Treaty of Versailles and The Fourteen Point Plan

Treaty of Versailles and The Fourteen Point Plan

Q1: Treat of Versailles

The primary reason why the Germans did not like the Treaty of Versailles was that they believed it was unjustified. German did not attend the meeting. Because of their absence, some of the terms were forced on them, and they did not agree with it, the allies threatened to engage in combat again. The Germans were handled like a defeated nation, but they did not believe that they had been conquered. In 1918, the Germans signed an Armistice, and they had thought they were embracing the 14 points presented by President Wilson. In the process, some of the points found their way into the Agreement. The Germans believed they had been fooled and deceived, and thus loathed the Pact.

Moreover, the Germans were angry regarding the different conditions of the Agreement. They, for instance, loathed clause 231- which was famously known as War Guilt’ Clause, which outlined that German had instigated all the damage and destruction of the war. To begin with, they were not convinced that they had triggered the war. In the 1920s, they issued all their private records from 1914, to confirm that they had tried by all means to avert the combat. Also, the Germans detested clause 231 since they thought that embracing it would give the Allies the right to punish Germany and thus legalized all the strict conditions of the Agreement.

Lastly, the Germans loathed damages, which was finally fixed at £6.6 billion, to be paid back in parts until 1984.  They did not acknowledge that Germany had instigated all the destruction. They believed that a significant amount of money was just meant to weaken their economy and subject their population to starvation.  First of all, they loathed compensations because they as well had a reconstruction task to do. Germany’s economy was destroyed, however, instead of being able to channel investment into German business, and the country had to channel huge amounts of finances that even their transactions could not generate.

Q2: The Fourteen Points

The Fourteen Points were President Woodrow Wilson’s speech that he presented after the World War as a plan to bring to an end boundary conflicts in Europe, enhance international trade, and make the world ready and safe for the democracy. They were anchored on the concept of collective diplomacy and open trade, and also developed the idea of national self-determination. The most important part of Wilson’s speech was on self-determination. This is critical because it defined the remaining period of the 20^th century. European colonies in Africa and Asia used self-determination as a tool to demand their liberation, and with the support of the Second World War, contributed to decolonization in the remaining half of the century. Moreover, the subsequent world war was instigated by a large extent by the idea of self-determination. Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany applied the belief of self-determination to validate their strategies of extension and conquest.

However, it is worth noting that the Fourteen Points did bring many reforms as far as democracy is concerned, and did not even thwart impending conflicts. Most of the wars of the twentieth century were instigated by nationalism, as were the mayhems and the massacres that followed those wars. However, the ideas presented in the Fourteen Points set a new bar of national identity. Also, they set a platform for the League of Nation’s replacement; the United Nations remains with us until today.

Works Cited

“Digication EPortfolio :: Modern World History Reader :: Documents by Topic.” Digication, bcc-cuny.digication.com/MWHreader/Documents.