Essay Networks

The Treaty of Versailles was the treaty formed at the end of World War I, which many historians say caused the next major war, WWII. The Versailles Treaty did little to shape any sort of long-term peace from the results of World War I. Instead, the treaty, hastily put together, was vague, exposed the Allies’ inability to cooperate toward an agreement, and fueled German nationalism from resentment over her treatment by the Allies in the treaty. The principle reasons for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to establish a long-term peace include the following:

1) the Allies disagreed on how best to treat Germany;

2) Germany refused to accept the terms of reparations;

3) Germany’s refusal to accept the “war-guilt” clause, Article 231, led to growing German resentment and nationalism.

The Germans opposed the treaty of Versailles because the agreement was unfair to them. The terms of the treaty were harsh and the Germans suffered deep humiliation. Since the Germans had not been involved in negotiating the treaty, a feeling developed in Germany that they were under no moral obligation to obey its terms. They called it a ‘diktat’ (dictated peace) because it had been imposed on Germany. The German government had signed the treaty but had not agreed to it. The Germans had no say in drawing up the treaty so they could feel free to ignore its terms.

While public opinions of nations were strongly in favor of seeing Germany pay to the fullest extent, only France aimed to not only seek revenge, but also to weaken Germany so that it would never be able to attack France again. France saw Germany as a potential threat to the future security of European stability. Britain saw Germany as a “barrier-fortress against the Russians” and an economically strong nation with which to engage in international trade. France feared that not levying harsh enough penalties upon Germany would only make her stronger and she would eventually rise up against France in revenge. So while the British felt that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh on Germany, France felt as though it were not harsh enough. One reason France felt threatened with German disarmament was there was general agreement that Germany should be disarmed but Germans never abided by this part of the treaty there was an absence of time limits, which undoubtedly worked in Germany’s favor. No one could possibly expect Germany to be disarmed forever. The treaty, however, offered no hint as to how long the disarmament should last. This, therefore, was one of the parts of the treaty that Germany continually abused and disobeyed out of bitterness.

Another issue of significant note is how the Allies dealt with the war reparations that Germany owed. One of the major questions regarding the reparations was the following: should Germany be held accountable for what she owed to the Allies or should she be held accountable for what she could afford to pay? But even answering these questions became difficult to answer. For instance, for how much was Germany accountable? Was Germany to pay for all of the damage assessed? And how was the damage assessed? Were the damages to include government costs such as war pensions? France felt that Germany should cover the costs of restoration of invaded territories and repayment of war debts. Britain was concerned with the revival of international trade and knew that if Germany was heavily in debt with the Allied Powers, she would not be able to purchase British goods in sufficient quantities. Because of all of the ambiguities involving the war reparations, an exact monetary figure owed by the Germans to the Allies was never included in the Treaty of Versailles.

For Germany, the terms of reparations eventually arrived at by the Reparations Committee were unacceptable. The German delegates viewed the economic sanctions as being far too harsh. The fact of the matter is that Germany never felt as though they were defeated in World War I. Therefore, they had a hard time accepting the fact that they should have to pay for anything.

France, who pushed for harsher German punishment and reparation levels more than any other Allied Power, wanted the reparations to seriously cripple the German state. I believe that France had many reasons to be happy with the treaty considering how much Germany had actually suffered, not only had France been given back the Rhineland, they also had been one of the most powerful countries at the Treaty of Versailles

The Germans felt betrayed by the treaty presented to them and resented the manner in which the Allied Powers were treating them. The war-guilt clause and the reparations demanded from Germany did little more than to add fuel to the fire that was growing German resentment and nationalism.

Thus, the Treaty of Versailles failed to bring about everlasting European stability and peace for which the Allied Powers’ governments had hoped. The treaty was put together in haste and the Germans refused to sign it because it treated them, or at least they thought so, too harshly in light of what they had been promised.

What stopped the Treaty of Versailles from ever approaching success however, was not the terms of the treaty, but rather the reluctance to enforce the terms by the Allies. They were naive to assume that Germany would cooperate with the treaty terms by themselves.

Revision after revision was made, but could not fix what was doomed to failure. In 1939, the Versailles Treaty was proved to be an ultimate failure as the World War continued after the 20-year armistice.