The treaty of Versailles
The treaty of Versailles is popularly recognized as one that brought peace at the end of the World War I. The treaty helped to end state war between Allied Powers and Germany. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in Paris by three major politicians; Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George. Germany felt shortchanged as they were viewed as the initiator of the war. The treaty was presented to them a few weeks to its signing. This lack of consultation angered them but they had no choice to sign the treaty because not doing so had dire consequences such as invasion by the Allied forces. Furthermore, Germany had disintegrated forces and this meant that they were weak and could not get involved in another war. The treaty later on came to be known as Diktat because it was being forced to them and at the same time they had no choice rather than to sign it (Sharp, 2008).
The treaty had various provisions that were to be fulfilled by Germany so as to avoid the dire consequences. Some of the provisions were controversial and as a result German citizens had a trouble accepting them. One of them was the article that claimed that Germany caused the war and therefore it had the responsibility of bearing the consequences. German citizens felt that it was the problem of the government and therefore, it was the government of the day that was to bear the consequences and not them.
There are many more articles in the treaty of Versailles, which did not go well with the citizens. One of the articles is article 119 which renounced in favor of the Associated Powers and Principle-Allied Germany’s rights and titles over its overseas possessions. This meant that Germany was to lose everything they owned together with its colonies. The League of Nations, which was created to foresee enforcement of the treaty, gave Britain and France Germany’s colonies to operate. This therefore affected the people of Germany because, they also benefited from the colonies and now this right was being denied. The colonies provided a source of cheap labor and raw material for their industries hence it was a blow to their economic status. Therefore, most of the citizens felt this was a bit harsh provision that would affect their well-being.
Another article that the German citizens would have trouble accepting was article 51, which stated that;
“The territories, which were ceded to Germany in accordance with the preliminaries of peace signed at Versailles on February 126, 1871, and the Treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the state of the Armistice of November 11, 1918. The provisions of the treaties establishing the delimitation of the frontiers before 1871 shall be restored.”
This provision in the article had negative implication to the citizens because it affected them directly. Those people that lived or had already occupied this section of land were obliged to vacate because now Germany was under an obligation to give the land back. The article affected their lives and therefore was hard to accept.
The third article is article 428 about the Eastern Europe. The article stated,
“As a guarantee for the execution of the present Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads, will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for a period of fifteen years from the coming into force of the present Treaty.”
This area was to be taken over by the Allied army and no German soldier was to cross the area. This restriction had ramifications on the citizens because it restricted them from accessing the area. It also posed an awkward situation of Germany as a country that was not able to provide security for its people. This was an embarrassment to the government. It was also a punitive measure that was aimed to ensure that the Germans did not engage in any wars or training. The sovereignty of the people was therefore at stake and they had every other reason to object or to be troubled by this provision.
In conclusion, the treaty of versatile was one of the treaties that helped to restore peace. The treaty which was signed by the Allied Powers and Germany created the League of Nation, which was to oversee fulfillment of the treaty. Even though, the treaty was signed by Germany, it offended many people because of some of the provisions included. These provisions concerned accusation of Germany as the country that bore the greatest responsibility of the war and the damage of property. Articles 119, 51 and 428 are some of the articles that many of the citizens in Germany would not accept this because of their nature, imposition and restrictions they placed on Germany. However regardless of whether the articles hurt German people, the positive thing is that it contributed to peace and brought to an end war that caused loss of lives and property damage.
References
Sharp, A. (2008). The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking After the First World War, 1919-1923
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]