The Treaty of Versailles had two main issues on which it focused: Germany's post war territory and also the amount of reparations Germany must pay. In the East, Germany was literally split into two parts. The Allies decided that the nation of Poland should be given a

Not only were Britain and France overly vindictive in assessing these reparations, but they were also short-sighted in thinking they would derive anything beneficial out of it. Basically, Britain and France demanded all of Germany's money, yet they also took away all territory from Germany that could produce this money. By taking away Germany's colonies, they, in effect, eliminated all of Germany's investments and assets in their Colonial power. Future income and industry generated from these colonies would not be there for Germany. More devastating was taking away Germany's coal-producing territories. Germany, according to 1913 figures, used 139,000,000 tons of coal to enable its railroads, utilities, house-fuel, agriculture, etc. The provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, the Saarland, and Upper Silesia accounted for 60,800,000 of those tons, all of which was taken away from Germany. More than half of Germany's coal was to be taken away, with not enough left to power the heavily populated industrial country. With German industry completely destroyed, there was no practical way for them to pay Britain and France.

Not all of the Allies were against Germany in this manner. Woodrow Wilson had a different idea of what the settlement should be, which he called the 14 points. These were more lenient than what Britain and France wanted, and Wilson believed they were more oriented to preserving the peace and status quo in Europe. Wilson thought that Germany should retain most of its pre-war territory, with the exception of Alsace-Lorraine going to France. Wilson also believed that Germany should pay little or no reparations, and thought Europe should form a "League of Nations," to preserve the peace. He even thought that Germany should eventually be allowed into the League. Yet these ideas were immediately mocked and Wilson was personally insulted by members of both the French and British governments. During one round of negotiations where Wilson was presenting his 14 points, Clemenceau is said to have turned and whispered to Lloyd George saying, "You know that God Himself had only 10!" Another British delegate General Henry Wilson referred to President Wilson as a, "vain, ignorant, weak ass." The League of Nations was created, but perhaps because most of Wilson's other points were ignored, the United States did not join. Whether or not Woodrow Wilson's peace would have fared better than the Treaty of Versailles is really immaterial; no one will ever know. But the fact that Wilson was simply ignored, mocked, and insulted, reinforces the idea that Britain and France only cared about punishing Germany, not seeking peace.

German aggression was greatly aroused by the ridiculous and often mistaken territorial adjustments made by Britain and France. One such incident was in the transfer of German territory to Poland. The allies had determined that the territory of Allenstein, in the eastern part of Germany should be given to Poland. The German delegation sent a counter-proposal stating that Allenstein had a large German population, and the Polish population was miniscule. Clemenceau ans

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Approximate Word count = 2084
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)