present and in awe.

Treaty of Versailles

Monday, March 02, 2009 @ 6:45 pm.

You know, sometimes it's easier to remember things when you have an emotional attachment to them.
I mean, you remember your sister's or your mother's or your dog's birthday, but you wouldn't remember the birthday of Georges Clemenceau or a rock if you didn't know anything about them.

I have my own opinions about the Treaty of Versailles.

Big Three

From my biased, schoolgirl, Singaporean perspective, I think that the Big Three were pretty much idiots.

For one thing, they were all inherently concerned about themselves and their own circumstances were the main factors in their diktat for Germany, right? Which shouldn't be that way. They got Italy, Japan and whatever to join them for discussions but in the end it was all down to them. At least they should have asked Germany first.

Georges Clemenceau: Wanted to make Germany suffer. They were conquered at Franco-Prussian, and then Germany got crushed in WWI, and then now Georges (and France) wanted to make them pay and pay hard. I don't agree with that, personally. Germany may be evil and aggressive and whatever you want to call it but there are people in there that need their food and need their land and need their money. If they don't want Germany to attack France again, they didn't need to cripple Germany as a country, where all the commoners suffer for the government's mistakes.

Woodrow Wilson is okay. I'd go with his ideas on the treaty. But it looks like the main reason for his stand is because USA was only in the war for the last few months or so. They didn't suffer. So does that mean that if they did suffer, they'd root for a harsh treaty too? It would be so petty if they did. It's logical, though, that the harsh treaty would result in a war. It did, didn't it?
He's also an idealist. He has his self-determination and international co-operation ideas and his Fourteen Points but obviously no one adhered to those. Everyone looks out for themselves, and in the end Wilson had to, refusing the LoN membership that he supported. Sigh.

And yeah, I do think Germany should be blamed for the war. But it wasn't her own fault.

Lloyd George is strange. He agrees with Woodrow Wilson that harsh treaty would lead to war. They had their disagreements but at least they agreed on the point that I agree to. The thing is, how could Lloyd George have promised to the people that Germany would be punished really harshly, if he himself did not believe so, and only wanted her to be punished justly? Sure, the people wanted it and if he did it might make him PM the next round but it was a lie, and he had to compromise himself. And, if he had a harsh treaty obviously Britain and Germany wouldn't trade again. But then again, Germany was already hopping mad that they weren't involved in the Treaty discussions after that. So I guess that didn't work out very well.

Terms of Treaty

Territorial
I think that the territorial terms of the treaty were just enough. They still left Germany the biggest country, which means they might still have a fighting chance (if only they had slackened off on the army and economy then WWII might have been earlier). Sure, Alsace-Lorraine would be given back to France. France wrote the Treaty after all. Eupen and Malmedy went to Belgium, Northern Schleswig to Denmark, West Prussia and Posen to Poland. And Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (Austria-Hungary), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Russian), and Poland (From German-Russian land) were formed. Most before the treaty, mind you. But that's all... stuff. Look. Alsace-Lorraine and the Saar Coalfields (which of course went to France [actually the LoN but the profits went to France so there isn't much difference]) were important resources and industrial areas. Germany, although it's considered grand perpetrator, is still a country. A country needs economy. It needs food. It needs to survive. Taking all her colonies (And giving them to France and Britain of course) and her resources and everything and stripping her of her imperialistic pride (literally 无地自容) made me want to cry.

Military
I think the Military terms were logical. Restriction to 100000 long-serving professionals, no conscription, no airforce, submarines, armoured vehicles, 6 battleships for Navy, and demilitarised Rhineland (of course, the land between Germany and France). Yay. No more great German army. Let Germany cry. At least they can't attack. But, they couldn't even defend. And that was just terrible.

Financial
It all sounds so perfectly logical at first. 6.6 billion pounds of reparations to France and Belgium (and Britain too) for war damage, therefore crippling Germany's economy and therefore erasing all possibility of it attacking. But, and I say this from the naive mind of a schoolgirl, isn't there some way to just take away military power, but still allow Germany to survive?

It's all the vengeful minds of the people.

Anschluss
Forbidden union with German-speaking Austria. Uh, great.
This part was like the loss of a good friend and ally, one of the rare ones, since Germany had lost her war. Even less chance of Germany getting back up. Yay.

Clemenceau, Clemenceau, Clemenceau.

War Guilt Clause
I have nothing to say about this.

Effects of ToV on Germany/Europe

Economic Problems
This is self-explanatory.

Strong Resentment against New Democratic States

Obviously! If they stopped the war while Germany could keep on fighting then maybe they wouldn't have lost and thus wouldn't be in this mess. So people would follow politicians who promised to strengthen Germany again, like HITLER.

Europe
Creation of New States
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Yugoslavia. And Baltic states got their independence (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia). So yay.

People showed support for parties committed to getting rid of restrictions imposed by treaty
Like HITLER'S NAZI PARTY.
Geh.

German Reactions to the ToV
Contrast with Fourteen Points
Personally, I think this was sort of a sub-resentment, because they would have probably preferred the Fourteen Points to the mess that they were in. I mean, who doesn't want self-determination? And they're already resentful that Germans are stuck in foreign land.

Feelings about War Guilt

Of course other counties should share the blame! It's not like Germany was the only one fighting. It's Clemenceau influence, I bet.

Feelings of Injustice
They didn't lose the war, technically. They laid down arms voluntarily. Yet again, they wouldn't be able to fight any more. But the fact is they did lay down arms voluntarily. So they ended the war, not lost it.
I couldn't figure out why Germany was not involved in the punishment thing. Even though people usually don't mite out their own punishments because it would invariably be too lenient for everyone else, it's a COUNTRY. With more people, and some people might not even have been so responsible for the war. It is so a Diktat. I'd hate the people who do things like that to me. In this case, Weimar Republic, the November criminals. Backstabbers.

Feelings about disarmament
They made Germany disarm, but didn't go by the Fourteen Points AGAIN and kept all their fancy weapons. Obviously Germany would feel shortchanged, so they sunk their ships in Britain's Scape Flow.

Feelings about Reparations
It killed their economy. It inflated the economy. The amount had to be adjusted in the end because they were so so high.

Feelings about Loss of German Territories
Again, imperialist pride. They resented it. Germans were taken away from their land and dumped in foreign counties. Saar got taken by France, and the African countries which they were so proud of were given to France and Britain. It's like giving away your house, or something, and then people sell it and do stupid things to it. Whatever.

Feelings about LoN

Obviously they would feel insulted that they weren't invited to join. It is the League of NATIONS after all. If you're not invited, being such a powerful nation, then you're considered not to be a nation any more, I suppose.

Like being demoted to a house pet. Being dehumanised. Not worthy of the rights every human/nation should have.

If I made a movie on the Treaty of Versailles it would be the most dramatic thing you'd ever see. I am so pro-Germany.