Coercion can be defined as forcing someone to do something they do not want to do. In order to determine if coercion will be successful or not one has to look at four key principles: communication, capability, credibility and compliance or “target will.” While the peace settlements after World War I could have been considered coercive, they probably had very little chance of success based on these four stated principles. France communicated that it wanted unreasonable demands including unlimited reparations for the war. Without Great Britain and the United States, France had little capability in enforcing the settlements. In addition, it had little to no past reputation of being able to support its decision in upholding the settlements. Finally, …show more content…
Therefore, the settlements in the end were not very effective and had very little chance of lasting. The first step in identifying whether or not the peace settlement after World War I (WWI), would be the effectiveness of communication to the Germans. In order to properly communicate, one must simply tell the people involved what the conditions are and the consequences for not following them. In addition, the demands must be moderate and the opponent needs to be made clear that it will not favor them in the long run if they do not comply to the terms. While Germany was effectively given the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, one could argue that it was done in an unfair manner. Germany was not even present at the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles and the Germans expected something along the lines of Wilson’s 14 point plan. At the end of the discussions, …show more content…
A major part of this involves past actions between the two partners, and can one do with with little cost to themselves. In terms of past actions, France had little to rely on. France lost the Franco-Prussian war to Germany and was essentially destroyed by Germany in World War I. With Germany eventually crippled, France could easily enforce the Treaty of Versailles, but when Germany ran out of available payment, France could not force the Germans to pay anything else and so the economy collapsed. In response Great Britain and the United States send aid relief which caused the public to view the France as the bad guy. France decides to not to demand any more reparations, and will not demand any without the consent of the British, so in a sense the French just lost all of the credibility that they could have
France's premier, Georges Clemenceau, stands to invite the German delegates into the room. President Wilson is seated just to the left, while Britain's David Lloyd George is two seats to the right; [IMAGE] The treaty of versatiles included the following: * The German army was cut to 100,000 men. Only volenteers could join the army * The navy could only have six battleships * Germany was not allowed to build any submarines, planes and tanks * Germany was not allowed to keep any troops in the Rhineland, allied troops were to be stationed there for fifteen years Concequences: * German soldiers and sailors bitterly resented this.
They say time is a great teacher. How true. History has taught us that peace must be kept at all costs. At the end of World War 1, the common goal between the victorious nations throughout the world was to declare peace. The leading statesmen of these triumphant nations met in Paris to draw up the Treaty of Versailles, which would decide the fate of the central powers. Woodrow Wilson, the American President, created fourteen points as the basis for peace negotiations. Among these fourteen points was the most controversial and yet the most important to President Wilson, the League of Nations.
The Treaty of Versailles is one of the most controversial postwar resolutions ever drawn up. The leaders of the prevailing 4 nations, Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, David Lloyd George, and Vittorio Orlando, were the authors of this controversial document. Each leader went into Versailles with their own idea of how the world should look after the great war. However, the European leaders widely agreed that Germany should be restricted, to some extent, militarily and sanctioned economically. France demanded the most from Germany, to ensure that Germany could not recreate a war machine ever again. Specifically, France wanted to annex Alsace-Lorraine and the Rhineland to create a buffer zone between Germany and mainland France. France demanded
The Treaty of Versailles was a violation of Wilson’s ideals. The Treaty is one of the most important agreements (or disagreements) that shaped 20th century Europe socially and physically. Woodrow Wilson on January 22, 1917 in an address to the United States Senate called for a peace without victors, but the Treaty signed by the participating nations was everything but that. The blame for the war was placed on Germany and justified the reparations that were outlined by the treaty for the war. The terms of the treaty were very harsh to the Germans and they took on great resentment. It was a fragile peace agreement that would be used as fuel to keep hostilities going 20 years later.
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 the “Big Four” meet to settle terms of peace. Britain and France wanted to punish Germany, Italy wanted money or land, and the United States wanted to heal wounds through Wilson’s League of Nations. There was a discussion about whether the United Sates wanted to accept the Treaty Versailles or not. President Wilson wanted the League of Nations to “end all wars”. It was not the influence of the opposing forces of the U.S., conservative or liberal, that led to the absolute defeat of the Treaty of Versailles, but rather the political unawareness, incapability, and stubbornness of President Woodrow Wilson.
