The Treaty of Versailles. How was Germany treated?

The Treaty of Versailles

The allied leaders disagreed about how Germany should be treated because they all wanted different outcomes from the meetings. Georges Clemenceau wanted Germany to be weak, because France shared a long land border with Germany. France was wary of further attacks. Clemenceau also wanted two provinces called Alsace and Lorraine back. These were originally owned by France but lost in previous wars with Germany. Woodrow Wilson wanted to make Europe a more peaceful place, so that America would not have to intervene again. Hence he did not want Germany to be treated as harshly as Clemenceau wanted. David Lloyd-George wanted Germany to be punished but was wary that if Germany was treated too harshly then they may be inclined to rebel.
a) I think the reparations clause was inserted into the treaty because Belgium and France share long land borders with Germany, and many towns, villages, buildings etc. Were destroyed during the war.

b) The war guilt clause was made to justify the other terms of the treaty and to make Germany accept this as the reason for the treaty.

c) The loss of territory clause was made because Alsace and Lorraine were originally part of France but was lost to Germany in wars before World War One.

d) The clause that made Germany lose her overseas colonies appears to be driven by the fact that the allies did not want Germany to have overseas support.

e) Union with Austria was banned so that the two nations could not team up again and ...

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b) The war guilt clause was made to justify the other terms of the treaty and to make Germany accept this as the reason for the treaty.

c) The loss of territory clause was made because Alsace and Lorraine were originally part of France but was lost to Germany in wars before World War One.

d) The clause that made Germany lose her overseas colonies appears to be driven by the fact that the allies did not want Germany to have overseas support.

e) Union with Austria was banned so that the two nations could not team up again and repeat their actions during World War 1.

f) The clause that meant the German army was limited to 100,000 men was put in so that they did not have enough manpower to invade neighbouring countries, but they still had enough men to keep internal peace.

g) They were not permitted to have an air force so that they could no longer bomb Britain or any other country by air.

h) The German navy was permitted only 6 battleships so that no countries were threatened by Germany’s navy again. No U-boats were permitted because U-boats were particularly dangerous, and could pass undetected through most radar.

i) The Rhineland was de-militarised because Rhineland is directly on the border with France so, by preventing troops entering the Rhineland, it would stop troops going anywhere near France or Belgium.

Germany would object most to the war guilt clause because it meant that Germany had to take full responsibility for the war even though they were not entirely responsible for the same and other nations were to blame as well.
I think the treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany because some of the clauses especially the war guilt clause and the reparations clause went overboard. The 6600 million pounds would have taken them over 60 years to repay.
I think that Georges Clemenceau would have been happiest with the treaty of Versailles because France regained 2 of the provinces it had lost previously and Germany was left too weak to invade again: both of which are what he wanted.
The Germans accepted the treaty because if they hadn’t, the allies may have invaded and captured Germany.
If the allies had imposed a too harsh treaty on Germany, the Germans would have rebelled and possibly have started another war immediately.

Rishi Sankar Lee 10