Woodrow Wilson was the president of America. He put together 14 points that would make a fair and just peace. These 14 points, put simply, were:
- Open diplomacy
- Freedom of navigation
- Free trade
- Disarmament
- Self-determination (which we will talk more about later)
- Evacuation of all Russian territory
- Belgium must be evacuated and restored (from German occupation)
- Freeing of French territory (Alsace Lorraine)
- Readjustment of Italian borders
- Autonomous development for the people of Austria Hungary
- Independence for the Balkan states
- Securing of Turkish territory / sovereignty / the Dardanelles as a free passage.
- The establishment of an independent Poland
- The creation of the League of Nations.
1 – ALAN FARMER
He had hoped that these points would provide a basis for the fair peace he was looking for, but in the atmosphere of post-war Europe, it was clear that his voice would not be heard, and such idealistic ideas would not be welcomed.
However, when we read about what America wanted, we only ever hear about Wilson 14 points, not about what the public felt. The American public also lost loved ones to the war, and so they may have wanted revenge. Maybe Wilson’s downfall was not taking this into account, as then maybe his 14 points would have been more realistic, and taken more into use.
Georges Clemenceau, what can I say except revenge, revenge, revenge!
Clemenceau’s view point very much dominated the peace treaties, and he represented most of France when he said that Germany should be made to pay for the war, and dismantled so they would never pose as a threat to France again. France had a bad history with Germany, and so this led to Clemenceau needing to make sure that France’s borders with Germany would be safe. The main Objectives of France, apart from revenge, was the return of Alsace and Lorraine, which they had lost to Germany in 1871, and reparations to pay for the war fought on French soil.
Now that we know who the main people involved where, and what they wanted, we can look at the Treaty of Versailles.
This was a treaty to deal with 3 main issues: Territorial terms, Disarmament and Reparations and war guilt.
“Negotiations about Germany’s frontiers were highly contentious” 1
The French demanded that Germanys western frontier be fixed on the River Rhine. The area on the left bank would go to France. Lloyd George and Woodrow Wilson both objected to this, believing it would become a cause of German resentment.
The settlement of Germany’s eastern border was even more meticulous. The 14 points had promised to create an independent Poland which would have some access to the sea. However there was no clear cut division between areas of German and polish population.
The German port of Danzig was made a free city, and plebiscites were held ensuring that Germany retained some disputed areas.
In the south, an anchluss with Austria was forbidden. Germany also lost all her colonies. Wilson insisted that they were to be ruled as mandates. This means that the ruling powers had to bear in mind the wishes of the inhabitants, who should also be prepared for self rule.
Decisions over disarmament were a little easier, as all the rulers wanted the same in this area. Germany’s army was to be limited to 100,000 men. And they were to have no tank, aeroplanes, battleships or submarines, and most of its fleet was to be surrendered to the allies.
Reparation and war guilt caused many problems between the allies. The main difficulty was deciding how much Germany could and should pay, and how the money should be divided amongst the allies.
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Wilson wanted a reparations settlement based on how much Germany was actually able to pay. However, the French and British Public wanted huge sums of money that would pay for the cost of war, and cripple Germany for the years to come.
In the end it was decided that Germany should only pay what it could reasonably afford or it could affect trade. A reparations committee was set up to determine the amount. In 1921 it recommended the sum of £6,600 million.
Conclusion
As you could well imagine, Germany was not happy with this “peace settlement” and viewed it very much as a diktat (dictated peace).
An example of this could be when they scuttled their ships at Scapa Flow in June 1919 so they didn’t have to surrender them to the allies.
They were expecting a fair deal, after seeing Wilson’s 14 points, and were shocked when they seen what the treaty actually was. However, they had no choice but to sign the treaty and accept full guilt for the war.
The effects of this treaty on Germany was loss of many Germans who were now in Poland and Czechoslovakia, and in East Prussia which had been separated from Germany by Poland. Germany also fell heavily into depression which soon led to hyper-inflation, and the loss of many normal working class people’s life savings.
There are many criticisms of the peace settlement and of the reparations, and many of them are true.
To name but a few, Germany was not present, self-determination was not applied and the Italian frontiers were not fixed. The treaty was compiled in haste, and did not equally take into account all of the allies ideas. Another criticism could be that the USSR was not involved, which would have put more strength behind the settlements.
The treaty also created rivalries in the Balkans and disturbed the balance of power in Europe.
The main criticisms of the reparations were that Germany could not afford them, and they were not shared equally between the allies.
Overall, it seems that the treaty of Versailles was a very shabby affair indeed. Power was not split equally between the allies, leading to unfair rules being imposed on Germany, and no one took into account that this would, inevitably, lead to resentment in the German people. It could be said, that the allies actually caused the 2nd world war, by putting hatred into the hearts of the German people, who ere more than willing to listen when someone like Hitler came along and told them that Germany would be great again.