Treaty Of Versailles Fair Essay

To what extent were the main terms of the Treaty of Versailles fair to all countries?

Introduction

The Treaty of Versailles was a peace keeping Treaty signed on the 28th June 1919. It was started in order to prevent any future wars breaking out after the destruction of World War one (ref). The Treaty was signed by: France, Great Britain, USA and Germany. However, its soon emerged that “the big 3”: Clemenceau representing France; Lloyd George representing Great Britain and Wilson representing the USA, had different opinions on what they wanted the Treaty to achieve. Germany was not invited to the discussion at Versailles, but was forced to sign even though they had strong objections.

The Treaty focused on five main countries: France, Great

The final sum of the reparations bill was £6600 Million (Lowe, 1998). The Allies had forced Germany to accept the blame for starting the War in Article 231 (Ref). This meant the Germans were forced to pay the reparations bill (ref). The public opinion in Germany was that the amount owing was unfair and unrealistic (ref). The amount owing in reparations meant Germany fell into an economic crisis as the amount they had been requested to pay was too high for them to pay without going bankrupt (ref).

Although the Reparations clause was unfair to Germany, it was just as unfair to Britain and France. Lloyd George had assured the British public that Germany would be made to pay for the damage they caused in World War One (ref). After the election, Lloyd George changed his view and stated that the reparations payments for Germany were too high (ref). Lloyd George was concerned about making sure international trading would settle back to normal (ref). It was unfair to Britain as Lloyd George had helped the Treaty settle on a final sum that was lower than what had originally been discussed and lower than what Clemenceau would have enforced had the other Allies allowed it

Unlike Germany they had both been allowed to join and held the decision making powers along with the other influential members of the Treaty (ref). The USA never joined the League of Nations causing issues in France as this meant they would not have the Anglo-American guarantee from her Frontiers (Ref).

Clemenceau was voted out soon after the start of The League of Nations.

Conclusion

Summarise main points covered and gives a clear answer to the essay question.

Overall, Germany was majorly affected by the five mains Articles of the Treaty of Versailles. She had to admit responsibility for starting the war which meant paying a large reparations bill, she had lost valuable land and had been forced to start disarming despite none of the other big powers disarming. Although, the main articles of the Treaty seemed unfair to Germany and certain articles did not help promote peace, Germany was still one of the strongest Economic powers in Europe. This meant that the Treaty was unfair to France and Britain as it did not leave Germany weak enough to not be able to retaliate, therefore, resulting in helping to start the Second World War. Overall, I believe that the treatment of Germany by The Treaty of Versailles was