World War 1
When World War I came to a close in mid-November of 1918, many ideas were circulating in Europe as to what the peace settlement should entail. In Britain, leaders were thinking about how to increase British colonial power. In France, many wanted to permanently punish the Germans, partly in revenge for Germany's aggression in World War I, but also, perhaps subliminally, for the Franco-Prussian war in 1871. In Germany, citizens were worried about how radical changes after the war could affect their daily lives. Finally, in the United States, President Wilson was already concocting a system of permanently preserving European peace. All these biases, worries, plans, and ideas came together in Paris in 1919, with the Treaty of Versailles, establishing the post-war peace in Europe. Yet just twenty years later, war would once again break out in Europe. So why were the peace settlements of World War I unable to prevent the outbreak of war twenty years later in World War II? The Treaty of Versailles had two main issues on which it focused: Germany's post war territory and also the amount of reparations Germany must pay. In the East, Germany was literally split into two parts. The Allies decided that the nation of Poland should be given a
Unfortunately, the Allies did not see this. The proposals were not released until June 17th of 1919, only eleven days before the treaty was signed. Finally, on the 1st of September 1939, just 20 years after the end of World War I, Hitler invaded Poland. Yet these ideas were immediately mocked and Wilson was personally insulted by members of both the French and British governments. The German delegation sent a counter-proposal stating that Allenstein had a large German population, and the Polish population was miniscule. Although not allowed to participate in the oral negotiations, Germany had made several counter proposals dealing with the territorial adjustments and the reparations. The allies had determined that the territory of Allenstein, in the eastern part of Germany should be given to Poland. Germany had no capacity to pay the reparations, without having their territories and colonies. France gained the much sought after region of Alsace-Lorraine. The northern part of Schleswig was given to Denmark, an area that had been contested since the time of Bismarck. This gave Germany reason to rearm and aggressively retake their territories such as the Saar Basin and the Rhineland. Britain and France were often to busy worrying about their own economic and social problems of the time to worry about foreign affairs, yet alone wage another war. Wilson thought that Germany should retain most of its pre-war territory, with the exception of Alsace-Lorraine going to France.
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Acceptance Essays
