How successful was the Paris Peace Conference in solving post WWI problems?

How successful (How effective) was the Paris Peace
Conference in solving post­WWI problems? The Paris Peace Conference was not successful to solve post WWI problems. Its most important aim was to maintain the world peace. The Paris
Peace Conference was the meeting of the
Allied victors following the end of
World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris during 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nation states. “The Big Three”, representatives of the three winning country. President Woodrow Wilson represented the US,
Prime Minister Lloyd George represented the Great Britain and prime minister
Clemenceau represented France. Five major peace treaties were prepared at the
Paris Peace Conference. They include the Treaty of Versailles for Germany, the Treaty of Saint­Germain for Austria, the Treaty of Neuilly for Bulgaria, the Treaty of Trianon for Hungary and the Treaty of Sèvres for Ottoman Empire.
Treaty of Versailles was the most harsh treaty. The Paris Peace Conference failed to solve post­WWI problem.The US president Wilson issued his 14 Points in a speech. According to Wilson, the 14 Points mainly focussed on his “National Self
Determination” and disarmament of countries. It created for maintaining a lasting world peace. However, things did not go smooth under the influence of the other
Big Three. Britain and France agreed some of the points but with significant reservations. The 14 points failed to meet its original aim dealing with the world peace due to the selfishness of the leagues. What’s more, there were some limitations in the 14 Points. Under the National Self Determination principle, 4 old empires were gone and 8 new nation states were set up. However, they were too weak which caused the aggression of the nearby countries for the invasion.
Power vacuum in Europe rose. Moreover, for the defeated country, The Treaty of
Versailles was too harsh that even directly led to German aggression and WWII.
The settlement fueled German nationalism from resentment over her treatment by the Allies in the treaty rather than bringing about everlasting stability and peace.
In addition, the Paris Peace Conference was dominant by the Big Three who only considered their own interests especially France. It failed to meet the other

country’s interests such as Italy and China. It rose the public anger and brought the rise of nationalism and the rise of totalitarianism. First of all, the 14 Points of Wilson was not fully adopted by the leagues.
The ideology of the 14 Points was to create a peaceful Europe. 14 Points included open diplomacy, Freedom of the seas, Free trade, Reduce the military forces and weapons etc. However, Wilson was too idealistic. Some of the points which affected their interests were opposed by the other Big Three.
For example, for demilitarization, Britain and France said that only those who were defeated should demilitarize but not them because they were the winning countries. The Big Three discussed the treaty terms according to their own interests. Although the 14 Points was described to be impossible to be all carried out, but it was still a good indicator of the world peace. If the leagues discussed the treaty term by following strictly on the 14 Points, most of the conflicts in Europe afterwards could be avoided. Politically, the Paris Peace Conference created the power vacuum in
Europe. Under the 14 Points and the National Self Determination advocated by
President Wilson of the US, 4 old empires were gone including
Austro­Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian empires collapsed. 8 new nation states were set up. However, since they were small and weak, countries nearby could easily annex them. The nearby countries’ aggression increased due to the power vacuum. Those weak new nation states attracted the invasion from the aggressive countries such as Germany. Therefore the National Self
Determination created power vacuum and destroyed the peace of Europe. In the terms of the treaty terms, the Paris Peace Conference contributed the most on Germany’s revenge. The Treaty of Versailles for Germany was too harsh. Germany had to pay a very heavy reparation. Germany had to bear the sole war guilt which was unreasonable to the Germans. Also, the German army was to

be restricted to 100,000 men who would be obliged to enlist for twelve years. But still, the war­guilt clause was the cause of lasting resentment in Germany more than any other clause in the treaty. The original aim of the Treaty of Versailles was to weakened Germany to avoid its aggression. But it failed to do so. A over­harsh treaty created a counteractive effect which ran in the opposite direction for what it supposed to be. The Paris Peace Conference led to the resentment of the Treaty of Versailles from the Germans and made them decided to revenge. Not only did the Paris Peace Conference failed to maintain peace, but it also intensified the tension among the European countries.
Furthermore, the Paris Peace Conference led to the rose of extreme nationalism and totalitarianism. Since the whole Paris Peace Conference was almost dominated by the Big Three, the treaty terms for those defeated countries were decided according to their own interests, some unfair treaties were created.
Also, some territorial conflicts still existed which the conference was unable to solve. For example the Shandong conflicts among Japan and China. The league even meet an secret agreement with Japan. Moreover, for Italy, it did not get its promised land and it was also given no say during the Paris Peace Conference although it was one of the willing allies. People were unsatisfied with the existing democratic government and this led to the rise of Fascism in Italy. Similar to
Italy, the resentment of the Treaty of Versailles from the Germans showed the ineffectiveness of the Weimar Republic and the democratic rule. This led to the rise of Nazisim in Germany. The rightist totalitarianism advocates expansion and national glory which is the opposite as maintaining the world peace.
What is more, the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations emboldened the aggressive countries to keep on their expansion.
After World War I, Woodrow
Wilson presented his Fourteen Points to achieve world peace. Among these points was the suggestion of forming the League of Nations. This organization was to help member countries discuss with one another about pressing issues. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, the League of Nations was created. The
League had a few successes but many more losses before its end when no members wished to meet any longer. The League of Nations basically ended up had no significant influence on dealing with countries’ issues. If the aggressive countries like Germany, Italy and Japan were given an inch, they wanted a mile.

Japan even quitted the League of Nations and continued its expansion. This showed the lack of influence of the League of Nations which was one of the consensus made during the Paris Peace Conference. Up till here, although the Paris Peace Conference was proved to be not really successful in solving post­WWI problems, yet, it did created a good start of setting up the world’s first peace maintaining organization, The League of
Nations which contributed ideas to the set up of the United Nations after WWII.
However, the result after holding the Paris Peace Conference was not as successful as we hoped.
Most nations became extremely aggravated at the idea of how much land was being lost, the restrictions on the number of men allowed in the army, and the economic changes that were taking effect. Many human rights were being lost as in many cases, people were forced to change their nationalities and this urged the public and many of the nations to go against the allied powers and later causing them to side with the Nazis in WWII. The Paris Peace conferences did, on one hand made Europe safer as there were many military restrictions which stopped any further attacks for a while, but on the other hand, many of the treaties were too ruthless as they destroyed economic, military, and political aspects of empires which lead to a riot of angry nations that made it more likely for another war to arise. “
This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.” Ferdinand Foch, said after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919.
If the Paris Peace Conference was successful in solving post­WWI problems,
WWII would not happen. Unfortunately, after 20 years, human were getting into a huge tragedy again.
A peace agreement was greatly needed at the time right after WWI but many of the restrictions forced on Nations were overly­done and just created more tensions in Europe.