This was the most polemic and difficult clause that Germany had to accept. It seems weird that the “Big Three” would treat Germany this way after they too, had been in the war. Both sides did Fighting and killing but only the Germans were punished.
In my opinion, it is very hard to say if the Treaty was fair or not, because it all depends in which point of view you are looking at
In the point of view of the “Big Three”, the treaty was perfect. Every one of the three leaders got some of the things that they wanted, so they could all feel that they had achieved something. Clemenceau (France) got Reparations from Germany to pay for the cost of the damage caused during the war. Woodrow Wilson (USA) got his Fourteen Points accepted by the other countries and the League of Nations was set up. Lloyd George (England) wanted the German navy and colonies to be taken away so that England was not threatened in the future and to stop the French from taking the Rhineland. Their were also many other countries that also won something from the Treaty. Italy, Poland, Hungary are just some of them. In general, for these allies the Treaty, as mentioned above, was great.
In the point of view of the Germans, the Treaty was unfair and a load of big nonsense and there are many arguments to prove so, the problem was that Germany was so weak in all aspects, that they could not argue about it. Germany had two choices; they accept the Treaty or face the allies ounce again in battle. So eventually, they accepted it.
After assuming total responsibility of war, they had to sign another term that would make them pay for all the damages done through out the war, overall they had to pay $34 billion in reparations, this is a huge amount of money, very harsh and almost impossible for Germany to achieve considering their economic situation at the time, therefore Germans would pay as they would get. Other of the terms was to surrender from all the lands conquered during the war and surrender all German colonies as League of Nations mandates, this term was also very unfair to the German side, because apart form getting back their lands the allies had stolen land that belonged to Germany. For example, New Guinea in Africa was now controlled by France, this land was rich in coal and this way the allies prevented the Germans from another of their sources to pay the debts. It was also part of one of the terms to reduce drastically the German army limiting it to 100,000 men and 6 battleships; this completely weakened Germany and made them more vulnerable than ever with no military force to be able to start another war. Some German citizens were forced to go and live into colonies in Poland where they spoke a foreign language and had a totally different culture, they had no choice so this fact contributed even more for the hatred and revoltment that they were feeling for the allies and later lead to a World War 2. For the Germans all the terms were very unfair, and they believed that the allies only did this treaty to humiliate and weaken their nation; this thought brought serious consequences in the following years.
The Ruhr was Germany’s largest and most important industrial region which is located in western Germany. In 1923 France and Belgium military forces ran into Ruhr to make the Germans pay for War reparations which they weren’t being able to keep up with, but because the Ruhr wasn’t producing as much as it normally does the German economy was getting poorer each time. Germans rejected the French refusing to work to pay the debts. With the Ruhr working at a low rate Germany had no other great economical source in which to rely on. This situation was called the hyperinflation as a consequence of the Ruhr’s weakness. The French had now taken over the Ruhr as a measure of ensuring that they had something that the Germans had to pay back.
When Gustav Stressman got to power on the Weimar Government the government the economical situation improved significantly he was able to resume the payments and relief the Ruhr from the French police, this was called the period of recovery. Even with all the improvements that they had accomplished the Weimar Republic was never able to be very powerful in terms of Germany as a whole, there was still a lot of violence between the population and parties like the Nazis and the communists were rapidly growing up into powerful political forces.
The years passed by and the Allies weren’t so demanding with the treaty terms as they were before, this gave more time for the Germans to grow economically and politically as a country again, and a new party was appearing with a very convincing leader with great solutions for the country called Adolf Hitler. This man believed that the Treaty of Versailles had completely defeated Germany as a country and that something had to be done. By 1930’s Hitler’s rise was already quite noticeable with the Nazi party being the second most voted one. In 1934 when the president Von Hindenburg died, Hitler seized a great opportunity to get into power and achieve what he always wanted, to take control of Germany and now there was nothing that could stop him.
The Germans now controlled by Hitler have had time to rebuild themselves completely into a strong and powerful nation which is prepared to get the revenge and release all the anger that was created by the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles. A Second World War was about to start.
In my opinion the treaty was harsh in the way that the Allies managed to keep the Germans under control for some years. However being as harsh as it is, it is curious that the Germans were still able to come back and start another war. I feel that the treaty was perfectly fair, infact I think that the terms should have been even harsher in order to make the Germans pay for what they have done, and learn the lesson instead of stepping back and coming out one decade later stronger than ever and ready to start a new war.
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Hussein Sacoor Ali 11DG -