This was especially the case for Germany as she was to reap the blame for the First World War. The peace treaties took place soon after the final bloodbath of WW1, emotions would have been raging which would have tainted some of the decisions made, and soldiers would have retired back to their homes and would have been reluctant to want to be involved in border shifting and disputes. The Allied countries wanted Germany to concur to a harsh settlement but the United States brought diplomacy into the situation. The treaties were not just and reasonable but without the United States, Germany would have been handed a much harsher punishment. The injustice of the settlement unintentionally gave birth to long term problems, including key events for the lead up to the Second World War.
Also, Germany were restricted to an army only 100,000 strong, which lead to mass unemployment, making the lives of many Germans very difficult. Lastly, they weren’t allowed an air force and had a small navy which made them vulnerable also, when airplanes were beginning to be used commercially, the Germans weren’t able to have this luxury. On the other hand, I disagree with the statement as the Germans were one of the main reasons for the first war and although they weren’t completely to blame, they still were a big reason for the war. The German forces caused a huge amount of damage to France and Belgium and it would be unfair for these countries to have to pay for the repairs completely themselves through their population’s taxes. Also, if Germany were still allowed a full army force the Germans could restart another war or attack a country, which is what they want to prevent.
The Treaty of Versailles Was an Unfair Settlement I believe that the Treaty of Versailles was an unfair settlement. The Treaty of Versailles was not a treaty, but instead a surrender document that the defeated Germans had to sign or face the risk of invasion. I believe the Treaty of Versailles was a series of penalties and punishments imposed on Germany. Rather than seeking ways to prevent future wars, the victorious allies decided instead to weaken the Germans by hurting their national pride. Both the Allies and Germany wanted to expand their territory.
Was the Treaty of Versailles unfair on Germany? The Treaty of Versailles was essentially meant to be a peace treaty for all countries included in the first World War, but ended up causing huge amounts of conflict amongst Germany and the Allies as both saw the Treaty as completely different to each other, the Allies believing that Germany was treated fairly, whereas Germany thought she was treated unfairly and her punishments were unjust. The Germans certainly thought they had been treated unfairly because of several crucial reasons. Due to President Wilson’s fourteen points for a Just Peace, Germany assumed all these rules would to apply to herself as well as the other countries associated with the war. They expected to have open discussions with everyone involved to produce a treaty and that there would not be any secret treaties.
The treaty would have been far more reasonable had the reparations been made smaller. To sum up, this term was very immoral and angered the people of Germany. The next term was Germany’s acceptance of war guilt. Germany was forced to admit full responsibility for World War One,
I believe that Britain and France shouldn’t have given the Sudetenland to Hitler One reason that I believe that Britain and France shouldn’t have given Germany the Sudetenland as that Czechoslovakia had a good army and would have been a good allies to have. With its 2 million trained troops compared to Germanys 2.2 million troops. With the allies having these troops the war could have ended a lot earlier. But since Hitler was given these troops it meant that Germany would become a lot harder and more dangerous. Another reason as why I believe that Germany should have been stopped is that it would just create more havoc just as Winston Churchill said about the Munich conference “we have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat.
A major cause of WWII was the fact that both Germany and Japan felt that they did not have the amount of power that they deserved. Germany wanted to regain the power it was stripped of through The Treaty of Versailles after its loss in WWI. Japan wanted to have a large empire and to be treated as a major power. The allies resisted this because they were happy with the status quo. The major similarity of WWI and WWII to me is that both were caused by countries trying to with the status quo in the international system.
There were other factors that Germany thought that were very unfair such as their tiny army and the amount of land that was taken from them. Their army had to be reduced to 100,000 men and also they could not have any military aircraft, submarines or armored cars. This made them very vulnerable to other countries and other countries took valuable resources from Germany making their future seem even worse. All the countries who had been involved in the war had different aims in the treaty these included France who at the time president was Clemenceau who was seen as the harshest of the big three. France in the war had suffered the most so it was only right that they wanted Germany to be crippled and Clemenceau with the support of France had the aim of crushing them.
The Weimar Republic looked to be collapsing from the beginning. All the events that finally led to the ending of democracy in Germany were seemed to be caused by the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the war for the Germans was a huge turning point as it was seem that the Allies wanted to crush Germany. They were unable to pay the reparations, as extremists from both the right and left wing found the war guilt clause unacceptable. When the Germans had lost World War I, had a huge impact back in Germany.
The 1919 treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay war reperation to France. These reperations made the people of Germany angry at the treaty and Hitler was able to manipulate and use this by promising not to pay them thereby gaining popularity. Another factor of the treaty of Versailles is the war guilt cause. This required Germany to take full responsibility for world war 1. Hitler instead blamed many others, mainly the Wemiar and the Jews, this also gained popularity with the people of Germany.