This is unfair because only Germany was required to pay for the reparations (about 6,600 million Euros). Also no other country’s army was restricted only Germany’s was. They were banned from using gas bombs, tanks, aircraft and heavy artillery and their troops were reduced to 100,000. This makes them unable to even defend themselves. Another reason it’s unfair is because that Germans lost about 13% of their land while no other European countries lost its territory.
Frederick William shared this view and was unwilling to potentially cause a war with such a powerful state. This caused the Frankfurt Parliament to fail because Prussia did not grasp the opportunity to unite and neither did the King, therefore Germany remained divided. Although he desired power, William IV was not willing to put himself and Prussia under control of the Frankfurt Parliament as he distrusted ‘the gentlemen of Frankfurt’. This meant that the Parliament had no real leader, and so lost support because people distrusted the parliament as an influential figure stated he would not be associated with them. This aided in causing the failure of the Parliament because with no real leader, no one could influence the masses or help to make decisions.
Hitler got away with this because Britain had sympathy for Germany and in 1935 signed a naval agreement with them. France was angry that Germany was re-army but there was little they could do as most countries were doing the same, especially after the disappointment of the Disarmament conference.. The failure of the League of Nations in the 1930s also contributed towards the outbreak of war. It was powerless throughout the 1920s as it was more interested in trying to keep good relations with the other countries so it would have allies against Hitler if he ever attacked. The League also didn’t work because America didn’t join and it was the American President Woodrow Wilson who created it and it would never have worked unless all the nations were allowed to join.
Clemenceau resented Wilson’s generous attitude towards Germany and Lloyd George’s desire to not treat Germany too harshly. He said “if they British are so anxious to appease Germany they should look overseas and make colonial, naval or commercial concessions”. These disagreements left the big three unsatisfied and ultimately left them with a weak mere shadow of a perhaps great treaty due to their own arrogance and. It contained many faults and weaknesses. The treaty of Versailles greatly humiliated Germany forcing it to accept soul responsibility for the war.
Americans were warned by Germany though just chose to ignore their warning. Spirts of the Americans grew angry that their people were dying especially since the country was declared neutral. Lusitania, a British ship, was an example of Americans dying that brought up aggression towards the Central Power. Even though, the Germans clearly put a notice on the ticket warning Americans of the dangers of traveling on an enemy’s ship during times of war, spirts
The peace of the mighty proved that to be wrong. The German Army in the field, although battered was still formidable in the eyes of the German leadership. They had gone to the peace table hoping for scraps and got the business end of the newspaper. The German Peace Delegation was forced to assume blame for the war, and then sit helplessly by as territories it felt were largely inhabited with Germans were made part of other states. 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 had been expecting a treaty based on Wilson's 14 points and were not happy with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. However, they had no choice but to sign the document. The main terms of the Treaty of Versailles were: 1. War Guilt Clause - Germany should accept the blame for starting World War One 2. Reparations - Germany had to pay £6,600 million for the damage caused by the war 3.
In order to establish its fairness, we will look at the different terms of the Treaty, concerning the War Guilt clause, the reparations owed – or rather, the sum of money Germany had to pay - , the demilitarization of the country as well as the territorial settlement decided by the Allies. First of all, I believe that the German War Guilt clause was not fair. This term demanded the surrender of the Kaiser and other German leaders as well as trials for acts against international morality. Although there was a universal agreement of guilt, one has to remark that all of those countries served a personal interest by putting the blame on Germany: indeed, for one, the public opinion would shift; the people, whose opinions were also influenced by the constant propaganda during the war, would therefore see Germany as the only enemy and would not
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.
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.