WWI Peace Settlement :: essays papers

WWI Peace SettlementThe commencement ball War started in 1914 and ended in 1918. Germany and herAllies, Austria - Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria lost the war with theBritish Commonwealth, France, Belgium, Russia and Serbia, who withJapan formed the Allies and who were later joined by Italy, Rumania,USA and some other countries. Millions of people were killed duringthe war, empires were broken up, countries were half bankrupt so theFirst World War left whole nations suffering. Idealists on both sidesvowed that a disruption like this should never repeat.So The Treaty of Versailles was the way to maintain intermission amongnations. So, in January 1919, President Woodrow Wilson of the UnitedStates, Georges Clemenceau of France and Lloyd George, Prime Ministerof Britain who were otherwise known as the Big Three andrepresentatives of twenty nine other victorious nations met in Paris todraw up a peace treaty. The Treaty of Versailles, which was based onWilsons Fourteen Point Programme for Peace, dealt with Germany and therest of the losers of the First World War. The Peace Treaty mainlydealt with three kinds of arrangement which were territorial, militaryand war guilt. The treaty was signed on the 28th of June 1919.The Germans considered the treaty to be too harsh, merciless and unfair.Germany was not allowed to be represented at the Peace Conference, theyhad no say. The Germans were appalled at the severity of the treaty theAllies expected them to sign. The treaty was practically coerce uponthem followed by a threat by the Allies saying that they will invadeGermany if they do not agree to sign, there was no room fornegotiation. The Germans were corrosive and felt extremely humiliated andembarrassed.Another reason which caused ill feeling between Germany and the Allieswas the treaty terms itself. Germany hated having to be disarmed withher army rock-bottom to a very low number as 100 000 volunteer men and beenforbidden to have tanks, only a small navy an d no air force andmoreover no troops were to be allowed into the Rhineland. The Rhinelandwas handed over to the League of Nations. War guilt was another majorpoint. Germany had to agree with the associate statement that Germanyand her allies alone were to be blamed for starting the war. They hadto pay for damage and were forced to pay heavy reparations. They hadto pay some payments in goods as well. Germany lost 13 1/2 per cent of