Was The Treaty of Versailles Too Harsh?

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On October 3 2010, Germany made the final payment towards the reparations demanded in the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Just short of a decade later ? and the country was still paying back a debt that perpetually commemorates the German defeat of World War One. Although this enormous reparation was deemed ‘destabilizing and impossible’ by British economist John Maynard Keynes as well as ‘overtly harsh and capable of starting another war’ by Lloyd George himself, it was actually the lack of severity and enforcement of the individual articles that led to the failure of the treaty’s purpose, which was to create peace. As A.J.P Taylor states in his book, The Origins of the Second World War; “the settlement had been too indecisive: it was harsh enough to be seen as punitive, without being crippling enough to prevent Germany regaining its big power status, and can thus be blamed for the rise of the Reich under Hitler within decades[1]”. Had the Treaty of Versailles been more resolute on Germany’s economic, militaristic and overall geographic dominance, future uprisings could have been avoided.

Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles states that Germany is to accept responsibility for all damage and loss to the Allies as a result of the war imposed upon them. Furthermore this article serves as a justification for the obligations put on Germany in Articles 233 through 247, which are concerned with reparations. David LloydGeorge commented that, "The Germans must above all acknowledge their obligation to compensate us…When this is done we come to the question of Germany's capacity to pay; we all think she will be unable to pay more than this document requires of her”. Regarding financial reparations, the treaty required of Germany 6.6 billion pounds, which seemed a crippling millstone at the time. However, Germany’s current economic state was misjudged. Both the Allies and the Central Powers had been weakened but surprisingly, after the war, Germany remained the strongest nation in Europe economically. Historian Martin Kitchen argues that the impression that these reparations crippled the country was a myth. Instead of a weak Germany, the reverse was true; that Germany was strong enough to win substantial concessions and a reduced reparation amount[2]. This claim is supported by German production statistics between 1913 and 1939. For example, immediately after the Treaty, German net coal exports were 15 million tons and by 1926 the tonnage exported reached 35 million. By 1927 steel output increased by 30% and iron output increased by 38% from 1913 within the pre-war borders[3]. Clearly German economy was strengthening enough to support another war. Thus, the Treaty of Versailles was flawed in that it annoyed the Germans yet did not render them too weak to retaliate.

Similarly, Part V of the Treaty, which deals with military restrictions, was not harsh enough to prevent Germany from rebuilding an army. Furthermore, the agreements in the document would later be appeased by Britain and France, thus canceling out any degree of effectiveness the Treaty would have on maintaining peace. that's not the treaty's fault The initial agreements in the document reduced the German army to 100,000 men, demilitarized the Rhineland, prohibited the import and export of weapons, restrained the navy and banned poison gas, armed aircrafts, tanks and armored cars. Although moderately restrictive, these terms allowed for too many opportunities for Germany to rearm and formulate a plan of attack and upheaval. After World War One, France’s population was at 31 million compared to Germany’s 62 million[4]. This meant that even with the vast reduction of soldiers, the German’s potential force still outnumbered France 2:1, putting France in a very vulnerable position, especially considering their own military loss of over 1.3 million soldiers during the Great War. Still, how would you equip, train, mobilise such a population in time of emergency? A unique, valid point though. Additionally, the Treaty did not prevent Germany from re-arming. In fact, German rearmament spending was seven times as much as the 2 billion marks-plus in reparations for the next 30 years in each year between 1933 and 1939[5]. The Treaty of Versailles was not harsh enough to prevent Germany from initiating another war, but merely gave the country time to recover and strengthen military tactics. Upon hearing the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that had left Germany considerably unharmed, George Clemenceau observed that, "This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years”.

One of the more significant consequences of the Treaty of Versailles was German territorial change. Disputed lands and cities were returned to various countries, most notably Alsace-Lorraine and the Polish Corridor, as well as a compromise with France for a demilitarized Rhineland and a surrender of colonies. In addition, Germany was forbidden from merging with Austria. In total, Germany lost over 10% of their previously owned European land. George Clemenceau suggested that in order to thoroughly cripple Germany and prevent another attack that the country was broken up in to a collection of smaller states. Unfortunately, Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George who were protected by other barriers, decided against this proposition. Consequently, even though this article deprived Germany of land and caused much ethnic confusion, it left the country more unified than ever. The Treaty created a volatile alien system of democracy which, because of the constitution's flaws, allowed Germany to be torn apart by extremist political parties like the Nazis. Effectively, it put Germany in a situation it couldn't get out of, with unworkable political systems and economic and social problems just waiting to break into conflict.

