Treaty+of+Versailles+Fatally+Flawed?

Alex Michael 12/3/09 Period 7 IB History Research Paper

Prompt #9: “The Treaty of Versailles was fatally flawed.” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Thesis: The Treaty of Versailles was fatally flawed because of its unfairness to Germany and its failure to create a lasting peace.

World War One, which lasted from 1914-1918, was supposed to be the war to end all wars, which means many people expected World War One to be the last war of all time. As the War was coming to an end, major powers met to create the Treaty of Versailles, which they hoped would end the war and provide the structure for a lasting world peace after the war” [i]. The four leaders that had the most say in creating the treaty, often referred to as the “big four”, were David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the United States, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy [ii]. The final treaty was very tough on Germany, as they had territory losses, the war guilt clause, and limits on their military. Germany was forced to sign the war guilt clause, which stated that Germany was “the aggressor in the war and consequently made Germany responsible for making reparations to the Allied nations in payment for the losses and damage they had sustained in the war” [iii]. The victorious powers had very few war consequences as they didn’t have any reparations to pay or military restrictions. The first reason that the treaty of Versailles was fatally flawed was because of it’s unfairness to defeated countries, mainly Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty that was constructed completely by the victorious countries of World War One, so the treaty was naturally going to be rougher on the defeated powers. Many Germans felt the Treaty was a “Diktat”, which means “that the Treaty of Versailles was imposed without negotiation” [iv]. The war guilt clause that Germany signed which accepted blame for the war was seen as being especially unjust to Germany. The unfairness of the Treaty “fostered deep resentment of the settlement in Germany” [v]. As you can guess, the deep resentment of the settlement also caused resentment towards the countries responsible for the settlement. The fact that Germany was also forced to disarm their military when none of the victorious countries did any disarmament [vi] didn’t make the German people feel any better about the treaty. The irony of the whole situation is that a Treaty which was meant to create a lasting peace and ease tensions only raised tensions because of how unfair it was. The unfairness to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles was a flaw that was bound to cause major problems in the near future. While the Treaty of Versailles was very unfair to Germany, it was also flawed in that it failed to accomplish its single goal, creating a lasting peace. The Treaty aimed to accomplish this goal by settling conflicts peacefully rather than violently. A League of Nations was created by the Treaty with the purpose of resolving such conflicts. [vii] Tensions remained high in Europe in the years after World War One, and such tensions made the idea of a lasting peace appear very unrealistic. The League of Nations was unable to do anything to stop the rise of fascist dictators Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy, even though both leaders were clearly dangerous. It was finally evident how fatally flawed the Treaty of Versailles was when in 1939 Germany took “Europe and the World back into the horror of war” [viii]. The outbreak of World War Two illustrated how badly the Treaty of Versailles had failed, as the lasting peace that the Treaty of Versailles sought to create became no more than just a distant memory. It is very clear that the Treaty of Versailles was fatally flawed, but what exactly caused it to fail so badly? The answer to this question is one that we will never know. We just know for sure that the Treaty was indeed fatally flawed because it treated Germany so unfairly and because it did not create a lasting peace like it had set out to. Would the Treaty have been more effective if Germany had been included in the creation of the Treaty? Maybe. We may never know. In reality, the Treaty may have been perfectly fine and a lasting peace could just be an unachievable goal. In the end, the only thing that we can say for sure is that the Treaty of Versailles was indeed fatally flawed because it was unfairly harsh on Germany and because it did not create a lasting peace.

[i] "The Failed Peace." //World War 1 Reference Library//. Ed. Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast, and Christine Slovey. Vol. 1. 187-197. 3 vols. //Gale Virtual// //Reference Library//. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. . [ii] "Treaty of Versailles." //Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition//. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. . [iii] “Treaty of Versailles.” // Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition //. [iv] Layton, Geoff. //Weimar and the Rise of Nazi Germany.// 3rd edition. London. Hodder, 2005. [v] “Treaty of Versailles.” // Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition //. [vi] Layton, Geoff. [vii] “Treaty of Versailles.” // Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition //. [viii] Tom Pendergast.