Was the Treaty of Versailles a Success? Essay

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Was the Treaty of Versailles a success?

There are several ways in which the Treaty of Versailles was a success but there are also some which show it was a failure.
The treaty of Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One. The treaty was signed in Versailles Palace near Paris-hence its name-between Germany and its Allies. The three most important politicians were David Lloyd George (Britain), Georges Clemenceau (France) and Woodrow Wilson (USA) also known as ‘The Big Three’.
There were many territorial changes to Germany after the war, due to the treaty. The most relevant one was the decision to give Poland a coastline, the Polish Corridor. This was a piece of land running through the centre of Germany, splitting
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An example of this was a dispute over the Aaland Islands. These islands are near enough equal distances between Finland and Sweden. Traditionally, they belonged to Finland. However, the residents on the islands wanted to be governed by Sweden. Neither of the nations could come to a decision so they asked the League of Nations choose. The League decided that Finland would remain the governors but no weapons would be kept there. Both of the countries agreed and it was settled.
However, the League had many down falls. In Article 12 of the League’s Covenant it stated: “Any war or threat of war is a matter of concern to the whole League and the League shall take action that may safe guard peace”. Therefore, any conflict between nations which ended in war and the victor of one over the other must be considered a League failure. There were many wars between many of the nations, for example, the war between Russia and Poland. The League was accused for not doing its job-which was to prevent war.
Overall, I think that the treaty of Versailles was a failure. I think this because the Treaty wasn’t really accepted by all of the countries. The British Prime Minister thought that the treaty was far too harsh and would ruin Germany altogether. He also predicted that there would be another war in 25