His views fell between those of Clemenceau and those of Wilson. He was under huge pressure from the public to punish Germany. Yet at the same time he believed he should not punish Germany too harshly. He saw this action as disastrous for future peace, for Germany would seek revenge in the near future if the treaty was too harsh. “We want a peace which will be just, but not vindictive.
The treaty was really harsh on the Germans. Germany had to accept all the blame for causing the start of WW1 when it wasn’t even Germany that started. The direct cause of WW1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb. The treaty also wanted Germany to pay huge amounts of cash to countries that faced damages due to the war. This is unfair because only Germany was required to pay for the reparations (about 6,600 million Euros).
The Germans had come to the table hoping to hear Wilson saying, “the equality of nations upon which peace much be founded on if it is to last must be an equality of rights..” (German Peace Delegation, p. 76) Instead they were hit with several Billion reichmarks in reparations, a reduced military and many other limitations politically, economically, militarily and territory wise (The Versailles Treaty, 1918). Germany was to blame for the war, as were all of Europe. However the old adage, to the victor goes the spoils. With such documents as the Zimmerman Note, one can only speculate on the terms handed down by a victorious
While Austria Hungary wanted to crush Serbia, Germany wanted to crush Russia. Two countries, during the July Crises, wanted war. Due to the fact that there were two proponents of war it is to little extent that WWI was an accident. On the one hand one might possibly contend that WWI was an accident. Some may argue that no one wanted war.
One thing the Germans were not happy in the treaty of Versailles is the War Guilt Clause, take blame for the war. Because of this they had to the reparation to the big three. The German government didn’t have the money to pay for the reparation as the country just lost a war and the factory are destroy and the environment is in a poor state. So then the USA banks lend Germany government loans. Its was all going well as Germany was getting in a better state and they are paying their reparation until 1929.
Personally, I strongly believe the treaty of Versailles was completely unfair towards the Germans. The Big Three had forced Germany to sign the treaty and had centred the chaos of the war on one country- Germany. Wilson having published his fourteen points had given the German a misleading thought that if they surrendered they wouldn’t need to put up with the war guilt and reparations. Germany was given a false sense of security by the 14 points because the fourteen points were strongly centred on self-determination which was something that Germany would have liked just to keep their moderately large territory. The reparations that Germany were forced to pay weren’t solely centred on the rulers of Germany because they had had a more profound effect on the citizens of Germany instead.
Although German signed the Treaty of Versailles, much to the disgrace of many Germans, admitting they were to blame it is undeniable that aggressive German foreign policy had a lot to do with the outbreak of war in Europe in 1914, but this neglects other factors that may have additionally added to the tensions leading up to the war. Many historians debate whether it was mainly Germany to blame or whether other dominant powers led them into a no-win situation. Source V, ‘Modern Germany’ by Volker Berghahn suggests that the Kaiser no longer saw foreign policy and civil war as separate issues and that they were now seen to entwine together. The mention of the 1913 Army bill that had aggravated many within the German society due to the growing distress over money and the status quo within the German political establishment, the argument over the tax burdens grew with every bill passed. These tensions started to disrupt their dual alliance with Austria-Hungary, even with a ‘Blank Cheque’ being given to them.
The British blockade kept all trades away from the Germans, including food (Ghost Liners 124).Yet, when the Germans retaliate, the Americans hate them for it. The Germans received blame for a crime that followed the rules of war blockades. America shames the Germans for killing civilians warned of the possible danger. Finally, the Lusitania allowed for the British to win in a win-win situation that their government
Germany faced many problems such as unemployment, debt and lack of money. Construction of Autobahns and schools would have created many jobs and brought in a huge amount of money. This is exactly how Schacht planned to solve Germanys economic problems, with The New Plan. The New Plan consisted of four major parts (Limiting imports, Trade agreements, Government spending and tackling unemployment). However, Hitler was not happy with this as his spending on the military was being limited, which meant only a certain number of tanks/planes were being produced.
Although Truman’s actions and the new ‘policies’ that he introduced were a major factor to the deterioration of America-Soviet relations, it is important to understand the pre-1945 factors that affected these relations. After World War I, European countries adopted an appeasement ideology: The world was horrified by what the war had done to Europe, and a war like that must never happen again, so peace must be protected at all costs. This led to many attempts to preserve peace in Europe, which ultimately failed as Germany invaded Poland and the world realized that another war was about to begin. However, one of the last agreements that the western countries signed with the Nazis might have been the start of the bad Soviet relations with these countries: the Munich agreement. This agreement said that Hitler was free to invade a portion of Czechoslovakia, as long as he went no further.