ßill Koneski
January
4, 1997
Western Civilizations
Although the costs and strain that World War I
placed on the countries involved in
it were
unimaginable, the peace treaty Germany was forced to sign was neither fair nor
just. Millions upon millions of men lost their
lives or were wounded and women and
children suffered
from not having and positive male influence and being forced into manual
labor on the
homefront. The cost alone to the United
States was $27,729,000,000 and the
Americans killed
numbered 53,407. Illness and other
causes brought the total number of
deaths to about
126,000.
There were 204,002 wounded
which were not fatal. When
Allied leaders
decided that it was time to end everything, they made the right decision.
After rapid troop
deployment by the United States and the successful Allied counterattack,
Germany was on
the run. Eventually, they surrendered
and were forced into a peace
agreement. The leaders of the major allied powers,
Clemenceau of France, Geroge of
Great Britain,
Orlando of Italy, and Wilson of the United States, were supposed to draw
up a document for
long lasting peace based on Wilson's Fourteen Points, but the other
leaders were
vengeful. They wanted Germany to pay in
a big way for their losses and
costs
incurred. Instead of choosing to aim for
long lasting peace by basing their treaty on
the Fourteen
Points, Clemenceau, George, and Orlando drew up a treaty that would cause
Germany to go
into a nation-wide depression and suffer for a whole generation. This
treaty became
known as the Treaty of Versailles.
In looking at the treaty, one would think that
the writers were completely biased
against
Germany... and they would be right.
Because France, Great Britain, and Italy
were the three
main countries involved in the creation of the Traety of Versailles, they
used every minute
detail of the treaty to work to their advantage. The only positive detail
of the treaty was
the League of Nations. The League was planned to reduce the chances
of another war.
This Covenant of the League of Nations was made the first part of the
Treaty of
Versailles. Further on in the treaty
Germany was forbidden to create any new or
maintain any old
fortifications on the left and right banks of the Rhineland and Germany
was forced to
renounce the government of the Saar in favor of the League of Nations as
trustee. France went so far as to take German coal
mines in the Saar Basin as
compensation for
destroyed French mines during battle.
France also got back the
territories of
Alsace and Lorraine and they had any territories ceeded to Germany
returned. Germany was forced to go against their views
and acknowledge the complete
independence of
Austria, the Czecho-Slovak State, and Poland.
Any overseas possession
belonging to
Germany was renounced and the German military force was demobilized. In
addition to
losing much of their land and goods, it was decided on April 27, 1921 that
Germany would be
forced to pay in excess of 31.5 million dollars to the Allies. In 1922
Germany fell
behind in its reparations deliveries of coal. In January 1923 France and
Belgium occupied
the Ruhr coal and iron district on the right bank of the Rhine. They did
this to enforce
payment of reparations by Germany.
Germany immediately stopped all
reparations
payments. In the economic panic that followed German money became
worthless, and
many Germans were financially ruined.
Through all this, the Germans hoped that
President Wilson's Fourteen Points
would be ratified
and the Treaty of Versailles would be nullified, but to no avail. The
treaty was given
to the German delegation to sign at Versailles on May 7, 1919. The
German delegates
strongly objected to its severe terms. and they stated that the terms
were not
consistent with President Wilson's Fourteen Points. Although the Allies made
only small
concessions, the German delegates signed on June 28, 1919. When Wilson was
notified that his
Fourteen Points had been shot down by the other power players at the
peace conference,
he was outraged. China, along with the
United States were not at first
included among
those nations making peace with Germany. China objected to the cession
to Japan of
rights in the province of Shantung. On
November 19, 1919 and again on
March 19, 1920,
the United States Senate rejected the act ratifying the Treaty of
Versailles. They reccommended strongly that that United
States not enter the League of
Nations. Even in the Presidential Campaign of 1920,
the League was a major issue.
Because President
Wilson was unable to setup a long-lasting peace treaty and the United
States was not in
accord with the Treaty of Versailles, Republican candidate Warren G.
Harding was
elected president with an overwhelming Republican majority in Congress.
The citizens of
the U.S. were disgusted with Democrats and their way of politics. Not
until July 2,
1921 did the Untied States officially end the state of war between themselves,
Germany, and
Austria-Hungary. The United States finally made treaties with Austria and
Germany which
were signed August 24 at Vienna and August 25 at Berlin.
In conclusion, Germany was not dealt a fair
hand in the peace process. Although it
was their fault,
not all blame should have been placed on them.
They too had allies in
Austria-Hungary
and Russia originally. The Treaty of
Versailles specifically states in
Article 231, "The
Allied and Associate Governments affirm that Germany accepts the
responsibility of
Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the
Allied and
Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a
consequence of
the war." In plain English, Artice
231 states that Germany has to take the
fall for not only
its own actions, but for those of its allies.
Even though Germany was the
major cause of
World War I, they should not have had to agree to such a harsh peace
treaty. The Treaty of Versailles only proves the old
saying 'In war, the loser always pays."
Bibliography:
1) Bennett, Geoffrey, Naval Battles of the First
World War (1969)
2) Clark, Alan, Aces High: the War in the Air over the Western Front
(1973)
3) Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia (1992)
4) Gray, Edwyn, The Killing Time: the U-Boat War, 1914-1918 (1972)
5) Hayes, G. P., World War I: A Compact History (1972)
6) Lederer, Ivo John, ed., The Versailles
Settlement (1960)
7) Marshall, S.
L., World War I (1985).
8) Rimell, Raymond L., World War I in the Air
(1988)
9) Wren, Jack, The Great Battles of World War I
(1971).
10) Zeman,
Z. A.
B., The Gentleman Negotiators: A
Diplomatic History of the First
World War (1971)
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