To What Extent Do You Think That The Treaty Of Versailles Was Unfair On Germany?

Lewis Wood

The Paris Peace Conference opened on 12th January 1919, meetings were held at various locations in and around Paris until 20th January 1920. Leaders of 32 states representing about 75% of the world's population, attended. However, negotiations were dominated by the five major powers responsible for defeating the Central Powers: the United States, Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Important figures in these negotiations included Georges Clemenceau (France) David Lloyd George (Britain), Vittorio Orlando (Italy), and Woodrow Wilson (United States).
Eventually five treaties emerged from the Conference that dealt with the defeated powers. The five treaties were named after the Paris suburbs of Versailles (Germany), St Germain (Austria), Trianon (Hungary), Neuilly (Bulgaria) and Serves (Turkey).

The Treaty Of Versailles is often seen as the key treaty from the Paris Peace Conference, it contained many rules and regulations to be set upon Germany due to the First World War. To these rules and regulations there is speculation over the fairness of the Treaty and have it’s aims. The main terms of the Versailles Treaty were: the surrender of all German colonies as League of Nations mandates; the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France; cession of Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium, Memel to Lithuania, the Hultschin district to Czechoslovakia, Poznania, parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia to Poland; Danzig to become a free city; plebiscites to be held in northern Schleswig to settle the Danish-German frontier;
occupation and special status for the Saar under French control; demilitarisation and a fifteen-year occupation of the Rhineland; German reparations; a ban on the union of Germany and Austria;
an acceptance of Germany's guilt in causing the war; provision for the trial of the former Kaiser and other war leaders; limitation of Germany's army to 100,000 men with no conscription, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no poison-gas supplies, no aircraft and no airships; the limitation of the German Navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with no submarines.

It is clear that the Treaty Of Versailles was harsh and from a German point of view nearly all if not all the terms of the Treaty would seem unfair, no country likes to loss prestige, land and power. Some Germans would say that the Treaty had crippled them. There are many reasons why they have the right to argue that the Treaty was unfair.

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Military and Naval terms saw Germany having their armed forces strictly limited and affected. The German Navy were forced to hand over many submarines and ships, the entire Germany sea force was completely cut down to no more than 1500 officers and warrant officers. The future German army was limited and prohibited to use tanks, military aircraft or heavy artillery. Much debate occurred from the main powers of the world over the actually size and terms of the German army. The French wanted Germany to have an army the size of 200,000 men based on annual conscription, however Lloyd George wanted to see a volunteer army serving 12-year contracts. The end agreement was Germany to have an army of 100,000 men and on annual conscription. The reduction of the armed forces could be seen as a downfall for Germany if there was to be a future war or invasion, they would simply not be able to defend themselves. But the idea of the limited army would be to stop Germany from invading others. Despite the terms stating for Germany not to rearm and to have a limited army it fell of deaf-ears when they later on rearmed, so much so to invade Poland.

With War there is destruction and loss, for this loss Germany were made to pay reparations for the damage caused which was seen to be their fault. No less of £30,000 million was argued to a fair price for them to pay. France was a country, which saw high reparations to be fair, and just, they believed that the heavy damage they suffered was the result of Germany. The French people were in favour of high reparation costs to cover the losses of the country and it can often be seen as the French government acting on the people of France’s wishes. The over all price of reparations took its toll on Germany and it’s people. The country barely had much stability it’s self after the war and was expected to pay reparations. The reparations all added to the downfall of the German economy and once again the terms of the Treaty Of Versailles could not be followed. This time because Germany couldn’t afford to pay the costs regardless of if they chose to or not. The reparations Germany had to pay can be seen as highly unfair and often ridiculous, a more reasonable price was later set to £6,600,000,000 but still proved too much. Maybe if from the offset there was a lower cost maybe Germany would have had more chance of paying the money and maybe not of fallen into economic depression

A lot of the German Western front was forced to be handed over. The Saar coal fields (seen as a wealthy source of economic land for Germany) were handed over to France. France also argued that the Rhineland should belong to them also, but Lloyd George appreciated the fact that it may lead to future dispute over Germany and France; instead it was to be demilitarised in the hope to minimize any conflict. In the east the problem wasn’t re-establishing the German frontiers but establishing of the new state issues: Many states were demanding freedom from the Old Russian Empires. Poland was given some of the land in order to have a corridor to the Ocean. In Upper Silesia they held a plebiscite but the vote was split up so the disputed regimes where broken up with the majority going to Germany.

