Carthaginian peace and French revenge on Germany... The Treaty of Versailles was designed to establish peace and was the reason for World War II

After the First World War killed 16 million combatants and civilians, the Treaty of Versailles came to end the last chapters of this devastating war.

Concluded at the Palace of Versailles in Paris in 1919, the treaty was intended to establish peace between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers, and to establish rules governing international relations between the conflicting parties.

But that "peace" agreement led to the outbreak of World War II after the Nazis came to power in Germany. 

Before the Treaty of Versailles

The story began when the war broke out between Austria and Serbia, when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb student, and the conflict between the two countries was just a fuse that sparked World War I in 1914.

The world soon split into two camps: the camp of the Axis Powers, which included the German Empire, Austro-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and the camp of the Allies, which included the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Ireland, France (the French Third Republic), and the Russian Empire.

Five years later, the war ended with the victory of the Allies in 1918, which resulted in the replacement of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires with new nations based on nations.

World War I was described as "the war that will end all wars", after which an armistice formulated by US President Woodrow Wilson with 14 clauses was agreed upon, followed by the Treaty of Versailles, which is classified as one of the most important peace treaties in the modern era, but perhaps the victorious countries that imposed it did not realize Its terms in the treaty are that this "peace" will not last long.

Fourteen points

In 1917, the United States entered the war on the side of the Allied Powers against the Central Powers, and when the balance tilted in favor of the Allies, US President Woodrow Wilson drafted the "Terms of Peace" with 14 points, on January 8, 1918.

The points included an "ideal" vision of the world after World War I, outlined a policy of free trade, open agreements and democracy, emphasized the need for national self-determination for the various ethnic groups in Europe, and called for a negotiated end to war, international disarmament, and the withdrawal of the Central Powers from occupied territories. .

Wilson also proposed the creation of a general association whose mission would be to mediate international disputes to prevent any future wars. This association later became known as the "League of Nations".

However, the main allies of the United States of America found these points too idealistic and unworkable, and the Germans believed that Wilson's vision would form the basis for any future peace treaty, but the "Treaty of Versailles" later proved that they were completely wrong.

Paris Peace Conference

Even after the drafting of the terms of peace and Wilson's 14 points, the curtain did not come down (from the side of international law) on the conflicts of the First World War until after lengthy negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference, which resulted in the signing of 5 treaties with the defeated countries, including the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, and the Treaty of St. Germain with Austria, the Treaty of Nobi with Bulgaria, the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary, and the Treaty of Sevres with the Ottoman Empire.

And based on the Treaty of Versailles and the subsequent treaties that imposed their conditions on the defeated countries that were not party to the negotiations, the global borders were re-demarcated, and new borders were drawn for some countries and countries that did not exist before were established, and therefore the property of the Ottoman Empire was divided, and the colonies of Germany outside Europe , and Germany divided itself.

The Paris Peace Conference took place on January 18, 1919, and the choice of this date was not arbitrary, as it coincided with the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I at Versailles Palace in Paris after the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

The Prussian victory in this conflict led to the unification of Germany and its seizure of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France, and after nearly half a century had passed since this incident, specifically in 1919, France, led by its Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, did not forget that humiliating loss, and the French resolved to take revenge on the Germans for during the Versailles Peace Treaty.

The dominant leaders in the peace negotiations at the Paris Conference were those of the victorious Allies, including Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy.

And there was no representation of Germany and the other defeated countries, including Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, in addition to the absence of Russia, which fought with the Allied powers only until 1917, after which the Russian Revolution took place and the new Bolshevik government in the country concluded a separate peace with Germany and withdrew from conflict.

Different desires and different interests

The goals of the four dominant countries were not similar, of course. Clemenceau wanted revenge on Germany, which had previously defeated France during the reign of Wilhelm I. He also wanted to obtain large compensation from the Germans to ensure the prevention of German economic recovery after the war.

Lloyd George envisaged the rebuilding of Germany in order to re-establish the nation as a strong trading partner of Great Britain.

On the other hand, Orlando wanted to expand Italy's influence at the expense of other countries, to become a superpower comparable to France, Britain and the United States.

Wilson opposed the Italian territorial claims, as well as the previously existing division of territory between the Allies, and wanted to implement his vision proposed in his Fourteen Points, but the other leaders rejected that vision as "naive and idealistic" and not applicable on the ground.

The leaders of the European Allied Countries at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, which produced several treaties, including Versailles (Shutterstock)

Germany is the biggest loser in the Treaty of Versailles

On the refusal of the European allies, Wilson's vision was not implemented in the Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919, but rather imposed their own terms of "peace", which were particularly harsh on Germany.

According to the treaty, Germany was forced to make extensive territorial concessions, giving up about 10% of its lands and all its possessions. The Treaty of Versailles also called for German disarmament, restricting the German army and navy and preventing it from possessing an air force, and imposing the Allies on Germany to conduct war crimes trials against Kaiser Wilhelm. The second and his leaders.

Most importantly, Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for starting World War I, and to pay massive reparations for Allied losses in the war, in accordance with Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, known as the "War Guilt Clause".

By 1921, the value of compensation paid by Germany to other countries amounted to about $31.4 billion, equivalent to $442 billion in 2022.

Opinions differed on the controversial treaty, some found it unfair and harsh on Germany, while others found it lenient on the Germans, who would have retaliated in a more severe way if they had won the war.

In his book The Economic Consequences of Peace, English economist John Maynard Keynes referred to the Treaty of Versailles as the "Carthaginian Peace," a term for imposing "peace" after brutally crushing an opponent.

Keynes pointed out that the Treaty of Versailles was a French revenge aimed at destroying Germany, and its goal was not really to reach peace.

On the other hand, the British military historian Corelli Barnett claimed that the Treaty of Versailles was "too lenient compared to the terms of peace that Germany itself was contemplating imposing on the Allies if it had won the war".

Moreover, Barnett described the treaty as "hardly a slap on the wrist," when compared to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk imposed by Germany on the defeated Russian Soviet Union in March 1918, under which Germany robbed one-third of Russia's population and seized On half of Russia's industrial enterprises, and nine-tenths of Russia's coal mines, huge financial compensation was imposed on the Soviet Union.

Treaty clauses cause of World War II

Although the treaty included a charter for the establishment of the League of Nations aimed at maintaining peace after the war, the harsh conditions imposed by the Allies on Germany ensured that the peace would not last long, especially with German resentment against the German leaders who signed the treaty and formed the war government and became known in Germany as " November criminals.

The Treaty of Versailles was one of the reasons that paved the way for the rise of far-right political forces in Germany, especially the National Socialist Workers' Party or the "Nazis".

The Great Depression added to the economic turmoil in Germany after 1929, destabilizing the already weak government of the Weimar Republic (which had been created in Germany between 1919 and 1933 as a result of World War I), which helped bring Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to power in 1933.

It is worth noting that Hitler's speeches emphasized that the Treaty of Versailles was a "humiliation" for the Germans, and was the cause of all the scourge and economic problems they suffered after World War I. As the first step that paved the way for the Second World War, which claimed the lives of nearly 85 million people.