The Treaty of Versailles caused Germany to lose millions of citizens because of starvation. This treaty was signed on June 28, 1919 and took force on January 10, 1920. The Treaty of Versailles was written by the allies following World War I (WW1) and put harsh punishments on Germany. These harsh punishments on Germany are the reason that this treaty is unfair. The Treaty of Versailles was unfair, partly because Germany had to reduce their military to unfair sizes, making them an easy target.
Article 160 of the treaty, said Germany’s military may not exceed one hundred thousand men. So Germany was unprotected and vulnerable. Article 170 also said, “ importation into Germany of arms, munitions and war materials of every kind shall be strictly prohibited.” Germany isn’t allowed to import weapons making them even more vulnerable to attack. Even if they wanted to buy guns though, they couldn’t because they were in debt. The treaty of versailles caused Germany to go into debt because of unfair reparations. Article 232, states that Germany must pay all reparations by saying this, they are dooming Germany to over 100 years of debt and an unstable economy.
This is unfair and should have been split between Germany and her allies. In the response from Germany, Germany states, “ those who sign this treaty will sign the death sentence of many millions of German men, women, and children.” This was because of reparations and proves that the allies knew that signing this treaty would kill many Germans possibly destroying them. This could possibly be classified a genocide.
These unfair reparations were caused by the fact that Germany’s allies got little blame for starting the war. The allies blame Germany for starting the war so Germany was punished the most. Article 231 states that Germany takes responsibility for her and her allies actions. This is unfair because Germany’s allies should take responsibility for themselves and share the punishments.
The treaty also states that, “ Germany had to accept war guilt.” Germany did not solely start the war Germany’s allies did, because of this it makes these articles unfair. However, some people believe that Germany deserves these punishments. Some would say that Germany deserves the punishments given because Germany caused many countries a lot of harm and money. However this is wrong because of the fact that germany was not the only one in this war. Germany’s allies caused a lot of damage and harm to the allies so they should have to pay a fair portion of the reparations rather than just all germany. Germany was treated like they were the only one in this war and their allies were treated like they did nothing. A way to make this treaty fairer would be to split reparations and war guild among Germany and her allies.
The treaty of versailles was unfair because it caused Germany over a hundred years of debt. With this it killed many German men, women, and children. Germany was blamed for the war alone and forced to hold that guilt forever. Along with this twenty years later, Germany attempted revenge and started World War II, because of this millions of people died.
