In many circumstances peace can lead to war. The Treaty of Versailles was one of the times peace consequently led to war because of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points, the punishments towards Germany, and the War Guilt Clause. The purpose of the Treaty was to establish peace among the nations, and to punish Germany for starting World War 1. This caused conflict to arise between the nations.
Woodrow Wilson believed that there should have been peace between the countries without the need for a victory. Those who lost in the battle were practically forced to agree to the winner’s orders because they had gained the power over them, not because they wanted to follow them (source 1). Woodrow had good intentions, but this angered the French because they were involved in a 4 year war on their land, and they did not want to make the agreement to become equals with Germany. They did not want to renounce their victory for the sake of having peace. In addition, the French wanted Germany to lose it’s power to start wars, and that was not apart of Wilson’s 14 Points. France saw Germany as the enemy and did not believe
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They were forced to take all the blame for the war. In addition, they had to give up Alsace and Lorraine to France, lost major parts of their territory, and had to pay a war debt to the other countries (source 2). Germany had a huge war debt to pay off, but they had little ways of actually paying it. They lost the land where they got their resources from, so it was nearly impossible to pay it all back. The Germans were resentful when signing the Treaty of Versailles because it mostly targeted them. In the efforts to create peace between the nations, it only angered the Germans. They were losing everything while the other countries gained from their misfortunes. The Treaty of Versailles did not create peace between the allies and Germany, it only infuriated the