What Was The Most Important Goals Of The First World War

The First World War (1914 -1918) was the most destructive event in the 20th century of world history, which covered the entire global and all nations in the world. “At the war's end, all European belligerents were economically depleted and suffered devastating losses in human life, which totaled nearly ten million.”1 Statistically, the numbers of people who died in those four years of war were 1,800,000 Germans, 1,700,000 Russians, 1,384,000 French 1,290,000 from Austria-Hungary and 743,000 British. 2 Those numbers of deaths shows how the Great War (WWI) was so contentious and fragile. In addition, the main results of these four years of war the children lost their parents, wives lost their husbands; young girls did not have the
chance to marriage. However, on November 11, 1918 the Great War ended. All the countries around the world were waiting and hoping for reconciliation and dialog. As a result, the peace conference opened in January, 1919 in Paris, in the name of making the peace. Most important of all, the Treaty of Versailles occurred which was, “signed on June 28th, 1919 after months of argument and negotiation amongst the so-called Big Three: George of Britain, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of America.” 3 The main causes that the Treaty of Versailles concerned were disarmament, reparations, and the creation of Poland which had the subsequent results that affected the interwar period. One of the most important goals of the Treaty of Versailles was the disarmament of Germany.
“There was general agreement that Germany should be disarmed but considerable differences about how this should best be achieved.”4 An expert stated that, the Allies decided that the German military should be limited to no more than 100,000 ground troops and allowed no tanks or aircraft.5 The political leaders of the Allies wanted to make sure that Germany would never pose a military threat again because they blamed Germany as the main country responsible for First World War. In addition, disarming the German military was very important for France because she feared another war with Germany and considered the Treaty of Versailles as the only assurance for security. Consequently, in 1933, when Hitler rose to the power as a Chancellor of Germany he began to rebuild the German military forces. “Germany announced that they would rearm to levels equal to those France and Britain which increased the size of its army to 600,000 men.”6 They choose to ignore the Treaty of Versailles. As a result, the German military ignored the conditions of the Treaty and this created the conditions that led to the Second World War. Clearly, the Versailles Treaty concerned the disarmament of Germany, which was decided by the Allies, but after Hitler came to power this plan did not work, which resulted to the Second World
War. Another point of the Versailles Treaty was the war reparations of Germany. During the Versailles negotiations, the Allies decided to discipline Germany by disbursing. “All nations tried to force Germany to abide by the Treaty, and they used Germany to pay war reparations to France and Britain, which were the American commercial loans to Germany.”7As Dickson argues that, Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for the war, and this guilt clause made Germany pay the victors for the costs of the war, estimated at 33 billion dollars.8 Moreover, Germany required paying this money over a period of years. As a result, Germany was not satisfied with the part of reparations of the Versailles Treaty because the government had not a strong support among many Germans, and the German economy was disrupted during the war. In addition, “the nation was deeply divided between Left and Right.”9 In other words, the German people, who supported new government, were disinclined to trade with a monarch leader. Furthermore, in 1926, Germany economy affectively collapsed which made a hard situation for the German people. Germany tried to avoid the term of reparation in the Treaty of Versailles. Particularly, when Hitler consolidated power, he tried to organize the German economy for war and nullified the Versailles Treaty. In fact, the political leaders of the Paris Peace Settlement decided the war reparations of Germany were essentially supported the European economic, but regrettably Germany did not follow the treaty, which caused to a new war (WWII). One more important obsession that the peacemaker agreed on it in the Paris Peace Conference was creating a new nation of Poland. The political leaders confirmed the Poland as an independent state, and for that reason the Allies decided to take away the lands from Germany. “In this Treaty Germany lost about ten percent of its territory and population, including territories in the east to create the new states of Poland.”10 As a consequence, Germany first lost her territories in the east of creation Poland, but when Hitler came to power he returned the lost German territory to Germany, and he signed an agreement with the Poland. As Dickson stated that, in 1934, Hitler took everyone surprise by signing a foreign agreement with Poland, and he essentially renounced claims to German territory that had been taken to create Poland. 11 Subsequently, creation of Poland was another part of the Treaty of Versailles, which Germany misplaced their east land for creating Poland, but surprisingly under Hitler’s leadership this plan did not happen. In conclusion, the most important elements of Versailles Treaty were the disarmament, reparations and the creation of Poland. All these sections were essential in the Paris Peace Conference to create a new world with the peace by limiting the German military, punishing the losers of war through reimbursing and creating a new state. However, “the Treaty of Versailles had created more problems that it solved, leaving many nations and people dissatisfied and leaving the victors holding empty promises of reparations and territory as rewards for all their sacrifices.”12 The Versailles Treaty caused another war which was called the Second World War that changed the world and has affected the world that we live today.

Notes:

1.
Lu, Catherine. Justice and Moral Regeneration: Lessons from the Treaty of Versailles. International Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 3 (autumn, 2002), pp. 11-15
2. Macmillan, Margret. Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World. Random House Trade; Reprint edition (Sep 2003),pp. xxvi
3. The Treaty of Versailles. HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014.Accessed on 9/12/2014. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm
4. Ibid.
5. Dickson, Keith. World War II for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (1 Oct 2001)pp. 24-64
6. Ibid.
7. Myers, Denys. Revisions of the Treaty of Versailles by Waldo E. Stephens. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1940), pp. 146-147
8. Dickson, Keith. World War II for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (1 Oct 2001)pp.24.25
9. Ibid.
10. The Treaty of Versailles. History Learning Site. Accessed on 9/12/2014. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm 11. Dickson, Keith. World War II for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (1 Oct 2001)pp.50-52
12.
Ibid.