was the treaty of versailles fair?

33], To ensure compliance, the Rhineland and bridgeheads east of the Rhine were to be occupied by Allied troops for fifteen years.[n. The treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 after the World War one. The treaty also called for the signatories to sign or ratify the International Opium Convention.[n. The French wanted a frontier on the Rhine, to protect France from a German invasion and compensate for French demographic and economic inferiority. with free plagiarism report. Treaty of Versailles, peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and associated powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on January 10, 1920. Was the Treaty of Versailles Unfair to Germany? - Reference.com [58] [185], The Treaty created much resentment in Germany, which was exploited by Adolf Hitler in his rise to power at the helm of Nazi Germany. As the most important treaty of World WarI, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. The other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles. The Palace of Versailles located approximately twelve miles outside Paris, France and is viewed as a place to showcase modern art. (The Treaties of Saint-Germain and Neuilly provided the Allied terms for peace with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, respectively.) Was Germany treated fairly in the Treaty of Versailles? The treaty's terms against Germany resulted in economic collapse and bitter resentment which powered the rise of the Nazi Party, and eventually the outbreak of a second World War. Evaluate the arguments presented regarding the treatment of Germany following WWI. Lloyd George wanted terms of reparation that would not cripple the German economy, so that Germany would remain a viable economic power and trading partner. In 1917, the new Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic under Vladimir Lenin in March 1918 signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, amounting to a surrender that was highly favourable to Germany. 14] [79][80] The National Assembly voted in favour of signing the treaty by 237 to 138, with five abstentions (there were 421 delegates in total). "; a criticism over the failure to annex the Rhineland and for compromising French security for the benefit of the United States and Britain. Barnett characterizes the Versailles treaty as "hardly a slap on the wrist" compared to the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that Germany imposed on defeated Russia. It is an extraordinary fact that the fundamental economic problems of a Europe starving and disintegrating before their eyes, was the one question in which it was impossible to arouse the interest of the Four. A second group of Democrats supported the treaty but followed Wilson in opposing any amendments or reservations. [159] [114] These four men met in 145 closed sessions to make all the major decisions, which were later ratified by the entire assembly. France had also been more physically damaged than any other nation (the so-called zone rouge (Red Zone); the most industrialized region and the source of most coal and iron ore in the north-east had been devastated and in the final days of the war mines had been flooded and railways, bridges and factories destroyed. [165], It has been argued for instance by historian Gerhard Weinberg in his book A World at Arms[166] that the treaty was in fact quite advantageous to Germany. Germany's claim, which countless historians have parroted, that the Versailles treaty was overly harsh and too punitive against Germany is, as Kissinger noted, "self-pitying . Wilson, a Democrat, refused to include prominent Republicans in the American delegation making his efforts seem partisan, and contributed to a risk of political defeat at home. "[vii] Furthermore, German negotiators were excluded to deny them an opportunity to divide the Allies diplomatically. [176] Finally, Peukert argued that it was the Great Depression and the turn to a nationalist policy of autarky within Germany at the same time that finished off the Weimar Republic, not the Treaty of Versailles. The other leaders saw Wilson as too naive and idealistic, and his principles were difficult to translate into policy. [106], After Scheidemann's resignation, a new coalition government was formed under Gustav Bauer. Barnett asserts that its post-war eastern borders were safer, because the former Austrian Empire fractured after the war into smaller, weaker states, Russia was wracked by revolution and civil war, and the newly restored Poland was no match for even a defeated Germany. Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Article 177, Constitution of the International Labour Office Part XIII preamble and Article 388, "Clemenceau an Deutschland: "Die Stunde der Abrechnung ist da. The Treaty of Versailles has been given this name because it was the outcome of . Public opinion favoured a "just peace", which would force Germany to pay reparations and be unable to repeat the aggression of 1914, although those of a "liberal and advanced opinion" shared Wilson's ideal of a peace of reconciliation. The Palace of Versailles is a royal chateau in the then country village of Versailles France. The treaty gave some German territories to neighbouring countries and placed other German territories under international supervision. The war guilt in the Treaty of Versailles places sole responsibility for the war on Germany's shoulders. "[177], The Treaty of Versailles resulted in the creation of several thousand miles of new boundaries, with maps playing a central role in the negotiations at Paris. 