Was the Treaty of Versailles unfair to Germany?

Natalie Barnicott 10 A

I personal think that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair to Germany in a variety of different ranges these include, the War Guilt Clause, Reparations, Disarmament, Territory losses and the fact that they had no say in the peace settlement.

Germany were treated like children in the Treaty of Versailles they had no say to what the settlement was, they were just told to sign it (this was known as the dictated peace or in German Diktat). The Germans were not given the chance to decide their own future. This was against Woodrow Wilson idea that every country should have the right of Self Determination. The Germans were very upset about this because it was only the Winning sides that had the right of Self Determination. If the Germans had more rights and could put ideas forward then, then maybe there would not have been as many problems later. I think this is very unfair to Germany because the winning sides were making Self Determination a big thing for the other winning sides but when it came to the losing sides this was not applied Germany should have been allowed the same rights as the winning sides but there choices should have just been monitored by the winning sides.

One of the main things that Germany was angry about in the peace settlement was the fact that they had to sign the War Guilt Clause saying that they agreed that they were totally to blame for the start of the war, which justified the losing countries putting great amounts of reparations on Germany and it's allies. The Germans totally disagreed with this Clause because they said that they were not the only country to blame, many other countries also helped in the start of the war and they should also take some of the blame, but what angered the Germans most was the fact that the War Guilt Clause justified the Germans have ridiculous amounts of reparations that would cripple the German empire and the country.

These reparations finally amounted to a grand total of £6.6 Billion. This was an amount that would flatten the German economy and the chances are it would never be pay out in full and if it was then it would take approximately 70 years so it would not just be the people who were involved in the war but their children and their children's children. People believed that the Germans should have to pay reparations but the amount that was asked of them was just ridiculous. The German people were strongly against these reparations not just because of the extreme price but because it was based on the War Guilt Clause which Germany was strongly against because of their belief that they were not the only guilty party. I think that the War Guilt Clause and Reparations were totally unfair to Germany. I believe that they should have had to pay some reparations but the amount that they were expected to pay was a ridiculous amount. It would cripple their economy and it would be generations after the war that would end up paying it which could end up causing big quarrels between Germany and other European countries and could lead to another war. The Germans should not have been made to sign the War Guilt Clause because they were not the only country that was to blame many other countries were also to blame, this also could lead to problems in the future.

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In the Treaty of Versailles the Germans were only given 6 battleships and a 100,000men for their army, they were not allowed any navy or airforce. The amount that they were allocated for their army was barely enough to defend their country inside against revolutions let alone if another country decided to attack them. This allocation made the Germans very angry because they were very proud of their army and it meant a lot to them, there was a lot of arguments within Germany as to whether they should agree to it but the Germans had their arms twisted and ...

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Germany got the impression from Woodrow Wilson that there would be a universal disarmament but Germany was the country singled out. When the Germans found out that there would not be they were infuriated and could not believe that they would be the only country to lose their weapons. This did not bother the French or the British because they were both very proud of their Navy and Army especially Britain who were very proud of their Navy, which before the war Germany was starting to challenge. With Germany's Navy reduced to 6 battleships Britain would once again be Queen of the sea. With this small amount of navy the Germans would also not be able to defend themselves against a blockage.

I think that this settlement would be a lot fairer if the German services had of been allowed a few more ships and some more men in their army and it was an universal disarmament, but if you think of it in the Russian point of view it would be fair because the Germans made the Russians lose some of their army when they made an agreement with them.

The Germans also lost great amounts of land in the settlement in both the east and the west the one that angered them the most was in the east, it was here were they lost land to Poland, the League of Nations, Denmark and a few more. The majority of the land was given to the new country Poland. The land given was the land that was in between Germany and East Prussia this meant that Germany was split into two, this made communication between these two virtually impossible. Poland was also given West Prussia and Posen which would form the Polish Corridor, this would mean that Poland would not be land locked and it would have access to the sea. But Poland still would not have a port to trade form, there was and easy solution to this give Poland the Port of Danzig, but the problem with this is that this port is totally German which would mean if it was given to Poland it would be totally against Self Determination so they decided to put it under the League of Nations. The Germans totally resented the idea of losing Danzig, it was a major port and they wanted it for themselves. I think that it was fair that the Germans did lose land because it is all part of the settlement but I think that it is unfair that the country Germany had controlled got Self Determination, but in West Prussia and Posen which was turned into the Polish corridor was given to Poland even the majority of people that lived there were German. This went against their idea of Self Determination.

Apart from this I think all the decisions made to do with land were justified and I think they were done fairly. Even in the parts where they were not sure what to do they did not just give it to the nearest country they let the people who lived there decide by having a plebiscite, I think this was a good decision. The only problem with taking all the land away was that the Germans became very annoyed about this and it could aggregate them in the future. In the process of land being taken away they lost a lot of their industry areas these included Upper Silesia to Poland and the Saar to France. This outraged the Germans because without their industrial areas how on earth where they going to manage paying the reparations. I think this was a poor decision because the Germans were going to struggle paying the reparations of and without their industries there was no way they could have paid it of.

The only other area in which they lost land was in the west where they lost land to the League of Nations. The Germans also had the Rhineland demilitarised. The Saar which was known for its good industrial areas(mainly the coal mines) got put under the League of Nations for 15 years and then it would have a plebiscite and the people would decide who would run them, its coal mines however were put under French control for 5 years. This also meant that the money from this area would not go to help pay of the huge reparations. The main thing that angered Germany about what happened to this area was that it was a German speaking area put under French and League of Nations control which totally went against the idea of Self Determination.

Germany also was not allowed to take over previous Austrian Sudetenland, this area went under Czech rule this meant that German people were being ruled by people that they did not want as their rulers this went against everything that Wilson said about Self Determination. In the Treaty the Germans were also not allowed to join with Austria to make one German speaking control this also went against all ideas about Self Determination. The Germans hated this because everybody else was allowed Self Determination except for them, this also meant that they could not choose their own government.

I even think that the way the League of Nations was set up was unfair to Germany because it was meant to be for all countries so arguments could be stopped but the Germans were not even allowed to enter. I think this was totally unfair on Germany, perhaps if they had of been allowed to join from the beginning there would not have been such problem s between the countries later on because they would have had communication between them.

I think that the Treaty of Versailles in many ways was very unfair to Germany, all the money they were expected to pay which would eventually cripple the country. To make it even harder to pay they had their main source of money their industries taken away from them. I also think that it was unfair on Germany that they had to lose all their arms yet the rest of the world was allowed to have and strengthen their weapons. I think that this was unfair on Germany because it would have made more sense in the long run that everyone gave in their weapons then there would be no way that there could be a war again, whereas if it is just Germany that are given in Weapons then other countries can gang up on Germany and it has nothing to defend it's self with.

I also believe that it is unfair that Germany had to sign the War Guilt Clause because they were not the only country that were to blame for the war beginning so they should not have to take all the blame for it at the end. Perhaps if the Germans did not get the blame for it then, then it might have stopped trouble in the future.

There some parts in the Treaty that were fair like how some of the land was given away. Generally though I believe that the Treaty of Versailles was totally unfair on Germany and I think that perhaps if they had of come up with a more fairer Treaty then the problems that arose in the future due to this Treaty would have been prevented.

Natalie Barnicott 10 A