To what extent was the Treaty of Versailles a sensible treaty in the circumstances of the time?
Uploaded by Mumei on Feb 05, 2006
To what extent was the Treaty of Versailles a sensible treaty in the circumstances of the time?
Some people think that the Treaty of Versailles was a sensible treaty and others think it wasn’t. In this essay I’m going to write about until what extent was the Treaty of Versailles a sensible treaty in the circumstances of the time.
Some Germans said it was a harsh treaty, but others said that if they would have won, their punishment would be a lot more harsher, the Kaiser’s government even planned to pay war debts getting money from the defeated countries. Also, when Germans made Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, it was very harsh too because it took a huge area of land, so Germans didn’t have the right to say the Treaty of Versailles was unfair because their Treaty of Brest-Litovsk wasn’t fair neither. It was sensible to make them pay what they made Russians pay.
The Treaty of Versailles set up countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia to keep an eye on Germany and it also converted the Rhineland into a demilitarised zone. These were sensible things to do to avoid another war, which was the main aim of The Treaty of Versailles.
Before the terms of the Treaty of Versailles being introduced, Germany was already devastated and when the reparation debt was introduced they couldn’t believe it. Their reparation debt was worth £6600 million, this amount was too much for them, and they wouldn’t finish paying it until 1984. Their army was made much smaller, no more than 100000 men, and lots of industrial land was taken from them. These weren’t very sensible decisions because Germany could want revenge in the future and bring up another war, which was what the Treaty of Versailles was avoiding.
Some terms of the Treaty of Versailles, didn’t agree with Wilson’s 14 Points, for example Britain took control over German colonies and this didn’t agreed with self-determination. The fact that countries such as France and Britain broke terms that they had agreed with and signed before, wasn’t a very sensible thing to do, because this could encourage other countries to do the same thing.
It wasn’t sensible neither blaming Germany for starting the war when the blame should be shared. The Germans were made to sign the League of Nations, set up by the Treaty of Versailles, when then they weren’t allowed to join, once more the term...