Treaty of Versailles and Woodrow Wilson Fourteen Points
Do the Treaty of Versailles and the Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson bring peace and the end of World War I or let to new wars? According to Dictionary.com treaty is “a formal agreement or contract between two or more states, such as an alliance or trade arrangement. The document in which such a contract is written. Any international agreement”. Peace “the state existing during the absence of war peace negotiations. Denoting a person or thing symbolizing support for international peace. A treaty marking the end of a war.” The treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28th 1919 at the vast Versailles palace near Paris between Germany, Italy, Britain and France. The three politicians most
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Wilson stated that the Alsaice-Lorraine territory should be liberated and be given to France. Besides, this was proposed in the treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations was an idealism of Wilson and also, the Treaty of Versailles went through the same idea. Both documents promoted the cooperation of the different nations. Furthermore, they tried to reestablish the world forgetting their own interest. The peace of the world and the moderation in the use of arms were Wilson’s ideas. All countries should reduce their armed forces and should be disarmed. It guaranteed the “political and territorial independence” of all states and promoted the peace and security. In both documents were established the independence, self-determination for Poland and some other states. Also, they should have access to the sea. Turkish must be government by Turkey. All nations should be free, have their own government, and be …show more content…
The Treaty of Versailles punished Germany to pay excessive bail for the massive reparation of the nations affected by World War I. Germany had to limit its army no more than 100,000 soldiers. Its document prohibited having U-boats and not more than 6 war ships. They destroyed German air forces and heavy artillery. Besides, Germany had to announce itself guilty of starting the war. Britain vetoed freedom of the seas. The Treaty of Versailles inclination was against Germany and its principal point was to punish Germany. Germany took it as an insult. It was the defeat of Germany and finished its imperialism in Europe after defeating France in the Prussian war. This treaty led Germany into a great depression and caused it economic destruction. It led into World War II. On the other hand, the Fourteen Points of Wilson wanted to guide the world into peace and to prevented new wars. Wilson was against the “Peace of Vengeance”. Its document was written to be equal with all nations involved in World War I and not only blame one nation, which was Germany. The Fourteen points of Wilson main purpose was self-determination and work for the benefit of the entire world. German states should develop by themselves as in the case of Russia. Its document stated not more secret agreements because it attended with the peace of the world and finished it. Any country could not interfere with the economics
The Fourteen Points were distributed all over the world. On November 5, Wilson delivered the peace plan to the German government (http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1234.html). The Germans surrender November 11,1918 and expect a peace treaty under Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The war was now over. Many lives were loss because of the war. There was disease and starvation that killed ten million civilians. In addition, ten million soldiers were killed (http://www.polytechnic.org/faculty/gfeldmeth/chart.ww1.html).
The Versailles Treaty was when the Big Four countries met together to see what could be done to help end the war and for it not to happen again. These Big Four countries were the ones that controlled the negotiations and made the decisions, people could make suggestions, but it was up to those countries. These Big Four countries were Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. These states were trying to get their wishes to come reality, and hopefully not starting another war. This leading to Germany becoming very weak and without a way to fight for a very long time, which was about 20 years. The Treaty of Versailles was actually a very big contribution for starting World War II.
Some of the main ideas in the Treaty of Versailles are that Germany had to take the blame for starting the war. That was a big part because people got justice out of that. Germany also had to pay a lot of money for the damage that were done during the war. Next Germany was not allowed to own submarines or have an Air Force. They were only allowed to have a navy of six battleships, and an Army of just 100,000 men. In addition, Germany was not allowed to place any soldiers next to France. And lastly Germany lost lots of land in Europe, their colonies were given to Britain and France. There are many examples of this treaty still today, in modern times. It had big effects in earlier times as well. But first here are a few examples of how much
The Treaty of Versailles was meant to make peace but ended up causing a world war in a bunch of harsh ways for Germany. Germany took all of the blame for the war and made them pay huge reparations. Led to economic hardships, making Germans mad. Which gave a group with intentions of world dominance to take over Europe, starting a second world war. There are a couple reasons why Germany had a hard time.
Woodrow Wilson established his Fourteen Points which included "broad idealistic generalizations [that] were much less punitive than the Treaty of Versailles" (Doc B). Though many people did like Wilson's proposals, they are unpractical and only reflect his idealistic visions for a just and lasting peace. The harsh realities of life may push his Fourteen Points behind even before being brought to the eyes of citizens. While the principles were admirable, they lacked a pragmatic approach since many national ambitions and interests may conflict with the principles outlined in the Fourteen Points. According to Document B, Wilson mentions how "rather than singling out Germany for punishment, [he] argued for [an] 'open covenants of peace.'
