Treaty of Versailles Fair?
The treaty of Versailles was signed June 28th 1919 by two German representatives at the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles. The purpose of the treaty was to establish a long lasting peace between Germany and The allies. The treaty was both fair and unfair on the German population depending on the aspect that is looked at, for example, it implied very harsh conditions upon the German populations but at the same time it was an equivalent to what they've done to deserve it. In this essay I will explain how the treaty was both fair and unfair. The fair clauses of the treaty include war guilt and disarmament, whilst the unfair clauses include territorial clauses and reparations.
The war guilt clause was a reasonably fair clause. The clause states the following: “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associate Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies.” Germany had been militarizing itself for months already, and when the Serbian Gavrilo Princip assassinated archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo it caused Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. Serbia was being backed up by the Triple Entente and Austria-Hungary by Germany this resulted in initiating the First World War. Here we can see that even though it was Germany’s intention to start a war, it was really the complications within the alliance system that brought about its magnitude. Therefore, the clause results in fairness towards Germany intentions however unfair considering the actual facts.
Reparations were the second major clause which, in my opinion, was way too harsh on Germany considering the situation they were in after the greatest war the world had ever seen left nothing behind but devastation. The clause didn’t seem to take into account the fact that Germany was as
The war guilt clause was a reasonably fair clause. The clause states the following: “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associate Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies.” Germany had been militarizing itself for months already, and when the Serbian Gavrilo Princip assassinated archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo it caused Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. Serbia was being backed up by the Triple Entente and Austria-Hungary by Germany this resulted in initiating the First World War. Here we can see that even though it was Germany’s intention to start a war, it was really the complications within the alliance system that brought about its magnitude. Therefore, the clause results in fairness towards Germany intentions however unfair considering the actual facts.
Reparations were the second major clause which, in my opinion, was way too harsh on Germany considering the situation they were in after the greatest war the world had ever seen left nothing behind but devastation. The clause didn’t seem to take into account the fact that Germany was as