How far do you agree that the terms of the Paris peace settlements were too harsh?

Most parts of the treaties of the Peace of Paris, particularly in the treaty of Versailles were a cruel corruption of justice. The victorious powers placed extreme demands on Germany that went far beyond simple justice. The Treaty of Versailles was an exceedingly cruel document. Above all harsh was the implication of ‘war guilt’ placed solely on Germany. Germany was required to accept the allegations from the Allies that it was solely to blame for the war. How could Germany be the only country to blame for the war? It had started when a Serbian shot an Austrian.

Right from the beginning of the Peace conferences there was uncertainty about what should be done. Some felt the aim was to punish Germany, others felt it was necessary to cripple Germany to the point that it would never be able to start up another war. Some felt the treaties should reward the winning side and yet others (although these seem to number less than the alternative viewpoints) felt that the point of the treaties was to establish a lasting peace. Germany was not invited to participate.

I would assume however, that Germany was not preparing to begin a war but rather that they were preparing for the possibility of war. The war came about because of the mismanagement of a crisis; the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, a Serbian shooting an Austrian. The French representative in the ‘Big Three’, Clemenceau was an uncompromising politician and clearly displays this attitude of rigid vengefulness. With the German economy already crippled and tattered due to the war, Germany was in no shape to pay the excessive reparations demanded. The 7th of May 1920, the Germans believed that it would be unpleasant but not unfair to the degree that it was. Wilson’s 14 point plan was largely ignored and Germany was not to be allowed what should have been a given; true self-determination. Perhaps some of them felt they would not remain in power unless they demanded the cruel penalties they thought their countrymen wanted.

Germany was expected to pay damages of Ј6, 600,000,000, approximately 33 billion US dollars. However, because of the popular feeling widespread in some of the Entente countries, it is doubtful whether a formal and legal revision is as yet practicable.

The main powers Britain America and France all had different aims: Wilson (the American president) wanted a fair peace, Clemenceau (French prime minister) wanted a harsh peace and lastly Lloyd George (British prime minister) wanted a compromise peace.

The allied forces were too harsh on Germany; they were being greedy and callous. They only thing that all three ...

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The allied forces were too harsh on Germany; they were being greedy and callous. They only thing that all three forces had in common was self interest. They all wanted to gain the most not caring for who or what they damage.

People argue that the Paris peace settlement was not harsh enough as it led to the outbreak of World War 2. Clemenceau only insisted on massive compensations from Germany after the USA and Britain rejected his call for cancellation of France’s war debts (incurred for the First World War). Germany had had not won the war but they had not been seriously defeated or destroyed were as Britain and France had lots of damage so it compensates for the damage done.

Many historians think that the treaty was too severe to be acceptable to most Germans and too lenient to constrain Germany. In the war Germany had only lost 13% of its pre-war territory and 10% of its population. In the treaty of Brest-Litvosk the Germans took away 34% of Russia industry and made them pay 300million gold rubes. The Germans always demanded high reparations so what they do is only being done to them, the only really major losses were the over-sea colonies.

If the terms were too harsh on Germany would they have been able to produce twice as much steel as Britain in 1925.

In cannot have been too harsh because many new countries were made, some given self-determination and others used as buffer states e.g. Poland and Czechoslovakia. Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia became independent states (acquired by Germany from Russia at Brest-Litovsk). Self-determination formally expresses a central claim of nationalism, namely the entitlement of each nation to its own nation state. And buffer states are a country lying between two rival or potentially hostile greater powers, which by its sheer existence is thought to prevent conflict.

Some countries which were taken from the defeated countries, were being mandated (getting prepared for independence)

Although Turkey was treated very harshly, they were given a second treaty which was the treaty of Lausanne where turkey gained quite a few of it areas back such as eastern Thrace and 2 Aegean islands.

All the countries defeated were given military reductions; this is not harsh as it is trying to prevent another war from beginning. If the countries have good military then they are able to begin a new war but the military should be limited to a certain amount which is enough to defend themselves in the case of invasion.

Manufacturing of weapons is prohibited.
Import and export of weapons is prohibited.
Manufacture or stockpiling of poison gas is prohibited.
Tanks are prohibited.
Submarines are prohibited.
Military aircraft are prohibited.
Artillery is prohibited.

From this the League of Nations was established, this was made to settle disputes peacefully and to end secret diplomacy but was forced to make many concessions to Britain and France. Instead in the end America made its own peace with Germany.

Germany had only accepted the settlement as it was a DIKTAT- a dictated piece and it was clear that they were losing the war. The treaty was a ‘take it or leave it’ thing and they were left with no choice. Rejecting the treaty meant the resumption of war

Among other things the allied forces or mainly the big three i.e. Britain, France and America over rewarded themselves, especially Britain and France. Other countries such Italy and Japan felt betrayed.

This was because Italy had thought they were going to receive more than they did. Also Japan was refused the racial equality act in the League of Nations by the Australian leader.

One thing which was unfair was that the defeated countries could not join even after they had been defeated and given reparations. This was unjust as some of the countries had to fight with Germany

Also Germany and Turkey in particular were treated unfairly.

Loss of all overseas colonies, Saar coal fields placed under French control for 15 years. Germany was demanded very high reparations which they could not pay. Many were tried as war criminals. Some could not be tried as they were hiding. They had large loss of land, and lost important industrial land e.g. Austria Germany should not have been given the war guilt clause as this is just going beyond extreme. This is putting all the blame on Germany when it was not just them involved. If there was to be a war guilt clause then all of the defeated countries should have signed as they were all involved.

The Paris peace settlement led to the German economy becoming so weak that only a small percentage of reparations were paid in money. However, even the payment of this small percentage of the original reparations (219 billion Gold Reich marks) still placed a significant burden on the German economy, accounting for as much as one third of post-treaty hyperinflation. The provisions forcing the uncompensated removal of resources and industrial equipment sowed further resentment.

Since neither rockets nor glider aircraft were mentioned in the Versailles treaty, Germany spent money on these technologies, including Wernher von Braun's rocket experiments, which in no doubt helped the development of the future space industry. Large glider aircraft designs led to the design of the large Me-321 during World War II which later was motorized and become the Me-323, the largest land-based plane at the time.

There was the Chanak crisis (1922) and early failures of the League of Nations such as preventing Mussolini from invading Corfu, and the French and Belgians from invading the Ruhr.

Most of the decisions made in Paris and various other events lead up the start of World War 2.

Many people believed that the war heralded the end of the world as they had known it, including the collapse of capitalism and imperialism. Communist and socialist movements around the world drew strength from this theory, enjoying a level of popularity they had never known before. These feelings were most pronounced in areas directly or particularly harshly affected by the war, such as central Europe, Russia and France.

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