The Treaty of Versailles

Paper Summary:

In order to answer to what extent the Treaty of Versailles was a failure, this paper reveals the German grievances with the Treaty and also shows how, on a more international level, nations were dissatisfied. It also examines the League of Nations, the institution that was created to uphold its laws and police its implementation, concluding that it also failed in this endeavour. The paper mainly focuses upon the Treaty's failures, but makes reference to some of its successes, while also stating certain unforeseeable detrimental factors to world security such as the economic depression - factors that any system of peace would struggle to deal with. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the Treaty did in part contribute to, and allow for war and that, hence, WWII was the ultimate failure of the Treaty.

Outline:
Introduction
Part One: Implications for Germany
Loss of Territory and Population
Imposed Disarmament
War Guilt and the Trial of the Kaiser
Reparations and Economic Decline
Conclusion
Part Two: Global Implications
The Principle Victors
The Aggressors of World War Two (Excluding Germany)
The New Nation-States
Conclusion
Part Three: League Of Nations
Introduction
Institutional Weaknesses
Territorial Successes
Territorial Failures
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"In the early 1920's it soon became clear that Germany was too weak to pay reparations as envisaged. The German economy failed to stabilise after the war leading to the hyperinflation crisis of 1923. By May 1923 the rate of increase of the amount of marks in circulation throughout Germany was over 250 billion per week.35 "The world has never witnessed a more extraordinary inflation of currency than that in Germany since the war."36 Hyperinflation dealt a staggering blow to German national pride. It was realized that the current plan for reparation payments was too much of a burden for such a weak economy. To counter the inflation in 1924 a committee that was established by the Allied powers presented the Dawes Plan. This plan provided that: firstly a new Reichsbank and currency would be established with the aid of an external gold loan; and secondly the fixation of annuities from the US for the amounts, which Germany was liable to the Allied Powers (reparations). "

Sample of Sources Used:

• "Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of War and on Enforcement of Penalties" The American Journal of International Law 14 (1) 1920, 95.
• "The Treaty of Versailles" The Avalon Project, Yale Law School
• A. Lentin, Guilt at Versaille. (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1984), xiii.
• A.J.P Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War (Hermondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd), 50.
• Alan Sharp, The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking In Paris, 1919 (London: Macmillan Press Ltd. 1994), 188.

More papers on The Treaty of Versailles:

• Essay # 33659 : "The Treaty of Versailles"
• Argumentative Essay # 140128 : "Results of the Treaty of Versailles in Germany."
• Persuasive Essay # 138772 : "A Glorious Failure: The Treaty of Versailles"

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