26] In response, French troops advanced farther into Germany until the German troops withdrew. Because Germany was not allowed to take part in the negotiations, the German government issued a protest against what it considered to be unfair demands, and a "violation of honour", soon afterwards withdrawing from the proceedings of the peace conference. Discussions about what the treaty should include began in January. Furthermore, the Commission recognized that the Central Powers could pay little and that the burden would fall upon Germany. My Many arguments were made on the treaty, and the most common question was that whether the treaty of Versailles fair. The British military historian Correlli Barnett claimed that the Treaty of Versailles was "extremely lenient in comparison with the peace terms that Germany herself, when she was expecting to win the war, had had in mind to impose on the Allies". Memelland was placed under French supervision, and Saarland was placed under the administration of the League of Nations, but France was given control of its coal. [149] Treaty of Versailles | Definition, Summary, Terms, & Facts On 7 November 1932, the Reich Minister of Defense Kurt von Schleicher authorized the illegal Umbau Plan for a standing army of 21 divisions based on 147,000 professional soldiers and a large militia. However, it also revoked the 1757 treaty's agreement to create an independent state in the Southern Netherlands, ruled by Philip, Duke of Parma; it would remain under Austrian rule. [148] [ix], The Weimar Government also funded domestic rearmament programs, which were covertly funded with the money camouflaged in "X-budgets", worth up to an additional 10% of the disclosed military budget. The Treaty of Versailles was a peace agreement that marked the end of World War One. He wanted the Germans not be made to sign at the "point of the bayonet". Milestones: 1914-1920 - Office of the Historian Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [12][13] [158], On 7 March 1936, German troops entered and remilitarized the Rhineland. In the north, three small areas were given to Belgium, and, after a plebiscite in Schleswig, northern Schleswig was returned to Denmark. [68] The Republicans controlled the United States Senate after the election of 1918, and were outraged by Wilson's refusal to discuss the war with them. the fact strong proved that the treaty had pushed Germany too hard, otherwise they should not be able to start the war. As a result, the sum was split into different categories, of which Germany was only required to pay 50billion gold marks (US$12.5billion); this being the genuine assessment of the commission on what Germany could pay, and allowed the Allied powers to save face with the public by presenting a higher figure. Anger and dismay over the treaty's provisions helped pave the way for the establishment of Benito Mussolini's Fascist dictatorship three years later. Germany had to recognize the independence of Poland and renounce "all rights and title over the territory". Clemenceau accepted the offer, in return for an occupation of the Rhineland for fifteen years and that Germany would also demilitarise the Rhineland. This was no ordinary treaty; it was the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I and establishing the League of Nations. The plebiscite itself was held without a secret ballot, and organized as a consultation in which all citizens who opposed the annexation had to formally register their protest. [77] Delegate Harold Nicolson wrote "are we making a good peace? Treaty of Versaillesfacts and information - National Geographic The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, a date that was significant in that it marked the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I, which took place in the Palace of Versailles at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. 22] [138][139] [77][78] Lloyd George and his private secretary Philip Kerr believed in the treaty, although they also felt that the French would keep Europe in a constant state of turmoil by attempting to enforce the treaty. The Bismarckian Reich was maintained as a political unit instead of being broken up, and Germany largely escaped post-war military occupation (in contrast to the situation following World WarII). Defeat powers should obey the victors orders unconditionally, no excuse, and no complaint, just accepting the lost. This is, for me, our main and principal expansion." Though the treaty included a covenant creating the League of Nations, an international organization aimed at preserving peace, the harsh terms imposed on Germany helped ensure that peace would not last for long. Germany was required to accept responsibility for causing all the damage of the war that was imposed upon [the Allies] by the aggression of Germany and to pay an unspecified amount of money in reparations. In the end, Portugal ratified the treaty, but got little out of the war, which cost more than 8,000 Portuguese Armed Forces troops and as many as 100,000 of her African colonial subjects their lives. [70] [31][32], Talks between the Allies to establish a common negotiating position started on 18 January 1919, in the Salle de l'Horloge (Clock Room) at the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. [133] All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. "[116], Frank Russell wrote that, in regards to the Saar plebiscite, the inhabitants "were not terrorized at the polls" and the "totalitarian [Nazi] German regime was not distasteful to most of the Saar inhabitants and that they preferred it even to an efficient, economical, and benevolent international rule." [131] Germany was to cede the city of Danzig and its hinterland, including the delta of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea, for the League of Nations to establish the Free City of Danzig.