To get an overview of the overall fairness of the Treaty Of Versailles it can be compared to the various other Treaties set at the time. The Treaty of Trianon involved Hungary losing 66% of its territory, which included industrial land, which resulted in loss of economy. The army was limited which made them vulnerable, they were not allowed in the League of Nations and they lost their borders to Czechoslovakia.

The Treaty of Neuilly meant Bulgaria had to pay reparations, had a limited army. Lost Macedonia to Greece and they lost land and their coastline, which was the entrance into the Mediterranean.

The St.Germain Treaty meant Austria lost land to Poland, where not allowed in World politics, loss of industrial land to Czechoslovakia and reparations which later led to bankruptcy.

The Treaty Of Serves meant Turkey lost Arabia (as it became independent), had there army restricted and saw them lose a lot of there Eastern empire.

Wilson's views were radically different from Britain and France; Wilson believed USA would take charge of creating a new order of world peace. His main points were outlined in the famous 14 points. Wilson wanted are more fairer Treaty in order to gain peace Britain and France were not happy but were forced to agree because Wilson threatened to make a separate peace with Germany believed if you remove the selfish nature of European diplomacy, denial of ethnic minorities, self-determination and ignorance of the people's wishes would lead to peace New borders were made for Germany but Germany had to draw back troops.

France on the other hand wanted severe restrictions on German military power. They wanted the demilitarisation of the Rhineland Wanted nothing less than punitive peace. Overall, 3 wanted political order to European politics and to prevent another such disaster Clemenceau- harsh settlement for German because of 3 main factors: -The long French frontier with Germany, The loss of Russia as a balance to German power in Eastern Europe, The alarming differences in population and industrial potential between France and Germany. The French were prepared to allow an army based on annual conscription of 200,000 men.

Britain wanted a different solution they wanted a more fairer Treaty, they recognized that Germany should be punished for the war but in a way, which was fair and justified. The British aims were; German colonies were not to be given back to Germany - most German Colonies had been taken by South Africa, New Zealand and Australia; these were all part of the British empire at the time. The Rhineland was to be kept German but occupied by Allied troops, and to become a DMZ for German Troops. Lloyd George did see the reason why France wanted a separation between its borders and the German borders, however Lloyd George did also see that by giving this land to the French it could start future conflict). Reductions in German navy size and army were also wanted. Britain also thought that Reparations should be paid but there should be a balance over what Germany owes and what they can afford.

It can be argued that the Treaty of Versailles was to blame for the weak state of Europe. But Derek Aldcroft argues that it was the fault of the statesmen of 1919 failed to act in the interests of Europe as a whole. Derek states that the way Allied powers acted or failed to act was the result of the Europe going downhill, he suggests that if the Allied powers were not so quick to jump in and dividing up the land and be more direct in what they wanted to do, but by using different methods, Europe may have not have gone down a downward spiral. He suggests, “if allied powers made a more concentrated effort to provide for the reconstruction and stability of Europe, things might have turned out differently.”

It can be seen as a mixture of many things which eventually led to the Second World War, the Treaty Of Versailles a main cause for Germany wanting revenge and starting war but if The League Of Nations acted to stop Germany from trying to dominate Europe the war may have been avoided. It can be seen that self determination had a key part to play in the lack of action with the League wanting Germany to find it’s feet again but were not willing to limit how far it went to finding it’s feet. Also the lack of the U.S.A meant lack of military muscle and financial backing. Another thing is the lack of an army – no country were willing to put out an army to stop any of the events, economic state was low and no country wanted to be involved in another war.

Despite the other main countries having similar harshness in there Treaties compared to The Treaty Of Versailles, it’s clear that it was Germany who had it the hardest when it came to regulations and punishments. Germany had to pay huge reparations, more than any other country, which was a factor in Germany going into economic depression so to be the loss of the Rhineland. Indeed other Treaties affected various other countries they were placed upon but The Versailles treaty was the main one, which forced punishment (mostly from France’s influence.) Maybe if the Treaty hadn’t of been so harsh another war could have been avoided or at least events which occurred such as European depression could have been avoided.