Treaty of Versailles: The End?
The Treaty of Versailles was supposedly the end of tyranny, but was it? The Treaty of Versailles was not a good settlement to ensure the peace of the European countries and to help them recover from World War I. Germany was placed fully responsible for the entirety of the war and was in debt to the other nations. The Treaty did not patch the financial problems for the countries in the war. Lastly, land and military resources were taken away from certain countries. The Treaty of Versailles might have been created with the good intentions of making peace between the nations once more, but did not completely accomplish that goal.
The Treaty of Versailles allowed all of the nations involved in the war to have Germany
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As stated in Article 22 of the Treaty of Versailles, “The territories which were ceded to Germany on February 26, 1871 [Franco-Prussian War], and the Treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.” (Document 8) This further proves that Germany was forced to give land back to the French. Although they had seized the land during the war, it is degrading to be forced to return the land. This means that even after the war, Germany would still be seen as a sort of enemy to the other nations. That is part of the reason why land having to be returned or land being taken from Germany would cause more harm than good due to the Treaty also saying that Germany has to both literally and figuratively pay for their actions. This only adds more to the pain of being accused of starting the war even though they did not fire the first shot or declare war against the first country. The Treaty also states that some of Germany’s militia should be demolished. “The German military forces shall be demobilized and reduced as follows.” (Document 8, Article 159) This further proves that Germany was seen more as the enemy even after the war and that they were the scapegoat for the war. The Treaty of Versailles singled out the problems that Germany ad created and did not discuss the other issues that were relevant in the world. It worried more about Germany’s power than the financial distress of the