Treaty Of Versailles Essay

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The Treaty of Versailles was the treaty between the Allies (UK, France, and the USA) and Germany, who had surrendered, after World War One had ended in 1918. The treaty was signed at a palace at Versailles near Paris. The leaders of the Allies called “The Big Three” were David Lloyd George (UK), Georges Clemenceau “the Tiger” (France) and Woodrow Wilson (USA). All three men wanted the same thing; to stop a war ever happening again, but they also wanted different things from the treaty, so they didn’t get on well. Clemenceau wanted revenge and wanted Germany to pay for the damage done. Wilson wanted to establish a League of Nations and make the world safe again, and Lloyd-George wanted justice and tried to be a compromise between Clemenceau …show more content…

The majority of Germans believed that Europe was a barrel of gunpowder before the war and had slid into war. So it was not one country’s fault since most were involved in the alliance system. Therefore the German public believed that Germany had not singly start the war, and were outraged that they should have to take the full blame for starting the war. In addition, the German economy was destroyed and the people feared that the fine of £6.6 billion would completely destroy their country. Germany was also forced to sign a ‘blank cheque’ because if they hadn’t, Britain wouldn’t have lifted the naval blockade. This was extremely harsh because they were already experiencing economic problems. The payments were around 5% of Germany’s national income. As Germany could not afford to pay this, they had to borrow allot of money from the USA. This led to currency decline, which then led to hyperinflation.
Despite this, Germany originally created the idea of paying reparations and had previously imposed reparations on France after the 1870 war, so it meant that it would only be fair for them to also have to pay Germany. Therefore, Germany deserved to take the full blame for starting the war and therefore they should pay for all the damage caused. In addition, the reparations were fair since the amount was changed to a more reasonable figure later

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