Was the Treaty of Versailles Fair In Its Treatment of Germany?

Great Britain agreed with the idea of a fair treaty, but also needed to impose certain terms on Germany in order to rebuild after the war. Lloyd-George demanded the whole cost of the war in reparations. He didn't see this as selfish because he felt that Germany had started the war, therefore they should pay the price of defeat. At the same time, there was no wish to destroy Germany, she was an important trading partner and a shattered German economy would have implications on Great Britain as well. No personal gain was wanted which put Great Britain in the position in which she could change the tide of the Treaty. Lloyd-George's decision could change whether the treaty was lenient, following the USA, or extremely harsh as called for by the French.

France wanted full on revenge from Germany. An ideal outcome as seen by Clemenceau would be Germany crippled by the Treaty. The French felt unsafe being so close to the Germans. They had absolutely no barrier from the full force of Germany, unlike Great Britain who had the sea and USA who had huge distance. A crippled Germany would be no threat to France in the future. Perhaps another reason for the French wish for revenge was memories of the Franco-Prussian war of 1871.

The first point in the Treaty that the Germans felt angry with was the forced signing of the War Guilt Clause. This took all blame for the war and placed it on the Germans. They saw it as not their fault. A crisis in the Balkans had led to the strong links between Austria-Hungary and Germans called upon and Germany brought in to the picture. This point wasn't fair to the Germans. The clause actually blamed Germany and her allies but it was still Germany who took most of the blame.

The treaty aimed to take away power from the Germans. This happened in many ways, but the most obvious way to remove power was to cut the size of the country down. The amount of land taken away from Germany seriously damaged her economy. The Saar coal field was one of Germany's main industrial areas. The handing of this to France for a fixed period meant that Germany couldn't use it to generate revenue to pay the rest of the reparations. Many Germans ended up living in other countries, which was bound to cause trouble. All land that was removed from German control was done for a reason. This made the point fairer on the Germans. Clemenceau had put forward an idea to completely split Germany into 2 countries but it was rejected by other countries. It could have been a lot worse for Germany at this time. This was a fair price for Germany to pay.

The reparations called for by Great Britain and France weren't fair on Germany. There was no way that Germany could have afforded to pay all of the reparations demanded. Especially with the loss of the Saar coal field. Although the German economy was still reasonably strong, there was no chance of it recovering from the war whilst it was under pressure to pay the huge sum that that was asked for. Although France had spent vast amounts of money on the war, Germany had spent a great deal more although none of the fighting had been on German soil so they weren't faced with huge land problems. Britain had primarily demanded the whole cost of the war from Germany, Lloyd George reconsidered, however, when he realised that it wasn't possible for Germany to pay. The original amount of 6,600 million dollars was almost half paid off by 1921 and if left, could have been settled in another 2-3 years. It was then, however, that the reparations committee met once again and decided that another 25 billion dollars should be added to the total sum of reparations. This was ridiculous and extremely unrealistic although this amount was later changed to a much smaller sum which was fairer.

The Germans were angry that the peace treaty didn't directly follow Woodow Wilson's 14 points, as had been offered earlier. The allies saw it that the Germans hadn't accepted the points when they had originally been offered and so they should pay the price with a heavier settlement, Also, the Germans weren't invited to join the much talked about "League of Nations". The newly set up league didn't feel that Germany deserved to be a part because of the fact that they had been the main aggressor in the war. The Germans strongly resented this as they had no say in international affairs. This wasn't fair on Germany, and many historians speculate that if Germany had been allowed to join, World War 2 may never have happened.

The treaty of Versailles was fair on Germany to an extent but there were parts that weren't. The treaty wasn't harsh enough to cripple Germany but was too harsh for them to accept the terms. Many factors of the treaty were resented by the Germans. The still reasonably strong economy coupled with the peoples resent anddesire for revenge on the Western Allies were major contributing parts for World War 2.