Why did the 1919 Paris peace settlement not provide a durable peace in Europe

Why did the 1919 Paris settlement not provide a durable peace in Europe?

The First World War, was without a doubt one of the most tragic events in the history of people. It was fought on a scale, and at a cost in human suffering, unparalleled in the history of man kind. Countries from every continent, including most of those in Europe, had taken part. Whole populations had been marshalled to serve their countries war efforts1. All these came to an end when on 11 November 1918, Germany finally agreed to sign an armistice. What is very important to know, is that this armistice was actually based on United States’ President Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”.

However, the Treaty of Versailles, sharply differed from Wilson’s points, and Germany, who felt betrayed, denounced the treaty as “morally invalid.” Henig claimed that the fact that it did not survive the 1920s intact stemmed, not so much from the terms of the peace treaties themselves but from the reluctance of political leaders in the inter-war period to enforce them2. Overall, the Treaty of Versailles was flawed to the extent that instead of preventing future wars it made a future war inevitable!

But let’s take things from the beginning in our attempt to demonstrate the reasons that led the Versailles Treaty, to be considered a failure. The goal following World War I was to restore European stability and maintain everlasting peace. However, these goals were recognized by all of the leaders as not easily achievable. French Prime Minister Clemenceau commented on the day the armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, “We have won the war: now we have to win the peace, and it may be more difficult3. The French politician Marshal Foch, as the Versailles Treaty was being signed, stated rather prophetically, “This is not peace; it is an armistice for 20 years4.”

Indeed, Foch was absolutely correct. The Versailles Treaty did little to shape any sort of long-term peace from the results of World War I. Instead, the treaty, hastily put together, was vague, exposed the Allies’ inability to cooperate toward an agreement, and fuelled German nationalism from resentment over her treatment by the Allies in the treaty. The principle reasons for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to establish a long-term peace include the following. Firstly, the Allies disagreed on how best to treat Germany, also Germany re...

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... the Treaty of Versailles from ever approaching success, however, was not the terms of the treaty, but rather the reluctance to enforce the terms by the Allies. They were naïve to assume that Germany would cooperate with the treaty terms by themselves. Thus within a year of the peace conference, the victorious alliance had crumbled away. It was this critical collapse, rather than the provisions of the peace terms themselves, which ensured that the Treaty of Versailles was never fully accepted or enforced7. The Allies were strong enough to win the war, but not strong enough to secure the peace!

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 Adamthwaite, Antony. The Making of the Second World War (New York, 1992).

 Henig, Ruth. Versailles and After: 1919 – 1933 (London: Routledge, 1995).

 Hobsbawm, Eric. The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914 – 1991 (New York, 1996).

 Keynes, John Maynard. The Economic Consequences of the Peace (New York, 1920).

 Kitchen, Martin. Europe Between the Wars (London, 2000).

 Marks, Sally. The Illusion of Peace: International Relations in Europe, 1918 – 1933 (London, 1976).