In this text the treatment of Versailles is explained, hence the reason why the First World War ended. There will be explained how from the assassination of the Archduke of Austria a spark was created that started a war, the famous Fourteen points of Wilson, the punishment that Germany received from the treaty and who collaborated in all of this.The Treaty of Versailles was the most important agreement of the peace treaties that brought World War One to an end. This agreement ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers, which then on June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy and Russia) signed the contract of Versailles, formally ending the war. The treaty was signed exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The duke was going to be king of Austria, but that unfortunately did not happen because of his assassination.
His assassination was the spark for Austria to declare war to Serbia and for Germany, Russia, France and the other countries that took part in the First World War. The defeated nations had absolutely no say in shaping the Treaty, even the associated Allied powers played only a minor role in the decision. The document was originally signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris. It actually took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace settlement.
From then the peace conference was opened in Versailles, in which only the winners of the First World War took part: England, France, the United States and Italy, while the defeated countries were summoned only to sign the treaties. The victors from World War One were in no mood at all to be charitable to the defeated nations and Germany in particular was held responsible for the war and its consequences.The treaty was drafted during the Paris Peace conference in the spring of 1919, which was dominated by the national leaders known as the ‘Big Four’. David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Woodrow Wilson of the United States and as last Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
The first three really were the ones who made the important decisions. On the 8th of January 1918 the American president Wilson proposed in his speech the famous 14 points, aimed at defining a just and lasting peace and to create a body that guarantees territorial integrityThe German were shocked by the severity of the terms and so they had decided to protest the contradictions between the assurances made when the armistice was negotiated and the actual treaty. Germany with that treaty was considered the only one responsible for the war and therefore it was imposed by the victorious European states (especially France and Great Britain, but also Italy) of the harsh conditions of peace. The treaty of Versailles was rudely criticized by the Germans who complained that it had been ‘dictated’ to them and that it violated the spirit of The Fourteen Points, and that it would cost them intolerable sacrifices that would completely wreck their economy. However Germany was still held responsible for making reparations to the Allied nations in payment for the losses and damage that they had sustained in the war, the money needed for the reparations couldn’t possibly compute to the exact sum of reparations that were needed, especially in France and Belgium. The treaty at the time was being drafted, but the commission that assessed the losses incurred by the civilian population set an amount of $33 billion in 1921. Economies at the time declared that such an amount could never be collected without upsetting international finances.
The treaty permitted to take punitive actions if Germany were to fell behind its payment. The Big Four especially Clemenceau wanted to make sure that Germany would never again pose a military threat to the rest of Europe, the treaty contained so a several number of stipulations to guarantee this aim. The population and territory of Germany was reduced by about 10 percent by the treaty, because all Germany’s colonies were all taken over by Britain, France, Japan and other Allied nations. Many people and countries were involved in the Treaty of Versailles, such as Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Ottoman Empire, Portugal, Soviet Union and United Kingdom. The main key characters were ‘The Big Four’ who were known as David Lloyd George, Vittorio Orlando, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson; but the three most important politicians were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.Georges Clemenceau, Matthias Erzberger, Hermann Müller, Woodrow Wilson and Maurice Pascal Alers Hankey were also part of the key peopleThe Treaty ended the war with a peace settlement.
Germany lost many and many soldiers among all other nations that fought in the war, when the war ended it was Germany’s responsibility to repair all damages caused in the First World War.