On the other hand Georges held an opposing opinion. He was nicknamed “The Tiger” because of the huge demands he made. He wanted to strip Germany of all its wealth to pay for the damage France had suffered during the four years of conflict. France had undoubtedly suffered the most since most of Northern France had been a battlefield. Germany had invaded her for the second time since 1870 when Alsace-Lorraine had been taken over by Germany. Georges thought that by stripping Germany of everything he would make sure that there was not another war again. He had three main demands: Germany must return Alsace-Lorraine to France, pay reparations to France to cover the cost of rebuilding the parts of France that had been damaged and to take possession of Rhineland to stop Germany attacking France in the future.
Woodrow Wilson had bought over the “Fourteen Points” which was a list of things to happen in Europe, which he hoped, would prevent a future war. Two of these include parts of countries to be made into new countries and for a League of Nations to be set up.
Orlando was not happy about the way he was treated at Versailles. After the Secret Treaty of London, Italy had been promised the Adriatic Coast. He expected France and Britain to keep their promise when he arrived at Versailles and wanted his fair share of the spoils of war after changing sides in 1915.
Many people expressed their beliefs through cartoons to change other’s opinions. Most of them were against the treaty but some were for it such as the poster launched by the B.E.U. Not many paid attention to this as cartoons were not taken seriously enough. Also with so many being published it confused the peoples views.
Germany’s view was mainly that if they went along with the treaty they would end up starving and all die, so many protests were set up. They saw the treaty as a disgraceful thing such as the article published in a German newspaper, which was, titled “Vengeance! German Nation”. Some thought it might not be so bad because of Woodrow’s fourteen points. When it was signed many thought they “had been stabbed in the back” by the “November Criminals”. It caused a lot of unsettlement in Germany. Large groups were formed and many were killed, including two Government Ministers, one of which had signed the treaty. This was a sure cause for a future war. The resentment caused was a fertile ground for developing a cause to unite the German people. Adolf Hitler, a corporal from the German Army rose to power through successfully using this.
Most Italians believed that Italy had been treated very badly at Versailles. Orlando had practically been ignored there and Italy was not given the land it was promised in 1915. Italy was heavily in debt, mainly to the USA. This led to unemployment and unrest in many parts of Italy from 1919. This led to rising support for Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Fascist Party. He promised to rebuild Italy and recreate the Roman Empire once again.
In the end, sadly, the countries present at Versailles decided to take all the money they needed to replace the loss of the war from Germany even though the economists had predicted that this would not be practical. Germany was told to sign the piece terms or else. I feel it was impossible for the Treaty of Versailles to make everyone happy at the Peace Conference because people at the time had such different ideas because all the ideas were so varied from each other there was nothing that they could all settle on that would be the same as their original thoughts in the first place.
Thankfully though at the end of the Second World War the treaty that was signed then let Germany recover and make itself into the strong industrial country it is today.
