Essay about Treaty of Versailles

Submitted By Jack-Payne
Words: 462
Pages: 2

How Far Could the Treaty of Versailles be considered fair. (10) 27.9.14

In this essay I will be reviewing some of the terms and clauses set down in the Treaty of Versailles and whether they were too harsh or too forgiving. On the 28th June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was finalised - after 6 months - and the "November Criminals" were forced to sign. Firstly, I believe that the Guilt Clause (231) was fair, and that it should have been more forcefully asserted onto Germany. The Guilt Clause forced Germany to accept the blame for starting the War, and they found this very difficult, The people saw it as not their fault for one of two reasons - they either thought that they, as civilians had no say in choosing to join the war or that they merely acted in self-defence. It was however their fault and they could not escape this. Secondly, I believe that the Reparations of £6600 million that Germany had to pay were also fair because of the damage that they had wrought across Europe, such as in France. Even though they did not cause all of it, they - as previously mentioned - accepted the blame for the war meaning without their "input" no damage would've been dealt. So they deserve to have this fee because the war they started was the cause of the damage. Thirdly, I believe that several things about the treaty were unfair, such as the large amounts of land taken away from them. It is not the fact that the physical territory was taken away from them but more that the nationalities were changed in the blink of an eye. This is bad because German families that lived in places like Alscace-Lorraine suddenly became French. This