Was The Traty Of Versallies Too Harsh? Essay, Research Paper

Adam Taylor 9C Homework

20 April 2001

Was the Treaty of Versailles to Harsh?

The treaty of Versailles ended the First World War; it was supposed to stop all of the fighting and suffering for good. It did the opposite. The question of whether it was too harsh has been argued relentlessly since it was first drawn up too this very day.

Britain and France both wanted to gain the same out of the treaty, revenge. Both countries had lost many men, but France had also lost a lot a land and it was nearly all fought in France, all that was left of the French fields was trenches and dead bodies, and lots and lots of mud. Because they had no fields left the French lost their source of income, farming was the only thing that brought wealth into the country, a lot of business was lost, so a lot of money was also lost. Both Britain and France wanted reparations from Germany totalling ?6600. Clemenceau, the French leader thought that this was not enough!

Woodrow Wilson, the President of America at the time was the only leader that actually thought before making demands. He thought about what would happen in the future, to stop any more fighting and keep Europe happy was the only thing that he wanted from the treaty. He drew up a list of fourteen points to show this, included in these points was agreements that the countries would have to make to ensure that the fighting would not start again. He wanted all of the countries to be equally strong and was not trying to ruin any particular country. He could foresee the trouble that could happen.

In the Treaty of Versailles Germany was made to abolish compulsory military service. They also had to reduce their army to 100,000. They had to get rid of all the military on the left bank of the Rhine River and they also had to make the right side of the river 50 km deeper, this was to stop all importation, exportation, and production of war material. Germany had to limit its navy to 24 ships, with no submarines, and not more than 15,000 people in the navy were allowed.

For damage to the Allied countries during the war, Germany was made to make extensive reparations this was totaling ?6600. In addition to money, payment was made in the form of ships, trains and livestock.

France wanted to get back some of the land that they had lost in the war, they took a part of Germany called Alsace-Lorraine. Germany also lost all of it’s empire and no longer controlled parts of Africa and Asia.

In the treaty the Germans were made to take full responsibilities for the war and were made to say that it was their entire fault. The Germans did not like this war guilt. It was not entirely their fault; other countries were involved in starting the First World War.

The Germans were in a very big predicament; they no longer could trade because all of the factories and land had been taken away. They could no longer trade with other countries and were left paying extreme amounts of money for simple