In conclusion, the Treaty of Versailles was defective because instead of preventing future war, it made future war inevitable. Rather than being too harsh, it gave Germany reason for wanting revenge, without going so far as to crippling her and preventing this action. Economically, the Treaty caused Germany to pay back great reparations, however, it allowed her to remain a European superpower. Furthermore, Germany was able to quickly rebuild her economy and military. Therefore, the Treaty merely acted as a temporary obstacle rather than a permanent solution, thereby enabling Germany to recover from war and get stronger.

Taylor 1961,p. 47–55
Kitchen 2006, Europe Between the Wars, p.67
The Carthaginian Peace, The Economic Consequences of Mr Keynes, Oxford University Press, 1946
http://www.cusd.chico.k12.ca.us/~bsilva/projects/france/interwar/default.htm
The Carthaginian Peace, The Economic Consequences of Mr Keynes, Oxford University Press, 1946

Was the Treaty of Versailles Fair?

The treaty of Versailles was signed in 28th June, 1919. this treaty involved lots of requirement for Germany. Despite Woodrow Wilson's will to make the world a safer place, it only provoked German's anger and eventually became the motive of World War two. In my opinion, the main reason for the failure was the unfairness of the treaty. German was guilty for the world war one. But we should know that each countries who involved in the world war one are guilty for it .and is unfair to just giving punishment to the countries who's lose in the war, and the countries that win on the war never get any punished. Allies was as guilty as Germany. Both of them are already had lot of damage from the war. This treaty was not equal treated each country as it aimed. It might fair for the victors countries because they got lots of profit from this treaty but not for the Germany and the countries that lose from this war.

Firstly, the Treaty of Versailles was economically unfair. The reparation was unreasonably high. The treaty of Versailles forced Germany to pay enormous amount of money- $6,600 million. Also in each 5 years, Germany needed to build about 200,00 ? tons of shipping for the victor's nation. They also needed to supply livestock to France and Belgium. But there were no way for Germany to supply that much. Because most of German's land is taken away and 90%was possessed by other countries. Most of the valuable farmlands had been taken and were used for Germany's industry. If they taken away that, Germany will hard to rebuild what they damaged from the war and without this valuable land are even hard to collect the money they needed to use, because land was the main resource which earn money for the German. Germany already lost a lot from the war, and they are busy to rebuild but the treaty of Versailles which make them impossible to do anything. In addition, they were already severely damaged economically during the War, so again, it was impossible for them to pay that much. The following was reported by British Foreign Office in 1918 showing Germans' lives during the war. "The German public is threatened this winter with and almost complete absence of ...electric light, gas, lam oil and candles. The lack of soap and washing powder makes personal cleanliness impossible and assists the spread of disease. Drugs are difficult to obtain...For the general public the most pressing question is said to be the provision of warm clothing ... Many of the women have the hardly any clothing and are going about clad in a thin blouse and skirt ."(1) All these shows that the size of the reparations was being decided emotionally. Indeed, George Lloyd, the main member of the Big 3, said that he would make Germany pay because that was what British people wanted to hear.* Unreasonably high amounts of reparations provoked Germans' anger and this became one of the important reasons of the failure of the treaty.

From the information, it shows that Germany cost almost 40billion dollar for the war. Many of men workers joined for the war, and also as the allied blockade the Germany, the unemployment of Germany was stood at between 20% and 40% .Lacked of the worker caused the lacked of food produced, and the food price increased rapidly. In result, industrial output fell by about 40% between 1914 to the 1918. (2)France wanted the Germany to pay because he wanted to revenge. British and France let Germany to pay for their own opinion and selfish but not for reasonable. For German, to win on the war was the last hope for them .they spend all they could and invested on this war. But what they got back is lose in the war and should also pay the large amount of reparation.

Secondly, getting away too much territory and over restricting the armed force made Germany very weak. This not only gave Germany a huge humiliation but getting away territories was also opposing self determination. Germany is a big country. They need to have the military to protect themselves from invading of others countries. But to prevent from having another war, Germany was not allowed to have submarines and air forces. They could have the navy but only six battleships, and no more army than 10000men. They can't even have troops in Rhineland. In this condition, if Germany is getting in a war with other county, they probably are going to lose on the war. Because this kind of rules is reducing the military too a lot, this could make other countries to despise of German. "meant Germany could not defend itself against even small countries" this was the sentence said by the Dungervolker - Dung people(3) it shows the conditions of people during the time, they were dissatisfied on this rules. Germans people were always proud of their nation before .they think they were the strongest. But this rules make them anger to lose their power. Losing the 13% of territory which included Alsace Lorraine, Eupenet-Malemedy, North Schleswig and etc,, also, they lost all their colonies .and this made it worst. It was almost weakened than the other small, weakness countries. Treaty of Versailles established the self determination, many countries could rule theirs own country, but except Germany. German people were forced to live in other countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia and also, many of Germany's lands were taken over and controlled by other countries.

