Analyse the reasons for these terms and the possible consequences

World War One had left Europe devastated. Those countries that had fought in it, had suffered casualties never experienced before; Britain had 750,000 soldiers killed, France in its turn had 1,400,000 soldiers killed, Belgium lost 50,000 of its men, Italy buried around 600,000 soldiers, Russia lost 1,700,000 men and finally America who lost about 116,000 soldiers in war. In total the number of deaths in all nations who fought in the war reached 8.5 million. Alongside these statistics, was the fact that vast areas of northeastern Europe had been destroyed. Flanders in Belgium had been all but destroyed with the ancient city of Ypres being devastated. The homes of 750,000 French people were destroyed. Roads, coalmines, telegraph poles had all been destroyed and such a loss greatly hindered the area's ability to function normally. The victorious nations were not prepared to be charitable towards the defeated nations and Germany in particular was held responsible for the war.

The treaty was signed in the enormous palace of Versailles on the 28 Th of June 1919 after many months of discussion and argument between the

Germany had to return to Russia land taken in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Some of this land was made into new states: Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. An enlarged Poland also received some of this land. Military restrictions were; Germanys army was reduced to 100,000 men and they were not allowed tanks, Germany was not allowed an air force, she was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and absolutely no submarines. The west of the Rhineland and 50 kms east of the River Rhine was made into a demilitarised zone (DMZ). No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone. The Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years. In general there were three main clauses, 1-Germany was to take full responsibility for the war, 2-Germany had to pay a total of 6,600 million pounds of reparations and war compensations. 3-There would now be a league of nations to keep peace in the world. Germany’s response to this treaty was one of outrage, They called it “the shameful diktat of Versailles” as they had to part in the negotiations and this treaty was being forced on them. Many were against signing the treaty of Versailles but they knew that they had no choice, they either signed or were invaded by the allies so in a last gesture of defiance they captured the German naval force held at Scapa Flow (Scotland) and deliberately sank it.

What about Germany? Wasn’t it unfair to place the entire blame on her, and to make her pay such heavy reparations? It might be argued that the treaty was aimed at completely destroying Germany’s economy and that they had lost too much territory and money. Perhaps it was rather severe to make the Germans agree that the entire war had been their fault, but those are only words. The reparations they h

Some topics in this essay:
Germany Wasn’t, Britain Georges, DMZ German, World War, Treaty Versailles, Flanders Belgium, Germany Germans, Lithuania Latvia, League Nations, America America, league nations, war losses, reparations war, treaty versailles, provinces germany own, term consequences, army reduced, soldiers killed, military restrictions, germany own, afraid germany, reparations war losses,