Was_the_Treaty_of_Versailles_Fair_to_Germany_

Was the Treaty of Versailles Fair to Germany' The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty was the peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919, by Germany at the end of the First World War. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence it’s title. This treaty was an agreement between the Allies, the winning countries of World War I, which were mainly France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty was created primarily so that the Allies could decide and agree upon what they wanted to do to the Central Powers, the losing countries of World War I, which were mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. Some people would say that the treaty was fair and that Germany got what they deserved however others would argue that it was far too harsh on Germany, and contributed to starting the Second World War. The treaty forced Germany to give up many of its rights and possessions to the victorious Allied nations. Germany lost 10 percent of their land and 12.5 per cent of their population. Germany also had to give up Alsace and Lorraine as well as land to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Denmark. How could it possibly be fair that Germanys colonies were taken away yet everyone else had them' Germany also ended giving the Allies lots of things such as coal, livestock, money, ships, timber, and other resources. These things got taken away to punish the defeated Germany. Germany was even forbidden to retain no more than a small army (100,000 men) and navy and had to agree to pay a large amount of money, by way of reparations, to the Allied nations. Other nations were given self-determination – but the Treaty forced Germans to live in other countries. I think this is greatly unfair because the loss of this important industrial territory would be a formidable blow to any attempts by Germany to rebuild her economy. The allies clearly wanted to bankrupt Germany, Germany was even forbidden to unite with Austria to form one super state, to try and keep the economic potential to a minimum. The War guilt clause identified Germany as the nation that had started the war. Germany had to accept the Blame for starting the war. I think that it is a major example of why the Treaty of Versailles was unfair however this was also fair in a way because other countries joined to defend themselves or to support Germany. Germany had to pay reparations, which would mostly go to France and Belgium to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. Germany barely had enough to pay out millions of dollars in compensation to the Allies. In 1918 the German Government had only $577,089,500 dollars, and they were commanded to pay out $5,000,000,000 over the following two years. This amount alone was barely payable, however when the treaty was first signed the Germans had no idea how much the final tally would be. The final tally ended up being an extra $25,000,000,000 plus further costs for a grand total of $32,500,000,000 to be paid by 1963. This was significantly beyond Germany’s ability to pay. Germany had barely enough money to pay the original amount, and, inevitably, great inflation occurred which destroyed the economy and caused unemployment and starvation. Furthermore, because another clause of the treaty was that the territory of Germany had to be greatly reduced, Britain and France had been malicious and were shortsighted by demanding Germany's money while taking away the territory that could provide the money. This greatly angered Germany and further shows how unreasonable the treaty was. I do not believe that Germany should take full responsibility for WWI, Germany was the biggest threat to all the allies during the war and thus the allies wanted to weaken Germany so as to not have to face them again in the near future. The treaty terms were imposed on Germany by telling them they would march over to Berlin if they did not sign it. This is not fair as it was not negotiated- Germany was forced to sign the treaty. At first they refused to sign the Treaty. Some Germans even wanted to start the war again. As to the German military, the Treaty stipulated that the German Army was to be limited to only 100,000 men, its Navy reduced to 15,000 personnel and only six pre-dreadnought type battleships of no more than 10,000 tons displacement (reducing it to little more than a coast defense force). No air force of any kind, no tanks, and no submarines permitted. This meant that Germany was helpless against other countries. At first they refused to reduce the army, and the sailors sank the fleet, rather than hand it over. In conclusion, I believe that the treaty of Versailles was blatantly unfair to Germany, and was driven by France's desire for revenge from the humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. It was very harsh on Germany as it forced Germany to cut its military, revoke some of its land and pay compensation to its war enemies. The reparations crippled Germany's economy and the cutting of the military and loss of land stirred nationalist opinions amongst the German people, which led to the creation of Adolf Hitler. This was unfair as it was not exclusively Germany who started the war; it got dragged in because of its alliances, yet it took the majority of the blame at the end of the war. However, Maybe if instead of all nations searching for vengeance, they searched for peace and if Germany actually had a say in what happened, then perhaps they could have reached a more sensible agreement. Having said that, Germany were not to have a word in it, and France would not leave without compensation for what Germany had done to them in the past. The Treaty of Versailles was truly devastating to the German people, and they did not deserve what they got.