Essay on "Treaty of Versailles"

Essay 5 pages (1649 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Treaty of Versailles - the "Treaty of Versailles" was the primary document that ended World War I, providing surrender and reparation terms between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on June 27, 1919, interestingly enough -- exactly 5 years after the spark that set off WWI -- the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Versailles dealt only with Germany; all other Central Powers had a different treaty. Historically, most scholars believe that the treaty significantly contributed to events in Europe causing World War II -- and that the Treaty was unsatisfactory to all sides. The Treaty included a total of 440 articles, summarized as:

Germany has to cede Alsace-Lorraine & Saar coal mines to France

Germany has to cede an area with Moresnet, Eupen, Malmedy and St. Vith to Belgium.

Germany has to cede the main part of West-Prussia and almost the whole province of Posen to the new state of Poland.

Germany has to cede all colonies: Togo en Cameroun, the territories in East- and South-West Africa, islands in the Pacific and possessions in China.

All German properties in foreign countries are confiscated. Germany has to cede al war material to the allies.

German compulsory military service is abolished, as well as the General Staff.

Germany is not allowed to have tanks, airplanes, submarines, large warships and poison gas. During 15 years Germany is not allowed to station troops on the left border of the river Rhine and in a 50 km strip on the right border of the Rhine.

The total size of the Germany army is not to exceed 100.000 men.

The German navy has a maximum of 15.000 men. Germany is allowed a total of 4.000 officers. Germany is not to take part in the League of Nations.

Austria has to cede South-Tirol to Italy.

Turkey has to cede all foreign possessions. England gets Iraq, Palestine and Trans-Jordan, France gets Syria and Lebanon.

Germany has to cede to the allies all seagoing ships with a carrying capacity exceeding 1600 Brt, plus half of all ships between 1000 and 1600 Brt. Furthermore one fourth of the fishing fleet and two fifths of the inland navigation fleet has to be ceded.

Germany has to cede large amounts of machinery and building materials, trains and trucks.

Germany has to deliver certain amounts of coal, chemicals, dye and fuel for many years.

All German sub-ocean telegraph cables are confiscated. Germany has to pay 20 billion in Gold.

Theodore Herzl -- Herzl (1860-104), was an Austro-Hungarian journalist and is considered to be the father of modern Zionism. He became active in journalism after 1878, working as a correspondent for the Neue Freie Presse in Paris, and also travelling to London and Constantinople. He became interested in the plight of European Jews by the mid-1890s. Scholars still speculate whether it was the situation surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, an anti-Semitic incident in France in which a Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany and the mass hysteria it engendered, or the rising tide of Viennese anti-Semitism proselytized by Karl Lueger in 1895.

With the publication of his book Der Judenstaat (the State of the Jews), Herzl became one of the leading proponents for a Jewish State and for the cause of Zionism. In 1896 he and a delegation met with the ruling Sultan of the Palestinian area who refused to cede any land to Jews. In 1897 he founded Die Welt and planned the First Zionist Congress. Until his death in 1904 he devoted himself to the diplomatic premise of building international support for a Jewish homeland. He met with the Pope, with ruling government officials in German, France, and Great Britain. He took a British offer, commonly known as the Uganda Project, of a Zionist homeland in East Africa, to the Jewish Congress, who rejected it in 1905 in favor of future means of securing a homeland in the area of historic Israel. He died in 1904 of cardiac complications.

Social Darwinism -- Social Darwinism is a viewpoint that uses the basic concepts of natural selection and species change over time. It first appeared in 1977 and became popular in the United States in the 1940s. Social Darwinists claim that Darwin's theory of evolution using the mechanism of natural selection can be applied to the social constructs of individuals, nations, or even entire ethnic groups. The basic idea is that the strongest should survive and flourish, and the weak and/or unfit be allowed to die. Thus, only the genes of those who were strong and fit would pass into the gene pool. In society in the late 19th century, this concept meant the rich and powerful were better adapted to be in charge of society, and it was normal for certain individuals of good breeding to become part of the upper echelons of culture. Indeed, not only was survival of the fittest (individual then passing into the genetic grouping) correct, it was also morally the "right thing" to do. The theory has been applied to a number of political and military exploits of the past several years; most with the common theme that the stronger side would triumph over the weaker side. The ideas of social Darwinism made their way into numerous materials on eugenics and even Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.i

The 2nd Industrial Revolution - . With the advent of steam power and machinery, especially in the 18th and 19th century, major changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and transportation literally revolutionized Europe and changed the socioeconomic and cultural conditions within almost every European country. Geographically, the Industrial Revolution arose out of England and utilized the vast amounts of natural resources to allow for major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport. Technological revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution, rose out of the machine power age and from about 1820 to 1914 (the onset of WWI), advanced enough so that processes that were previously reserved for manual labor (draft-animal-based economies) were all mechanized. Combine this shift in philosophy with a vast improvement on moving goods to and from market and the use of steam and water power and clearly, a revolution was on the horizon. Once machinery was introduced the old way of production was gone forever. Farmers could cultivate more and the general level of economic activity increased. The military industrial machine developed new and ever more deadly technologies with which to make war, and the move towards a larger middle and artisan class required a number of political and sociological changes as well. The move from a human and animal-based technology to the use of machines required a number of scientific advances to occur. However, social changes such as the establishment of more control between borders (e.g. lessening the impact of disease), a decrease in childhood mortality (larger workforce), changes in food production (more efficiency, less waste and famine), a switch from rural to urban developmental needs, and the refinement of the steam engine all allowed for a continuous cycle of change and improvement (more food = higher standard of living = more surviving children = larger workforce = more food and services needed to protect from the outside.

The Dawes Plan -- the Dawes Plan, names for Charles Dawes, chairman of the Dawes Committee, was an attempt after World War I to collect war reparations from Germany. The Treaty of Versaille in 1919 left a huge war debt to Germany, and the initial payments (226 billion German Gold Marks) caused the Weimar government to default in its loan payments by 1923. In response, French and Belgian toops occupied Germany's steel and coal producing areas, leading to more tension and the eventual crippling inflation that followed. To deal with this situation, the Allied Reparations Commission appointed Dawes to form a committee and find a solition which, bu… READ MORE

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