With such high reparations to be paid and deadlines looming, the Germans could only afford to pay the interest on what needed to be paid and to add insult to injury the treaty took away most of their means of getting that money, such as resources like iron and coal. The French PM Clemenceau was paranoid that Germany would build up its armed forces and mount another assault on the French-German border. To keep him at ease the treaty demanded that an area known as the Rhineland be demilitarized – this however was where the German government mined most of its trade worthy resources. With the Germans not having the means to pay back the excessive amount of money they owed, the allies had given them no real chance of making up for their war crimes. This dampened the German people’s spirit as there didn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel, and this indirectly led Adolf Hitler to rise to power. Hitler used the German people’s desperation and need for a way out to sweet talk his way into a position of power and gain their affections and trust.
Also, the banning of relations between Germany and Austria affected the German people’s morale as many of them were related and this stopped them seeing their family. I feel that this was a harsh and maybe unnecessary condition of the treaty, and one which contributed greatly to the later events in Europe and Germany.
However not all of the conditions of the Treaty were bad. It is arguable that the Treaty of Versailles was just what was required to keep the Germans in check. We shouldn’t forget that the Allies had just walked out of a long 4 year war with the Germans, in which the Germans cost the allies a lot of money, a lot of casualties and a lot of damage for just defending themselves against the Germans.
Germany needed to be punished and also the world needed to see that if a country was to start a war in the same manner as world war one, they would not get away with it lightly. If the allies had just let Germany get away with starting the war, then fascist dictators across the world would think that they could do what they liked without the fear of punishment.
Clemenceau wanted harsher punishments for Germany, so in hindsight the treaty could have had far worse effects on a country that was solely responsible for the starting of world war one. Also, Germany needed to be impaired whilst the allies built up their own armed forces in preparation. After all, Germany may well have only signed the treaty in order to gain time to build up their armed forces and resume the war.
In conclusion, I believe that whilst there are two sides to the story, the Treaty of Versailles did do more harm than good. It was the main factor as to why Adolf Hitler rose to power, and as we now know, Hitler did cause a lot of problems, namely the second world war.
The main factor in my opinion was the overly harsh reparation payments Germany were forced to pay. The allies knew Germany could never afford to pay these and in doing so Germany would fall into a depression. In my opinion this condition was more about revenge than anything else, and it contributed greatly to the depression the German people endured that allowed Hitler to gain their control.
This caused greater problems than a less harsh Treaty ever could have. Germany needed to be punished, but not to the extent where it would lead to even greater atrocities than those witnessed in the first world war.
