How unfair was the Treaty of Versailles?
In 1919, Germany came to the Hall of Mirrors to sign the Treaty of Versailles. For them, the experience was humiliating and shameful but also very unfair. Many historians argue whether the Treaty of Versailles was fair or just a way for other countries to get their revenge. Although Germany was most responsible for starting the war, they were not entirely to blame.
However, the Treaty made them take full responsibility. Although this was deeply humiliating for the Germans, they had no choice but to sign it or they would have been invaded. This was regardless of the fact that Austria, Russia, France and Britain had also been involved in the tensions, which led to the outbreak of war. When they made the treaty so harsh, it just laid the basis for another war.
In October 1918, with the military defeat of Germany at hand, the German government sent a request for an immediate truce to the U.S.
germany
Europe, post Treaty of Versailles. Leslie’s New ...
germanygovernment, suggesting that peace be established on the basis of President Wilson's Fourteen Points. Wilson communicated this request to the Allied governments and received their approval to make peace "on the terms of peace laid down in the President's address to Congress of January 8, 1918," (i.e., the Fourteen Points) though adding that there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that "compensation will be made by Germany for all the damage done to the civilian population of the Allies and their property by the aggression of Germany by land, by sea and from the air." When this was conveyed to the German government on Nov. 3, however, that government- -the monarchical system of Imperial Germany--had disappeared in a radical upsurge within Germany that brought the flight of the Kaiser into...