Much of the war had taken place in France and the damage was immense. Over 800,000 homes were demolished and 28,000 factories destroyed. One and a half million French men had died. Clemenceau wanted to punish Germany for this and he wanted compensation as well. He also wanted to make sure France was safe from another attack by weakening Germany.
Lloyd George had two views on how Germany should be treated. The British public were demanding that Germany be harshly punished and to keep the support of the public he had to agree. However, in private George was very concerned and he wanted to make a fair settlement. He agreed with many of Wilson’s fourteen points.
The historians’ views varied over time. At first the historians reactions to the treaty was very positive as they had experienced the war however as time went on, during the 1930’s-40’s the response was more negative as he treaty was seen as a cause of world war two. Also, these people would be the ones that would experience world war two and realised that they had provoked the Germans too much. Historians today think that the treaty was quite harsh towards the Germans.
The justness of the treaty was hotly disputed. The Germans thought the treaty was unjust. They thought that all the terms of the treaty were designed to weaken and humiliate them. They were mostly annoyed with the war guilt clause (clause 231) that forced Germany to admit to sole blame. The Germans argued that they had not started the war but had fought a defensive war against Russia and France. To an extent this was true as although they had caused a lot of damage, the war had started due to the Serbs and Austrians. While the archduke of Austria was driving along the riverside, a Serbian in the crowd shot him dead along with his wife. The Austrians wanted war with Serbia so the Russians threatened them to not attack. The Germans said they would attack Russia if Russia attacked Austria and in this way the war started.
They also thought the reparations clause was not fair at all. The allies decided that Germany should pay £6600 million reparations in gold and goods. Germany found it impossible to pay for this and had to borrow huge amounts of money from the USA putting it even more in debt. The Germans thought the French and British were trying to starve their children to death. Many innocent people were affected by this term.
The German army was limited to 100,000 men; they had to destroy all but six of their battleships and all their submarines. All their aircraft were dismantled and conscription was forbidden. This destruction of Germany’s military left them feeling weak and vulnerable. This was another of the acts of deliberate humiliation which made the treaty of Versailles unfair towards the Germans.
On the other hand, the Germans deserved all they got for their conduct of war, if not for starting the war they were certainly responsible for the damage they caused. The Germans formed the schlieffen plan and invaded a neutral country (Belgium) to get to France. They fought for four years and many people died trying to get rid of them. The French suffered the most losses- 800,000 homes destroyed, 28,000 factories demolished, 10 counties ruined and all the farmland polluted. All the damage totalled up to 36 million francs. In 1914 the French governor promised the public that “they will pay” so all who suffered from the war claimed more than necessary as they knew the French would support them. The French thought the treaty was much too lenient towards the Germans
It was not that the treaty was either just or unjust but rather it was not effective in keeping peace. The allies did not effectively enforce it. When Hitler announced that Germany would not pay in 1933, the allies did nothing. It was the total failure of the three powers to work closely together after 1919 that was one of the contributing factors to the outbreak of the Second World War 20 years later.
