Britain,and the U.S. blamed Germany for the war happening. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 the allies got together and drew up The Treaty of Versailles for the punishment for Germany. The treaty had a great impact on Germany in economic,political,and societal ways. In economics Germany was forced to pay all war reparations, they had hyperinflation, and industrial production was reduced greatly. In political problems they were forced to become a democratic government, were not allowed to be a
The Treaty also forced Germany to take full responsibility of the war. The Allies made them accept that it was their fault and that the countries all suffered because of Germanys selfishness. Because they were blamed for the war the Allies saw fit that they were to pay for the reparations of the war. This amount concluded to 32 billion American dollars, this was but a mere partial cost to the war but Germany still tried to resist paying the total amount. The reparations were not paid until 1921 a full three years after the signing of the Treaty. The initial German reaction the terms of the treaty was shock and anger. Since the Kaiser abdicated it fell upon the new government to sign the treaty, because of this the Weimar Republic was
The main clauses of the Treaty of Versailles are strongly against Germany, and will hurt Germany’s economy, and status. The Treaty of Versailles is not just, but the United States must respect the opinion of France, Britain, Italy and the other European countries. Germany deeply affected the lives of Europeans, and the war resulted in countless
impact on, and the affect that the treaty has had on them can also be
What responsibility did each of the “Big Three” have for the failure of the Versailles Treaty to bring peace to Europe? Be sure to discuss what each wanted to accomplish.
Personally, I would include more of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points in the treaty and make the treaty less about punishing Germany and more about preventing any further conflicts. The treaty as it stands seems like it will only create internal conflict within Germany. If any country had to pay off such a huge debt in war reparations, their economic state would obviously deteriorate, leading to tension between the government and the