The Versailles treaty

Discuss the opinion that the Versailles treaty was a “conspicuous failure ».

After the end of the First World War, in 1918, about 8.5 million soldiers and
over 5 million civilians lost their lives. Over 20 millions of people were estimated
wounded or maimed in this war. The most important Empires, as Russian, Austrian,
Prussian or Ottoman were destroyed, and the economies of most countries involved
had serious problems. Because of the decrease of the European power, USA took its
place at the World’s power leader. As America had played a great role in the end of
the war, she was considered as one of the “Big three” and the president of the USA,
Woodrow Wilson proposed his vision of the peace by the mean of his Fourteen
Points plan, which was accepted by the Allies as the basis for peace. After the
armistice of the 11th November 1918, the European nations wanted to never know
such a war again, so they were wary of writing a peace settlement that would last.
The Wilson’s plan was constituted of some suggestions to the Peace
conference. These suggestions was about the openness of international agreements,
the maritime circulation freedom, the reduction of the armaments, the self-
determinism, which means people have right to claim the will to have their own
nation, the independence of Belgium, Alsace and Lorraine which should return to
France, because Germany took them half a century ago, some border’s suggestions
and eventually the creation of an international organisation which should settle the
disputes between countries and had to maintain peace. However, principles like open
diplomacy and freedom of the seas were lost during the negotiations of the treaty of
Versailles. Self-determination led to many problems, the League of Nations was a
weak organisation, because of the lack of money, and the fact the army was not use.

The Peace Conference took place in Paris on 18 January 1919 and the twenty-
seven countries were represented, and they were there to discuss the terms they
would impose to the defeated countries. The lesser allies and the nationalities of the
Central and Easter Power wanted to be sure they were independent. In addition, they
wanted all to be sure Germany was punished, because she was hold as the only
responsible for the war.
Although this was a peace settlement, which would decide of the Europe fate,
none of the defeated countries were allowed to be present, so they could not defend
themselves. The negotiations were dominated by the leaders of the “Big Three”:
America, France and Britain. Wilson sought each racial and ethnic groups were able
to form a nation state or chose their own government. He wanted the defeated
countries to be treated fairly and the end of the militarism.
The French president Clemenceau disliked Germany because she invaded
France twice before and he wanted to be sure she paid and was so harshly damaged
she could not attack France again. He did not think of the interest of all Europe but of
revenge on Germany. Clemenceau demanded money compensation from her and
the security of the border between France and Germany.
 In Britain many people, soldiers or not, died during the war, so anti-German
feelings ran high. Because of the public opinion, the British Prime Minister, Lloyd
George had to seek revenge too.
The Italian Prime Minister felt he had been betrayed: the Allies had promised
Italy some territories if she entered the war: the Alps and a part of the Adriatic. Italy
attended the Peace settlement to be sure she could obtain them, but some of these
areas had not Italian population and the people did not wish to be part of Italy. In
addition, the American and British leaders disliked Orlando, the Italian leader.
Therefore, Italian claims were not fulfilled and Italy withdrew her delegation from the
discussion.
The treaty of Versailles was signed on the 28th June 1919, by the
representatives of the Republic of Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, a
palace near Paris. The Allies refused to leave the naval blockade on Germany and
threatened her of a new war until she agreed to sign. The German representatives
could not participate to the negotiations and the general German feeling was that the
Allies had dictated the treaty and compelled them to sign it.
The terms of the Versailles settlement resembled a lot the 14 Wilson points
plan. The territorial settlement gave the Alsace and Lorraine back to France, and, if
that rejoiced France, it shocked Germany. The independent state of Poland was re-
created, so Germany lost enormous territory and was separated in two because
Poland had a corridor, which gave her access to the Baltic Sea. The Northern
Schleswig was ceded to Denmark and the Saar coalfields in Germany were to be
administered by the League of Nations for fifteen years, but the economic control
was given to France. Finally, Germany lost all her overseas possessions.
The Versailles treaty made Germany reduce her army and forbade
conscription. Germany was not allowed to have any military aircraft, tanks or heavy
guns. The navy had too to be much reduced and submarines had to be forsaken.
German sailors made a spectacular protest: they sank their warship in their watery
prison camp at Scapa Flow rather than see them turned over to the Allies.

The borders along the Rhine were a buffer zone: no army was allowed here.
Germany had to pay reparation for the damage caused in France and in
Belgium, but also for shipping losses. The sum that Germany had to pay was
enormous and worsened the economic crisis. Moreover, when the economy is
catastrophic, the extremists’ parties increase: because the population suffered for
years, the Nazis could have a rising importance and the German people wanted to
blame somebody for their misery.
Germany signed also a paper saying she was the solely responsible for the
war. However, German population had too suffered from the war and they were very
humiliated and shocked that just they had to bear the blame of the war.
The river Rhine was internationalised, and the Kiel Canal was opened up to
everybody. Austria and Germany had to separate. In addition, there were trial for war
crime, and the Kaiser himself had to stand one. Finally, the League of Nations was
created to promote peace in the world.

The main criticism of the treaty was that it was not a negotiated one. In the
following years, Germany had propaganda about that: if they had not had choice, this
treaty could not really bind them. The application of the principle of self-determination
created many national minorities within states. Furthermore, the peacemakers did not
want that much to permit the German people to determine where they wanted to live.
In consequence, many Germans lived in dispersed areas like Czechoslovakia or in
the Polish Corridor.

In addition, Paris was a very bad choice for the place of the conferences. The
city was not neutral at all and that caused a strong French pressure during the
deliberations.
The German felt humiliated and found the terms of the treaty very harsh, but
leaders of allies nations hoped that peace would last, and to assure collective
security the League of Nations was created but Germany could not enter before
some years, and the Russia too took a long time before joining the League.
Moreover, the USA refused to join it because they feared to be too much involved in
European affairs, and that weakened terribly the league, so it failed to maintain
peace.

In conclusion, we can see that if the Treaty of Versailles was necessary

because some settlements had to be done, the decisions it took were largely
mistakes. Instead of helping Germany to recover from war and resolve the problems
which had caused the war, they punished heavily and unfairly Germany, and
neglected to asked her opinion. They made plans for a short vision of time: like the
15 years of occupation of Germany, and did not make the right decisions to reconcile
the countries. The League of Nations was a good idea, if more countries that were
powerful were a part of it.