What were the terms of the treaty of Versailles?.
Analyse the reasons for these terms and the possible consequences.
World War One had left Europe devastated. Those countries that had fought in it, had suffered casualties never experienced before; Britain had 750,000 soldiers killed, France in its turn had 1,400,000 soldiers killed, Belgium lost 50,000 of its men, Italy buried around 600,000 soldiers, Russia lost 1,700,000 men and finally America who lost about 116,000 soldiers in war. In total the number of deaths in all nations who fought in the war reached 8.5 million. Alongside these statistics, was the fact that vast areas of northeastern Europe had been destroyed. Flanders in Belgium had been all but destroyed with the ancient city of Ypres being devastated. The homes of 750,000 French people were destroyed. Roads, coalmines, telegraph poles had all been destroyed and such a loss greatly hindered the area's ability to function normally. The victorious nations were not prepared to be charitable towards the defeated nations and Germany in particular was held responsible for the war.
The treaty was signed in the enormous palace of Versailles on the 28 Th of June 1919 after many months of discussion and argument between the Big Three as to what the treaty should contain. The Big three were The leaders of the three allied nations; Woodrow Wilson the president of the United States, David Lloyd George, Minster of Great Britain and Georges Çlemenceau, Prime minister of France. These three agreed on some terms of how to deal with Germany but disagreed on many others. France was of course the one who was the most vengeful against Germany as they had suffered most of the war losses both in large areas of land destroyed and so many of their people dead, they wanted to bring Germany to their knees in a way that they could not rise again, They also were the most afraid of Germany because of their proximity to their land and because they had such a weak border.
