Treaty of Versailles Essay

The Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to bring the Great War to an end and bring peace between all countries. This treaty was initially said to include all of President Wilson’s ‘Fourteen Points’ which he announced in January of 1918 but instead, only four out of the fourteen points made it. Despite the Treaty of Versailles’ purpose to be fair and effective to end all wars, that was not the case because not all countries were beneficial from this treaty. The United States was not majorly affected by World War I because they entered in the later years of the war, therefore they did not see much effectiveness in the Treaty of Versailles. President Woodrow Wilson delivered a speech in January of 1918 where he presented the United States’ national aims. President Wilson presented fourteen points which included all countries to have self-determination, free navigation overseas, borders to be clear, and basically peace between all countries in general. In Document 7, one of President Wilson’s general points stated, “Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war…” meaning that the seas will be open to all. Document 7 also states, “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind…” meaning that all countries shall be at peace. Despite what President Wilson of the U.S. wanted, there was not peace or self-determination between all countries. The treaty was supposed to bring peace but because Germany’s best interests were not met, peace and self-determination were not met. Document 9 states, “Wilson was disappointed at the treaty’s overall outcome.” This was because the treaty was in fact not fair, full of justice, or effective in bringing peace. Because France had been invaded by Germany for the second time in living history, France felt that the Treaty of Versailles should be beneficial to all but Germany. France wanted Germany to pay and be punished. This can be portrayed in Document 9 which states, “Clemenceau, the French leader, was determined to punish Germany… Clemenceau wanted German power to be reduced so that it could never again pose a military threat.” France and its people wanted Germany to pay for how they damaged France by reducing their military power and taking away land. France got exactly what they wanted because after the Treaty of Versailles, “Germany lost 13.5% of its land and 12.5% of its population. These losses were to hit the German economy hard in the following years...” as Document 9 also states. France was greedy in not thinking about what Germany also went through during the war but only wanting their land back. Germany’s power was indeed reduced as the French wanted but that was indeed not fair because the Germans did not know what they had coming their way. Because all countries believed Germany started the Great War/ WWI which caused the, great damage, they believed Germany

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The Treaty Of Versailles

The Treaty Of Versailles