The Treaty Of Versaille Essays - FranceGermany Relations

The Treaty of Versaille The Treaty of Versaille "It was neither a vindictive, harsh peace nor a lenient one, desdigned to reconcile." How far does this description of the Treaty of Versailles explain why it contained the seeds of the Second World War? In 1919, the major world powers met at the Paris peace conference to determine the fate of Europe at the end of World War 1. Europe was in turmoil. Five empires had disappeared, millions of people were dead, both military and civilians, and revolution fuelled by the forces of nationalism and socialism seemed ready to destroy the hopes of a future and lasting peace. The major world leaders were hoping to accomplish a miracle at Versailles, peace. Nevertheless, the conditions that they were faced with made that hope only more difficult not only in the writing of the treaty but also in reaching its objectives. The dream of a Settlement to satisfy both winners and losers was both impossible and contradictory. For Germany the outcome in years to come was the exact objective that the Treaty had tried all along to impede - domination of Europe. What went wrong? Why? These questions have plagued historians for years. If only the players had acted in a different fashion would the future outcomes have been different. Or was the situation of Europe such at the time that the future was fated no matter what. What did the leaders want to do? The Council of Five (Britain, the U.S., Italy, Japan and France) wanted to destroy Germany's power in Europe and to make her pay for the costs of war. They wanted peace but Germany was to pay for that peace, not only by reducing its army, reducing its fishing fleet and relinquishing part of its heavy shipping fleet, but also by ceding land, sending coal, livestock, machinery and money to those countries who had suffered by the war. Germany was pronounced to be the sole aggressor of the war and therefore it was Germany who had to 'pay the bill'. Supposedly, Germany was to be treated as an equal in Europe but at the same time, Germany was not invited to participate in the writing up of the Treaty. Rather, they were literally given the ultimatum to sign the treaty with no option whatsoever. Germany was to have an Allied Army in its land and they were to pay for that Army. How can these terms be considered to being treated as an equal? Furthermore the coal of the Saar region had to be sent to France for a period of fifteen years at the end of that time it would be decided under whose area of jurisdiction the Saar was to be under. Obviously the Treaty was written up in a way so as to diminish the power of Germany, at home and abroad. At the end, there was no abroad, since Germany lost all its colonies. What was the treaty like? The potential of Germany military and economic superiority in Germany was a strong threat to the writers of the Treaty. This had to be stopped at all costs. The easiest way for the writers of the Treaty to achieve this goal was to require financial retribution for the war. If Germany was stripped of its economy then industrial growth would not be possible. Furthermore if the fruit of that industry had to be sent to the countries who had suffered during the war, then Germany would produce for the victors and not for themselves. In this way, enough would be left for Germany to get by, but not enough for it to become a power again. Alsace-Lorraine was ceded to France. France was thrilled, if they had had their way; perhaps another area of Germany would have been ceded to them, the Saar, a major coal producing area. German rivers were internationalized. This is important in the feeling of humiliation of Germany because until that time, Germany was very closed and did not like foreign presence on their land, particularly in this way. The map of Western Europe was redrawn. Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Estonia, and Latvia were created. Many of these new countries had to accommodate substantial minorities within their borders. Families, who were once citizens of one nation, suddenly found themselves citizens of two different nations because of the new map. More importantly, large groups of German-speaking people suddenly found themselves as citizens of Poland and Czechoslovakia. It was very difficult for the writers of the Treaty to accomplish what they had set out to do because of many factors. To begin with, 27