The Justification of the Treaty of Versailles

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The Justification of the Treaty of Versailles At the beginning of this week, after months of negotiation between the ‘Big Three’, two German representatives arrived in France to sign the treaty sign the Treaty of Versailles, stating that Germany is blame for the Great War. The question is why have the Germans given in and signed the treaty and can the treaty be justified? The Germans were in an impossible position and had to sign the treaty. They basically had no choice as they were incapable of restarting the war again. They either had to sign the treaty they would have most probably have been invaded by the Allies. The treaty was needed mainly to stop fighting between different countries, stop another war happening and to punish Germany for the causing of the war. Everyone had different aims for the treaty, all of the ‘Big Three’ wanted to stop a war ever happening again, but they couldn’t agree on how to do this. Every one wanted different things from the treaty. That is the reason why the treaty has taken so long to finalise. The main aims of the final treaty are: *To stop a war happening again. *Make Germany pay for the damage caused by the war. So that countries can rebuild their economies. *Punish Germany for the start of the war. The terms of the treaty can be divided into 5 parts: War guilt- The Germans have accepted the blame for starting the war. Germany’s armed forces- The army has been limited to 100,000 men, conscription has been banned, No aircraft, armoured vehicles or Submarines allowed, only six battleships and the Rhineland has now become a demilitarised zone. Reparations- Germany have to pay compensation for all the damage caused by the war. The exact figure has not yet been decided. German territories and colonies- Germanys’ overseas empire has been taken away. The treaty forbids Germany joining together with former ally Austria-Hungary (Now Austria). Germany has also been split and land has been taken from it and given to other countries.

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