Politically, Germans were not even allowed to join the treaty. They got all the blame from this clause and had to accept the punishment. France, the main member of the Treaty of Versailles, wanted revenge, wanted to destroy and weaken Germany so that it will not invade France again. Clause 231 makes them feel more unfair because they said Germany was the country that started the war first but they were not allowed to reject this idea. Once, Count Brockdorff-Rantzau speaking in Germany said "It is demanded of us that we shall confess ourselves to be the only ones guilty of the war. Such a confession in my mouth would be a lie."(4) This evidence could clearly feels of resented for this guilt clause. All they could do was to accept what the victors request for. No one was listened for theirs idea, and victors countries only thinks of their profits.

In conclusion the treaty was a failure. From the newspaper Deutsche Zeitung in 1919 it wrote that "Today in the hall of mirrors, the disgraceful treaty is being signed. Do not forget it. The German people will with unceasing labor press forward to reconquer the place among nations to which it is entitled. Then will come vengeance for the shame of 1919..."(5) Words was kind of foreshadowed that they wanted to have revenge. If treaty of Versailles required not too harsh, Germany will not be angry. Treaty was to harsh .and they have to sign the treaty because it was ultimatum. also they don't have the right to joined on the treaty. Germans people called this treaty as Versailles Diktat as the terms was made public. Diktat is means being forced and no choice but to sign it. It was Treaty of Versailles made Hitler get power because he promises to destroy the treaty and this shows how Germans people were angry on this unfair treaty. Treaty of Versailles was the road to open the World war two. If each countries are not that selfish, they will not having the world war two.

1) Book "the twentieth century world" -EconimicEconomic situation of Germany and is reported by British foreign Office in 1918.

2) http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ASLevel_History/week3_impactofwar.htm

3) http://study.abingdon.org.uk/history/4th_versailles3.html

4)http://century.guardian.co.uk/1910-1919/Story/0,6051,99312,00.html

-after the guilt clause been accept by German, resented words by Count Rantzau's

5)http://www.ousedale.org.uk/cw/ousedaleschool2/Treaty%20of%20Versailles%205c1.htmthis -in the newspaper. After Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles

Did the Treaty of Versailles Accomplish Peace?

The main goal of the Treaty of Versailles was to keep peace. Georges Clemenceau from France was part of the Big 3 and he utterly despised Germany. He believed that if Germany was weakened and broken down into little pieces they could never start another war or threaten France again. He mainly wanted Germany to be severely punished and they were. A large section of the Treaty dealt with the punishment of Germany because many others believed in the thinking of Clemenceau. Another part of the Treaty dealt with the League of Nations. The League was set to enforce the Treaty along with improving the world. The League had achieved many of its goals, but by the 1930's it wasn't doing its original job. It is questionable that the Treaty of Versailles kept and provided real peace with the harsh punishments of Germany and the problems of the League of Nations.

One of the main clauses of the Treaty was clause 231, this clause states, "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."1 This clause blamed Germany for all the actions and consequences, they had to be responsible. If Germany really had caused the war and was responsible for all damages, the Treaty would then be fair, but it wasn't them that had caused all these disturbances. One of the main causes of the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian terrorist. This dispute was between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Germany only offered to help when needed. Besides this, Germany was not the first country to mobilize or attack. They were blamed for the actions of other countries and for any country these verdicts are disgraceful and unfair. They would fight for what is right. This source is the exact words of the Treaty, these words show that the Big 3 and many other countries were very biased towards Germany, they didn't care if it was the culprit or not, they just hated the Germans so they "saw" them as the main culprit and would want them to suffer forever. For all those that have studied the First World War they would know the main cause. Thus when reading this primary source the thought unfair would come into existence. When the Germans heard about the Treaty of Versailles they were furious, they too had the same thought--unfair. They hated it and would do anything to destroy it. Deutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper said," The disgraceful treaty is being signed today. Don't forget it! We will never stop until we win back what we deserve."2 These words represent the thoughts of all the Germans on June 28, 1919, the day the Treaty was signed. This source is biased towards the decisions of the Big 3, but the second half is pure feeling. These citizens were determined to go against the Treaty and will commit any action so that they are not responsible for the faults of others. They see this treaty as unfair, they have anger inside them and they will not stop. These reactions are very common, anyone or any country will not keep peace if they are blamed for a crime they did not commit. But for the Germans they began World War II only just 20 years later. This was predicted by David Lloyd George, another member of the Big 3. He said, " We shall have to fight another war in 25 years time."3 He believed that the harshness of the Treaty would cause another war in two decades and it most certainly did. Hitler, the new ruler of Germany started this war and one of the ways he gained support was by ripping up and abstaining the orders from the Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty was very hard on the Germans, who to many was the main culprit. Not only did it force them to accept all blame, it forced them to pay large amounts of reparations, to decrease to a very low number of soldiers, weapons, it also gave away all of Germany's colonies. For any country to face such matters brings anger among the suffering citizens. As said before it is natural for those citizens to want revenge and to despise the Treaty and all those who came up with it. These words would support the wanted accomplishment of the Treaty of Versailles if later Germany never started war again, but the opposite happened, so this primary source does prove that the Treaty did not accomplish in providing peace, rather it caused more wars. David Lloyd George predicted this not because he was psychic, but because he understood that the Treaty was too harsh and the psychology of the German citizens. He was not biased when he spoke this, he was logically thinking the situation through. For the person to comment that his own decisions were incorrect and to announce that it will cause problems shows that he had thoroughly thought ever detail through. Lloyd George is being neutral as he speaks this, he is not covering up for anyone or any decision. Both of these primary sources show that the Treaty of Versailles severely punished Germany but did not meet its goal, it did not bring peace.

