The Paris Peace Treaties

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The Paris Peace Treaties

The Paris Peace Treaties (1919-1920)

IB History

To the subject and passive onlooker, those meticulous organizers of the Paris Peace Treaties allowed for an unfortunate amount of flaws to enter their task of creating a treaty that could satisfy all of the nations of not only Europe but of the world as well equally. Yet one must attempt to put that passiveness behind and admit that those of the time of post World War I had truly no idea what was to come of their decisions. Thus, the decisions of these toilers of the Paris Peace Treaties undoubtedly made a medley of wrong judgments that were virtually unforeseen at the time. The first of these mistakes was that they looked over the problems that the innumerable ethnic groups of Europe would cause. Second to be overlooked was France, still highly intimidated and insecure of a Germany that it wanted to see completely annihilated and rendered powerless.

Lastly, was the Central powers, angry and cheated over their extremely harsh punishments. Thus the founders of the Paris Peace Treaties, despite doing their best to form a way to peace and betterment for Europe, managed to make a great deal of unanticipated oversights in their quest for harmony.

The continent of Europe was composed of legions of different ethnic groups that at the end of World War I caused many problems for the treaty drawers of Paris. Even Wilson himself confessed that there were far many more ethnic groups in Europe than he at first realized- most of them seeking their own personal independence. Eastern Europe and the Balkans because many historical occurrences (such as invasions and migrations) were made up of “a bewildering kaleidoscope of races and religions.” There were still hordes of nationalistic minorities in countries with a majorities of ethnic groups not of their own. To make things even more difficult for the writers of the Paris Peace Treaties was that these races did not live in their own separate areas of the countries of Europe.

They lived mixed among themselves, dispersed throughout the regions with the race of the majority. In addition to the problems left to those who drew up the peace treaties (in accordance to the “ethnic problems”) were that there were still populations of a race of people within various nations that belonged ethnically to another nation. For example, within Hungary ...

... middle of paper ...

...ed to create an agreement for the best of the world.

Conclusively, the writers and founders of the Paris Peace Treaties, despite their efforts to bring a lasting peace to the world, made a variance of unforeseen mistakes in their toil. For the uncountable amounts of varying ethnic groups could not be easily separated without annoying at least someone- and since the Central powers were the losers, logic suggested that it would be them. Secondly, France’s increasing insecurity towards Germany that dated back decades caused for it to demand Germany to be paralyzed forever. This as well as other forms of Allied punishments caused for increased Central power animosity towards the Allied powers. Therefore, the intent of peace treaties was well intentioned initially, and the criticism of them was undeserved in that there was nothing that anyone could do else without the impossible of power seeing into the future

Bibliography

1. (Handout) Lentin, Antony. “The Consequences of the Versailles Settlement.”

2. (Handout) Sharpe, Alan. “Part I: The Post War Settlement.

3. Wolfson, Robert. Years of Change: European History 1890-1945. London: Hodder

and Stoughton, 1978, pp.183-192.

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