Treaty Of Versailles Unfair

I believe that the treaty of Versailles is justifiably harsh on Germany due to pure amount of damage created by Germany during the war, especially in France. These actions virtually bankrupted France as a country and destroyed all of its industry and infrastructure. On the other hand it could be argued that the treaty was unfair as it took away Germany's main assets and humiliated the people through the lack of a strong military. The addition of an incredibly large fine of £6.6 billion may have seemed too large, however, due to the size and power of Germany's economy at the time, I feel that the treaty of Versailles was not too harsh on Germany.

Undoubtedly, The War guilt clause is a brilliant example of how the treaty of Versailles was unfair.

The War Guilt clause, also known as Article 231, holds Germany one hundred percent responsible for the outbreak of World War one, and therefore forcing them to pay £6.6 billion in reparations to the League of Nations. However Article 231 is fairly far from the truth, as Europe had slid into the war and that it was not one country's fault since most were involved in the arms race and the alliance system. Retrospectively, Russia was the key “provocateur”, as it was them which encouraged Serbia to fight against Austria for freedom. Germany had to enter the Austria-Serbian war backing Austria, as they were their only ally. If Austria was to be overthrown or taken, Germany would be left vulnerable from attacks from both Russia and France, two hostile countries at the time. When the German politicians signed the clause in June 1919, the German people would never forget them and would always treat them as criminals. Gradually, due to the angst of the public the Nazi party came to power. Additionally, the German people were worried that the £6.6 billion fine would destroy their country and economy, as the sum was around 5% of the national income. To compensate, America then had to loan a large sum of money to stabilise the economy. In addition, Germany had to import raw materials which led to payment deficits, which therefore caused the currency to decline and inflation. This shows that Germany cannot be held solely accountable for the cause of the war, consequently Germany should not have been forced to pay all £6.6 billion and therefore the Treaty of Versailles was simply too harsh on Germany.

The military terms of the Treaty of Versailles were incredibly harsh on Germany as the military of one of Germany's main assets and it was the nation's prowess.

The military clause stated that the German army was limited to 100,000 volunteers and conscription was banned, along with the army being stripped of all its air force, tanks and submarines, and left Germany with only 6 battleships. An army of 100,000 men was just big enough to keep order within Germany, but was not large enough to defend itself from exterior attacks which left Germany incredible vulnerable, which would definitely not promote the “peaceful” aim of the treaty. Especially with the demilitarisation of Rhineland, Germany was left open to attack from France, who had an incredibly negative view on Germany, and wanted to punish her further. The fact that the German army was reduced to only 0.01% of the amount of troops that Germany mobilised during the first World War. This led to a huge number of soldiers loosing their jobs, and in the economic situation which Germany was in, not many Jobs were open. Before the war, the military was Germany's Pride and an important political source for nationalism. Having the majority of it being sanctioned, this completely angered the German people, and united them with the desire to seek revenge on the Triple Entente. In 1925, Hitler said in a speech, “With the common cry- We will have our weapons again!”- He was referring to when the treaty of Versailles virtually eliminated Germany's army. We can see that this was the opinion of the majority of the German public, as the Nazi party came to power with very similar ideas, and they were voted for democratically. To make matters even worse, treaty forced Germany to use its resources and industry to build warships for the League of Nations at their own expense, which humiliated them even further. The military terms of the treaty of Versailles were too harsh on Germany, and even to an untrained eye, it is obvious

that this was going to backfire.

It is argued that the £6.6 billion which Germany had to pay in reparations was a sum of money too large to be paid off, and even if it were, it would fully bankrupt the country, however I believe that this was not too harsh on Germany and its economy for the the following reasons. At the time, Germany had the world's most advanced economy in the world, and therefore, the fine only dented the economy of Germany for a period of time, as was one of the main aims for the fine. Their economy was not destroyed and the German economy was thriving as in 1919 it was at 98% of its state before the war started in 1914. Not to mention that by 1925, Germany was producing double the amount of steel than Britain.