As seen in the image below, the Russian, French, and British, were among the nations who suffered the most casualties in war. They were also faced with billions of dollars of destruction, for which they did not have the money to repair. For these nations, the answer was simple. They wanted to place complete war blame on the Germans. After all, the Germans were the ones that invaded France and technically caused all of the destruction.
As Russia, France, and Britain were the countries who fought most of the war against the Germans, they found it only fair that they should make the decisions to what would happen now that the war was over. Of course, there would be some issues with their plan to leave Germany with all of the war blame. This plan was called the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans strongly felt that this treaty was unfair to them, and that the Allies were just as much to blame for the war as they were.
Across the Atlantic, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson introduced his own plan called the Fourteen Points. It was composed of fourteen articles that Wilson believed would bring everlasting peace. The fourteenth and most well known was that which would establish the League of Nations, an alliance consisting of all the world's countries in an attempt to end all international conflict.
In the end, Wilson was unable to convinced the world, let alone the United States of his plan. Instead, the Treaty of Versailles was the chosen plan, and Germany was forced to suffer. Looking back, many historians believe that the Treaty of Versailles was rather faulty, as it played a major role in setting into motion a far more massive conflict - World War II.
I agree with the opinion that the Treaty of Versailles was bad for the countries involved in the war; instead of thinking about peace, Britain, Russia and especially France wanted revenge for all the damage that the Germans had caused. As a result, the Treaty of Versailles was formed, and Germany's tensions with the Allied Forces led to World War II. Also, it is interesting to think about what could have happened if Wilson's League of Nations had worked out: could it have saved involved countries from World War II?
ReplyDeleteTo clarify a statement made above, Russia did not have a role in the creation of the Treaty of Versailles because Russia was not at the Paris peace conference and instead made a separate peace with Germany after its revolution. The people who made the majority of all decisions at the Paris peace conference were called the "Big Four." This group of influential leaders was comprised of David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and President Wilson.
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