[n. Was the Treaty of Versailles a turning point for U.S. foreign policy? [170] Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were not limited by the treaty, thus this loophole was exploited and as such the number of NCOs were vastly in excess to the number needed by the Reichswehr. On 7 May, when faced with the conditions dictated by the victors, including the so-called "War Guilt Clause", von Brockdorff-Rantzau replied to Clemenceau, Wilson and Lloyd George: "We can sense the full force of hatred that confronts us here. The disenfranchised and often colonized "non-white" world held high expectations that a new order would open up an unheralded opportunity to have a principle of racial equality recognized by the leading global powers. [citation needed] Smuts issued a statement condemning the treaty and regretting that the promises of "a new international order and a fairer, better world are not written in this treaty". It was actually a punishment of Germany to start the war and forced it to accept all the blame. His war aim was to detach the war from nationalistic disputes and ambitions. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. [54] This position fluctuated following the US entry into the war. This is also the most important point of my view. ", "How the Treaty of Versailles Contributed to Hitler's Rise", "Peace Without Victory (speech to Senate)", "Reassembling a World Order: Toward a New Historiography of the Paris Peace Conference", "The Making of a Masterpiece: John Maynard Keynes and The Economic Consequences of the Peace", Treaty of Peace between Germany and the United States of America, Documents relating to the Treaty from the Parliamentary Collections, The consequences of the Treaty of Versailles for today's world, Text of Protest by Germany and Acceptance of Fair Peace Treaty, Map of Europe and the impact of the Versailles Treaty, The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Armistice between Russia and the Central Powers, Japan-US Treaty of Peace and Amity (1854), Dutch-Japan Treaty of Peace and Amity (1854), Japan-Netherlands Additional Treaty (1856), Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United StatesJapan) (1859), Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Russia and Japan (1859), Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce 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Was the treaty of Versailles fair?? Flashcards | Quizlet War broke out unexpectedly following the July Crisis in 1914. Essay. This article, Article 231, became known as the War Guilt clause. U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian.The Treaty of Versailles: An Uneasy Peace, WBUR.org (excerpt from Michael Neiberg, The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History), August 13, 2017.Treaty of Versailles. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. On the other hand, prominent Allied figures such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently. Lloyd George favoured creating a balance of powers but was adamant that Germany pay reparations. As an example of the arguments against the Versaillerdiktat he quotes Elizabeth Wiskemann who heard two officer's widows in Wiesbaden complaining that "with their stocks of linen depleted they had to have their linen washed once a fortnight (every two weeks) instead of once a month! 10] Some Germans considered the armistice to be a temporary cessation of the war and knew, if fighting broke out again, their ships would be seized. Economic distress and seething resentment of the treaty within Germany helped fuel the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, as well as World War II. [134], The French Army of the Rhine was initially 250,000 men strong, including at a peak 40,000 African colonial troops (Troupes coloniales). While I should have preferred a different peace, I doubt very much whether it could have been made, for the ingredients required for such a peace as I would have were lacking at Paris. The French wanted Germany to maintain a conscript army of up to 200,000 men in order to justify their own maintenance of a similar force. This. On the Western Front, the Allied forces launched the Hundred Days Offensive and decisively defeated the German western armies. 