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The Versailles Treaty

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If I had to review and rewrite the Versailles Treaty, how will I even begin so the WWII would not have happen?

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This solution responds to the statement: If I had to review and rewrite the Versailles Treaty, how will I even begin so the WWII would not have happen?

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Please see response attached, which is also presented in part below. I hope this helps and take care.

QUESTIONS & RESPONSES:

The Versailles Treaty -

Let's take a closer look.

1. If I had to review and rewrite this Treaty, how will I even begin so the WW II would not have happen?

The place to begin is to locate the treaty. Before reviewing the treaty, however, it is often helpful to locate a secondary source(s) that reviews the treaty, giving you the objectives and goals of the treaty, as well as the basic criticisms of the treaty. Authors often summarize the treaty and make comments in relation to its nature, both positive and negative. Once you understand these basic points about the treaty (see more detail below), then locate the treaty and review it, as suggested in the assignment, keeping in mind the goals of the treaty and the goals of those who wrote the treaty (Allies, such as France, Britain, and the United States) and how these goals (reflected in the wording) might have been provoked retaliation (instead of peace) from Germany, for example. After this, reading the articles of the treaty will make sense and it will be easier to locate examples to include in your paper, or do you need to re-write the entire treaty?

For a copy of the treaty please see: Treaty of Versailles at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/partxv.htm.

It is an interesting and complicated legal document for sure. For illustrative purposes, lets consider Part 2-3 of the Treaty of Versailles (downloaded at the end of the attached response for easy referencing) to help you get started on this assignment. Hopefully, this will make this legal document e.g. Treaty of Versailles (which is difficult for most people) easier to understand. It will make it easier to attack this assignment.

1. Locate secondary source(s) for overview:

Using the above strategy, let's look at some secondary sources. I also downloaded the treaty at the end of the response for easy referencing and highlighted (bold) some of the problematic use of word that you could consider changing. Click www.google.com and use search words such as Treaty of Versailles, the downfall of the Treaty of Versailles, the problems of the Treaty of Versailles, and the likes, to locate a good review article.

Let's take a closer look drawing on one secondary source I located on-line:

First, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) was a peace treaty, which officially ended World War I between the Allied, and Associated Powers and Germany. Even though the armistice signed on November 11, 1918 put an end to the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude a peace treaty.

2. Consider: What provoked Germany? What needs to changed?:

Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial provisions required Germany and its allies to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248, disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Allies. This source argues that this provision lead to the treaty being undermined as early as 1922 and was widely flouted by the mid thirties. (1)

Thus, articles 231-148 would need to be revised, as would the major goals of the Treaty need to be adjusted and be consistent with each other.

This leads us to the next point.

3. Second related issue to consider:

Indeed, the goals of the Allies were varied, but yet most reflected the terms of article 231-248 mentioned above, and were written in a way that was demanding and blaming Germany, with both acting as a catalyst for another war, instead of bringing peace, mainly through German retaliation.

For example, France's (Georges Clemenceau's) aims can be summarized as follows (acted as a catalyst ...

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