On the balance, the Treaty of Versailles was unfair and Germany didn't deserve to be treated so harshly. And as Germany was outraged with this treaty, it had let to the Second World

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The treaty of Versailles was signed in June 1919 between the “Big Three”- Georges Clemenceau the Prime Minister of France, David Lloyd George the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Woodrow Wilson the president of America. Whether it was a fair treaty depends on many terms.

Clemenceau’s aim was to use this treaty as an opportunity to cripple Germany and take revenge. France had suffered tremendously as most of the war was taken there. Clemenceau had seen his country being invaded by Germany twice, in the Franco-Prussian war and the First World War. As frightened of Germany as any French were, Clemenceau wanted to weaken Germany as harshly as possible so that the Germans could not start another war. Wilson on the other hand was an idealist, and he felt that the aim of the conference should be to establish peace. He thought by punishing Germany would only make them seek revenge. Wilson drew up Fourteen Point to avoid future wars but some of them were impractical. Lloyd George was in the middle. He could see that punishing Germany harshly was not a wise thing to do, and besides, he still wanted to trade with Germany. But the British people were very angry as a great number of men had died; Lloyd George had to make Germany pay a considerable amount to stay in power.

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As all the Big Three’s aims and motives were completely different, they disagreed on many aspects, but in the end had to draw up the treaty. Germany had to accept all blames for starting the war which was very unfair. The war broke out almost like an accident. The tension in Europe at that time was strong and the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand sparked off the war. Germany also had lost all its colonies and a number of territories. One of Wilson’s 14 points was self-determination for all countries, and it is unfair that many Germans were forced to ...

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