Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was not the only cause of World War II, however was one of the important factors. The treaty was neither severe enough to keep Germany from once again being a significant power, nor was it lenient enough for the German people to meet its terms and move on. Instead it was only harsh enough to make life incredibly hard for a few years, just long enough to fester hatred for the Allies, especially the French. The main reason the treaty failed to keep the peace is because the Allies all had separate agendas. Britain wanted increase their colonial power all over the world. France wanted to permanently punish Germany harshly enough that they could never make war again. Wilson was trying to make a formula for an everlasting peace in Europe and create the League of Nations. In Germany the citizens were worried about what would be enforced upon them, since they had no say in the matter. However just twenty years and sixty-seven days later, war would once again break out in Europe.
After the defeat of the French by the Prussians in 1871 the Prussian diplomats met with French offcials in the “Hall of Mirrors� and hammered out an agreement. Then just 48 years later on the 28th of June 1919 the leaders of th

Since Germany had lost so much land and resources it barely had enough capital to rebuild, let alone pay out millions of dollars in compensation to the Allies. In 1918 the German Government had only $577,089,500 dollars, and they were ordered to pay out $5,000,000,000 over the next 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 some other costs for a grand total of $32,500,000,000 to be paid by 1963.(5) This amount of reperations was unheard of, it was ridiculous, there was no way Germany could ever pay it off. Germany really only had one option, and that was to start printing more money. Printing more money though would only lead to massive inflation, but there was nothing else to be done. The reperation payments coupled with the stock market crash and depression in the twenties totally changed Germany. These demand crushed the German economy, and many experts predicted it could even mean the starvation of the German people.

The meeting where they decided on the terms of the Treaty of Versailles as well as many other items was called the Paris Peace Conference. It was held in Paris because that is where most of the fighting and devistation took place. Georges Clemenceau demanded that it be held in Paris, and noone could disagree with him. The main problem with having the conference in France is that it seemed as if the conference was about triumph and revenge, as opposed to the true nature of the peace treaty, which is the search for justice. Also Clemenceau could dominate the discussions with the home point advantage and he wanted Germany totally brought to its knees.

Now the issue of independence is a very important one. There are minorities in every country, so its hard to decide who to give independence to. Article eighty states that Austrian independence must be respected at all costs. The League of Nations set Austrias borders, and these were sacred unless the League changed its mind. The Allies decided to give the Czechs their own state, made in part with German lands. These lands included three millions German speaking citizens The Allies gave Poland back its independence as well as to give them a very valuable piece of Germany for its troubles. One of Wilson’s fourteen points was to give Poland access to the sea, however in doing this he split Germany and Prussia apart. Hitler used this later on to rally the German people, he wanted to unite the two countries. He did this with many countries, not just Poland. Hitler ended up taking Austria and Czechoslovakia without actually having to fight, he just marched his troops in and the people loved him for it. France was steaming mad, however the British were too worried about giving the Germans what they wanted (appeasement) and said nothing. They refused to help France to stop the German army, so Germany just rolled right over them unopposed. Eventually when Hitler invaded Poland, the Allies declared war on Germany which started W.W.II. All of this land given away, and these German seaking peoples forced to live in other countries outraged Hitler. He wanted to unite all the countries and German speaking people togethor, especially his native Austria.(7)

The Allies made the Treaty of Versailles available to the public, and German citizen could buy a copy on the side of the road for fifty cents. This made it so the treaty had to be inflexible, if they changed a clause or affected it in a major way then the average citizen would think that the Allies were showing weakness. So the Allies even used this towards their own advantage. However, in the lng run this may have hurt the Allies more then helped them. By making the treaty public any German citizen sould read it and see just how harsh the terms of it actually were.