21] Germany felt that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair because it forced them to pay reparations to various countries, make territorial concessions and disarm. Portions of Upper Silesia were to be ceded to Poland, with the future of the rest of the province to be decided by plebiscite. The treaty required Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. [176] Having noted that much, Peukert commented that the policy of rapprochement with the Western powers that Gustav Stresemann carried out between 1923 and 1929 were constructive policies that might have allowed Germany to play a more positive role in Europe, and that it was not true that German democracy was doomed to die in 1919 because of Versailles. Upon receiving this, the new government recommended signing the treaty. It also required Germany to give up the gains made via the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and grant independence to the protectorates that had been established. Also absent was Russia, which had fought as one of the Allied powers until 1917, when, following the Russian Revolution, the countrys new Bolshevik government concluded a separate peace with Germany and withdrew from the conflict. As part of the 1929 negotiations that would become the Young Plan, Gustav Stresemann, and Aristide Briand negotiated the early withdrawal of Allied forces from the Rhineland. SouthPark, Suite 1200, Updated: April 24, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009. [46], French negotiators required reparations, to make Germany pay for the destruction induced throughout the war and to decrease German strength. They were shocked at the severity of the terms and protested the contradictions between the assurances made when the armistice was negotiated and the actual treaty. He sought heavy reparations from Germany as a way of limiting German economic recovery after the war and minimizing this possibility. [35], Initially, a "Council of Ten" (comprising two delegates each from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Japan) met officially to decide the peace terms. [160] It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. Treaty of Versailles (1787) - Wikipedia Was the Treaty of Versailles fair or unfair to Germany? [56] While the British and French wanted to largely annex the German colonial empire, Wilson saw that as a violation of the fundamental principles of justice and human rights of the native populations, and favored them having the right of self-determination via the creation of mandates. The German Board of Public Health in December 1918 stated that 763,000 German civilians had died during the Allied blockade, although an academic study in 1928 put the death toll at 424,000 people. ", "Bibliographical Introduction to "Diary, Reminiscences and Memories of Colonel Edward M. House", "The Surrogate Hegemon in Polish Postcolonial Discourse", "Why was the Zimmermann Telegram important? [1] The treaty had clauses ranging from war crimes, the prohibition on the merging of the Republic of German Austria with Germany without the consent of the League of Nations, freedom of navigation on major European rivers, to the returning of a Koran to the king of Hedjaz.[n. This figure fell to 7,102 by 1926, and continued to fall as a result of diplomatic developments. Many people over the years have argued the Treaty of Versailles was a fair peace settlement for the following reasons: They believed Germany only said that it was unable to meet the terms because it wanted to escape punishment. [81] Schmitt argued "had the four Allies remained united, they could have forced Germany really to disarm, and the German will and capacity to resist other provisions of the treaty would have correspondingly diminished. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of the war. Looking at the conference in retrospect, there is much to approve and yet much to regret. The Big Four leaders of the victorious Western nationsWilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italydominated the peace negotiations in Paris. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles-1. [55] The commission was required to "give to the German Government a just opportunity to be heard", and to submit its conclusions by 1 May 1921. "Their status defied exact analysis by both international and constitutional lawyers, but it was clear that they were no longer regarded simply as colonies of Britain. In addition, a demilitarized zone was created between Germany and France. When the outcome of the vote became known, 4,100 (including 800 refugees who had previously fled Germany) residents fled over the border into France. France was able to make the claim that the provinces of Alsace-Lorraine were indeed part of France and not part of Germany by disclosing a letter sent from the Prussian King to the Empress Eugnie that Eugnie provided, in which William I wrote that the territories of Alsace-Lorraine were requested by Germany for the sole purpose of national defense and not to expand the German territory. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.The Treaty of Versailles, 1919. The aim of it was to weaken the German power and ensure there was no any more war, nevertheless Germany regained the power in 20 years, rebuilt the industry and military. [118] None of the defeated nations had any say in shaping the treaty, and even the associated Allied powers played only a minor role. Other countries entered as fighting raged widely across Europe, as well as the Middle East, Africa and Asia. [34] Russia was excluded due to their signing of a separate peace (the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) and early withdrawal from the war.

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