Imagine this: a child starts a fight on the playground in elementary school. After a nasty scuffle he is caught and brought into the principal’s office for punishment. Present in the office is the mother of a child whose arm was broken in the fight. She wants the child punished severely as restitution for hurting her son. Next is one of the children who stepped in to defend the victim. He wants the child punished, but not as harshly as the mother. And, of course, the principal. He stepped in at the end of the fight and broke it up. His only goal at this point is to make sure another fight does not occur. Welcome to the situation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 at the close of World War I. Germany had started a major war, and it was up to the leaders of France, the mother country whose children were hurt the worst in the war; Britain, a major player in the fighting; and America, the authoritative party that stepped in at the close of the war to end it, to determine what punishment to inflict upon the aggressor. The result of these differing views is the Treaty of Versailles. But the results of the Treaty of Versailles were less than successful at promoting peace, to say the least. The effects of the treaty on Germany coupled with the American policy of isolationism at the time resulted in the rise of a terrible dictator and the beginning of a war even worse than the first. The United States’ approach to the Treaty of Versailles was shortsighted.
In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to cede territory, to pay an indemnity, to control their army quantity under some harsh limit, and to give up all overseas colonies1. The other Allied Powers also were treated similarly, but with different levels of punishment. It seems like the Central Powers and the Allied Powers had an argument about solving the problem of war. However, in 1919, World War II broke out.
The Treaty of Versailles was reasonable in the sense that Germany had to deal with the consequences of their actions. And it is understandable that the Allied Powers won the war so they would be the ones to dish out the punishment. However, the Allied Powers took part in the war too. That is how they won and they were not able to win the war without contributing to it.
Throughout the conference, the delegates were able to reach numerous compromises, which were the reason that the conference was able to produce peace settlements and a final treaty. Without these agreements, Europe might have immediately found itself at war again. Works Cited Goldstein, Eric. A. & Y. The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919-1925. London: Pearson Education, 2002. Print.
The Treaty of Versailles was initiated by the meeting that was held in 1919. In this meeting Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson from the U.S, Orlando from Italy, and Lloyd George of England met to converse how they would have Germany pay for the impairment that World war I had caused. Woodrow Wilson from the U.S had a 14-point plan that was aimed for bringing peace to Europe. Clemenceau desired revenge, and he wanted to be certain that Germany would never start another war again. Lloyd George agreed with Wilson although he was aware that the British public agreed with Clemenceau. A compromise between Wilson and Clemenceau was what he wanted. Germany was not happy with the positions of the Treaty of Versailles. On the other hand they were expecting the 14 point treaty Wilson had in mind. Although they were not happy with these conditions they did not have a choice but to sign the document.
To what extent can the treaty settlements at the end of World War I be considered ‘harsh and short-sighted’?
It has been almost a century since the first Paris Peace Conference was hold, but even until now, it is a popular yet also controversial event in the history of the world. The Paris Peace Conference took place in 1919 involving more than 1,000 representatives from over 30 nations. The results of the Conference are five treaties regarding terms that, according to the Conference, shall prevent any upcoming conflicts among nations. Although World War II started only after 15 years, nonetheless, the treaties did function as a buffer between countries. Although many resolutions were discussed, the negotiation of the Conference revolves around four main topics, reparation from the previous war losses or limitations on the main Central Power, Germany, self-recognition, President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and the annexation of land.
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
e Treaty of Versailles was originally meant to prevent another war unfortunately the treaty that the Four Allied leaders wrote actually helped provoke a new war. In May of 1919 British Prime minister David Lloyd George, Italian premier Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, French premier Georges clemenceau and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, met for the Paris Peace Conference, which Germany was not invited to. The British and the French wanted revenge and for Germany to pay for damages from the war. It took 6 months to get the terms of the Treaty finalized. The British and French got their revenge and reparation from Germany and Wilson got his League of Nations, in which Germany was not allowed in. The reparation payments put a huge financial strain on
What is the definition of unlawful conduct? What circumstances and influences impact why certain conduct is considered unlawful, and what sources impact its reform? Unlawful conduct is a broad term and conduct can be considered unlawful in numerous ways. It is influenced, for example, by technological developments, social climate, and economics; as these are forever changing they all have a noticeable effect on what is considered to be unlawful conduct. The methods of law reform are just as broad, there are many organisations which can bring about reform, for example: Parliament, The Judiciary, and Law Commission to name a few. These facets of unlawful conduct will now be discussed in greater detail.