What was wrong with the treaty

[-Apples-]

105 years ago on this day, the event that triggered World War I has happened. 100 years ago on this day, the event that finished that saga happened. Today is the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, a formal agreement that ended the war (even though World War I has officially ended on November 11th, 1918).

According to ThoughtCo, here is what the treaty did:

• A League of Nations was formed, which was to prevent all future wars.
• Germany lost a lot of property. The cities of Alsace and Lorraine (two French cities they won control of in an earlier war) were to be handed back to France. They also lost control of the Saar (a major coal field) and Danzig (a major port in a German territory created after Poland was created) as they were to be under control by other nations. Not only that, but their colonies in Africa and Southeast Asia have been confiscated by the Allies.
• Germany, Austria, and Russia lost a lot of land, as it created new nations, such as Poland, Finland, and Yugoslavia. Not only that, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split into three nations: Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
• Germany’s army size was restricted. They could not have an Air Force, submarines, or wartime weapons. They could have no more than 36 ships and 100,000 men. At the same time, a union with Austria was banned, and a major German river could not have any German military.
• Germany was to accept total blame for the war, and must pay $5 billion ($74 billion in today’s money). By 2010, they were officially out of debt.
• The war will continue, unless if Germany signs the treaty.

I’m not 100% against this treaty. In World War I, Germany was like a bully that chose to pick fights with everyone. They declared war on Russia and France, invaded a neutral nation the United Kingdom was defending, and sent a telegram to Mexico (which lead the United States to get involved). If you’re going to pick fights with everybody, you deserve to be punished. However, the way the treaty has punished Germany was excessive. Here’s what was wrong:

• Germany had a small and weak economy. They weren’t able to pay reparations that heavy, especially when they lost resources due to land division and Allied control. This lead to a massive hyperinflation in 1921, and the country entered a depression. To destroy a nation’s economy as a punishment is very brutal, even if it was unintentional. This is what lead to Hitler’s rise to power. Not only he disobeyed the treaty, but Germany (when it was under Hitler’s control) also captured all of France (the nation that started the treaty).
• The treaty forced Germany to accept total guilt for the war. Granted, they did expand the war on everyone, but they didn’t start the war. Austria-Hungary started it. If they didn’t bully Serbia into joining their empire, there’s no reason for a Serbian nationalist to kill the archduke of Austria. Some could say that it was Serbia that started it. Russia was the one that expanded the conflict.
• To put international restrictions on another nation’s army size is a bad idea. What if some other nation chose to declare war on Germany without them starting it? What if they had a larger army than Germany? Also, with Allied control on their shipping routes and a ban on certain weapons would make it harder to defend themselves. Luckily, no European nation would declare war against Germany unless if they started it within the next 20 years, but some other nation could do it. If that happened instead of World War II, it is all the Allies’ fault.
• They were right about making Germany hand back the French cities they captured, but forcing them to give up some of their domestic property and taking away land from them was too excessive. Granted, France and Britain wanted a harsher treaty than what happened, but even this treaty was bad. Not only that, but they forced another nation to break up into three nations. That’s like if the rest of North America told the United States that they cannot have all 50 states, as they were asked to split apart into four nations.

That’s all I have to say, as the entire World War I saga is finally 100 years out from present day. We still have more 20th century events to be out of this point, but this was the third major one done (other two being the Titanic sinking and Panama Canal).