In January 1918, Wilson made a major speech to Congress in which he laid out "Fourteen Points" that he believed would, if made the basis of a postwar peace, prevent future wars. Trade restrictions and secret alliances would be abolished, armaments would be curtailed, colonies and the national states that made up the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires would be set on the road to independence, the German-occupied portions of France and Belgium would be evacuated, the revolutionary government of Russia would be welcomed into the community of nations, and a League of Nations would be created to maintain the peace. Believing that this revolutionary program required his personal support, Wilson decided that he would lead the American peace delegation to Paris, becoming the first President ever to go to Europe while in office. Despite Wilson's best efforts, however, the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, departed significantly
In war there are 2 different stories to the side of the war. Great Britain in the war was going against the Germans and their view point was different. Britain were the ones winning the war before it was ended. The U.S. joined in at the end securing the victory for the allied powers. Woodrow Wilson brought his idea of the 14 points to Europe which Great Britain disliked. They did not like the 14 points because they would not be given credit for wining the war. Great Britain believed that since they won the war the credit should go to them, it would only be fair. Under the 14 points it also say's that there will be no more colonies. Great Britain was excepting more colonies for them since they had won the war. This is a surprise to Britain and did not like the ideas that Woodrow Wilson had came up with. When they treaty of versailles was composed the laws were very different. Germany was blamed for the war which was implying that Germany were the losers of the war. The treaty was also intended to take away colonies except Great Britain and France were able to keep their own. This was because they were the ones composing the treaty and made it good for themselves. It turned out that since Great Britain was such a major power in Europe that they made the rules. They were the ones making the decisions at the
On January 18th I presented a plan for world peace listing fourteen points. The first five points were issues that addressed to prevent another war and the next eight points dealt with boundary changes. This included a point in creating an international organization to address diplomatic crises, the League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles and the Fourteen points are similar in which a League of Nations is created, reducing armaments, creation of Poland, Independence for Turkey and other Nations, and no blockades. The Treaty of Versailles is different from my fourteen points is that it is harsh to Germany. Germany must accept guilt for the war, losses colonies, and must pay for reparations. I’m opposed to this Treaty of Versailles.
The peace treaty to end the war, in the hope that there will not be another. The treaty was signed by Germany and the allies. The allies were represented by the main three countries, Britain, France and the United States. Both sides suffered huge losses, economically, and to their population. The allies lost over 4.6 million, and their enemies lost 3.5 million. The majority of the people at Versailles blamed Germany for the war, demanding that Germany would be crushed economically and militarily. The French wanted to make Germany pay, financially, where the United States believed that Germany should be punished in a way that would lead to European reconciliation. So President Wilson called for the introduction of the international peacekeeping organisation, “Wilson’s Fourteen Points”, to end all secret treaties. On the 7th of May, the treaty was presented to Germany. The Germans lost 13% of their land, 10% of their population. Germany also lost two borders at Alsace and Lorraine, which were returned to France. The German navy and army was dramatically cut, their air force and submarines were banned. They had to officially sign and accept “War Guilt”, taking responsibility for the war. They also had to pay reparations up to 6.6 billion pounds. The allies had created a treaty which weakened Germany and created an organisation for future world peace. Germany did not like the treaty, the loss of territory angered many Germans. The Treaty of Versailles ended the first war and created peace, but it also led to the start of the Second World
The first point on Wilson’s 14 point plan was that nations should not have any secret treaties or alliances with other nations. This is an important point in the plan, because if it were followed through with it could possibly prevent many wars afterwards. That is, of course, if the nations
The Era of the World Wars was a terrible time in both American and European History. It started with World War I between the Allies Powers and the Central Powers. The major powers that made up the Allies were the Unites States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France. The major powers that made up the Central Powers were Germany and Austria-Hungary. The end of the First World War resulted in the Allies winning, after the four long years of battle. When the war ended, the Allies formed a group called the League of Nations. They were the ones who formally call off the war between the groups. In this organization, it had been decided that there was to be special punishments to Germany, who was named as
The situation required the formation of alliances as an insurance of support in case the war would break out. Central Powers consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary, while the Entante powers were Great Britain, France and Russia – that had many formal and secret agreements. In 1915, Germany declared war on Great Britain at sea and attacked all ships, including merchant ships. By drafting these first five points, Wilson was hoping to prevent any future conflict at the same scale as the Great War, by eliminating the actual causes of war. By bringing every nation to the same level and introducing them to the free trade and free sea navigation Wilson hoped to engage the nations into an economically beneficial alliance. The more nations joined the League of Nations – the more benefits would they have. This diplomatic solution is revolutionary because it did not only refer to the couple of countries – it referred to the global stage.
The treaty of the Versailles was an agreement between France, England and the United states. Its intentions were to prevent a second world war however, it was a total fail. An obvious reason for not being effective could be because not everyone was included in the conference such as Russia, and Central Powers. Instead, Prime minister George Clemenceau had thought he would speak for all of europe and wanted to be the strongest of europe. Clemenceau seeked revenge towards Germany, in fact he desired most dismantle the best of Germany 's military and their nationalist pride. As for the United States, Wilson implemented the fourteen points which focused on self determination of people. Only few of his points were included in the treaty but these points had been the reason for conflicts happening in europe. Participation from everyone is important and not allowing everyone 's input could lead to negative outcomes such as, The league of nations which most likely failed because the United States wasn’t allowed to participate.
The Treaty of Versailles was a very unfair document towards Germany. According to Mike Dowling, the treaty had taken away Germany's overseas colonies and their coal source. Germany could not build large ships and their army was a joke.
The treaty humiliated the Germans. The war-guilt clause forced Germany to accept sole responsibility for World War I. And although the German military had played a major role in igniting the war, other countries in Europe had been guilty of provoking political crises before the war too.