Others may believe that there was a certain time period that the Treaty of Versailles brought peace. The League of Nations was set up by the Treaty in order to enforce it. The League did prevent many wars and it saved many lives, so this does count in preventing wars and keeping peace. From Encyclopedia Britannica in 1994 it says, " During the 1920s the League assimilated new members, helped settle minor disputes, and experienced no serious challenges to its authority."4 Yes, during the 1920's the League of Nations was fairly successful and Europe was kept at peace. The League of Nations was set to enforce the Treaty of Versailles and it if is successful it also means that the Treaty of Versailles met its goal during that time period. This source is from a well known encyclopedia, and it is not a primary source. Encyclopedias are responsible for stating facts about world wide events, it does not involve any biased opinions of certain countries. However, because it was not a primary source people can believe that it may have left out little bits and pieces of information, but knowing that the First World War did not occur so long ago it can be seen as a complete and truthful piece of information. Since this source can be trusted, then one should believe that the League of Nations kept peace and since the Treaty of Versailles set this League the credit should be theirs.

Even though the League achieved many successful actions, by the 1930's it was going downhill. It did not stop the problems in Manchuria when the Japanese invaded nor did it do anything in Abyssinia. It was unable to keep both countries at peace and the invasions that caused them. A history book of 1938 stated, "If nations want peace, the League gives them the way by which peace can be kept. League or no League, a country which is determined to have a war can always have it."5 This source states that with or without the League war can avert, this is also equivalent to saying that the Treaty of Versailles had no impact on stopping war from happening. While making this statement the historian has strong evidential proof that the League wasn't able to stop wars and problems in places such as Manchuria and Abyssinia in the 1930's. It is also seen when Hitler takes power and retrieves Rhineland, the League just watched and did nothing. The author of the history book did not write this statement without proof. This seems to be very believable because it is considered as a secondary source and it is quite close to the time period of the war and League of Nations. The source should be seen as not biased because any historian that has carefully analyzed the situations would agree by the 1930s the League wasn't enforcing anything. This meant that the organization that the Treaty set up wasn't playing the role that it was supposed to be. Thus resulting in the statement that Treaty of Versailles wasn't able to prevent war.

From the few sources one can see both the achievement of the Treaty of Versailles along with the problems that it caused in the future. The Treaty of Versailles was merely a Treaty to punish Germany, its main purpose for the setting up the League of Nations was the make to Germany abides by the Treaty and along with doing that it help and improved people's lives. Clemenceau's ideas did not decrease the possibility of war at all, his ideas caused the Germans to be angry and wanted revenge, which by Hitler they achieved. The harsh and unfair punishments pushed them to the edge which led to their release of anger in World War Two. The League of Nations had helped a lot and if it proceeded along with their actions of the 1920s then WWII may not have avert. With the analysis of a few sources one is able to conclude that the Treaty of Versailles was not able to achieve its goal, it did not provide long lasting peace.

Footnotes

1 http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles231-247.htm

2 http://www.johndclare.net/peace_treaties5.htm

3 http://www.johndclare.net/peace_treaties6.htm

4 http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations4.htm

5 http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations8.htm

Bibliography

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Online. Available: http://www.johndclare.net/peace_treaties5.htm Dec. 24 2005

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Online. Available: http://www.johndclare.net/peace_treaties6.htm

Dec. 24 2005

Clare, John D "Was the League Successful in the 1920s?" Greenfield History Site. 2002 Online. Available: http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations4.htm Dec. 24 2005

Clare, John D " Why the League Failed" Greenfield History Site. 2002 Online. Available: http://www.johndclare.net/league_of_nations8.htm Dec. 24 2005

Duffy, Michael "Primary Documents: Treaty of Versailles: Articles 231-247 and Annexes" First World War.com The War to End All Wars. Oct. 28 2001

Online. Available: http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/versailles231-247.htm Dec. 24 2005