In this essay I will be discussing whether or not the Treaty of Versaille was ‘harsh and unfair’ too Germany. The treaty was set up to cripple Germany so it had no power anymore to start another war. In the conditions in the Treaty of versaille Germany had too accept all blame for the war, lost 10% of it’s land, had to pay £6600 million in reparations, had it’s army cut too just 100,000 men and was not allowed into the league of nations until it could prove the country was peaceful. The treaty was signed on June 28th 1919. By the end of this piece of writing I will have weighed up both sides of the debate and decided using evidence whether the treaty was unfair.
The first clause I will talk about that was set in the Treaty of versaille will be the territorial clause which includes the land lost by Germany. Germany lost vast amounts of land which included permanent loss of Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen-Malmedy and Schleswig-Holstein. Germany also received temporary loss of the Saar Basin, the Polish corridor and Upper Silesia. The loss of this land had quite a large economic impact on Germany which could be looked as quite harsh and unreasonable on Germany. Germany lost 10% of it’s resources including people, agricultural land and raw materials. Although this may seem harsh, if you look at what Germany planned too do if they won World war one which was too take the whole of Luxemburg and translate it into German land it could be seen as repaying Germany for there future plans. The territorial clause also had a huge social and political effect. German speaking people where now all around Europe due too the land separation and it was causing serious problems for these people. This may also seem harsh but if Germany would have succeeded in world war one then people from all European countries would have been occupied in German land and life would have been very difficult for them.
Another of the clauses related to reparations and war guilt. In