Transcript What were the flaws of the Treaty of Versailles?

What were the flaws of the Treaty of
Versailles?
• Fourteen Points
– Self determination
– League of Nations
– US Senate
• “peace built on quicksand”
– Treaty of Versailles
– Territorial Losses
– Military restrictions
• War Guilt Clause
– Germany takes blame for war
– Reparations
– Nazi party
• Conclusion: How should the winner of the war treat the defeated?
Self determination
• 14 points was Wilson’s
post war plan
• Allowing people to
decide for themselves
how they wished to live
League of Nations
• International
association designed to
keep peace among the
nations
US Senate
• US Senate votes not to
join the League
Treaty of Versailles
• US does not join the
League
• Self determination
granted to European
countries
• Self determination
denied to European
colonies in Africa and
Asia
Territorial Losses
• Germany surrenders
overseas colonies in
China to Japan
• Ottoman Empire loses
the lands of the Middle
East to France and
Britain
Military Restrictions
• Limits the size of
German army
• Germany prohibited
from importing war
material
• Germany forbidden
from having air force or
submarines
War Guilt Clause
• Germany required to
take blame for the war
• Government officials
forced to sign it
– Kaiser had abdicated
• Never saw the clause
until day of signature
• "The Allied and Associated
Governments affirm, and
Germany accepts, the
responsibility of Germany and
her Allies for causing all the
loss and damage to which the
Allied and Associate
Governments and their
nationals have been subjected
as a consequence of a war
imposed upon them by the
aggression of Germany and her
Allies."
Reparations
• Germany forced to pay
for the war
• Georges Clemenceau of
France and David Lloyd
George of England
pushed for it
Nazi Party
• Nationalist party
formed in 1919
• Anti Treaty of Versailles
• Many Germany
veterans joined
• Felt stabbed in the back