Advantages Of Article 231 Of The Treaty Of Versailles

In addition, Germany was left disgraced and looking for revenge. The German Government had asked Woodrow Wilson to arrange a cease-fire in 1918, it also requested that the Fourteen Points should be the basis for the future negotiations between the Allies and Germany. The peace program written by Wilson emphasized fairness and reconciliation instead of retribution and punishment, but the treaty, as Brockdroff-Rantzau observed, included cruel financial and territorial clauses that were ‘intolerable for any nation’.14 The clauses in the Treaty of Versailles might have seen appropriate for, for example, France or the US, but it was the opposite for Germans. Until this day a consensus has not been reached whether Germany was really the one blame for the First World War crimes. Article 231 of the Treaty, better known as the ‘War Guilt Clause’, stated: ‘The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and …show more content…
If the delegates of Germany had been present at the discussion, it might have taken a different turn as a chance to take advantage of disagreements between the Allies was present. Georges Clemenceau believed that ‘you must never negotiate with a German or conciliate him; you must dictate to him.’ And the Allies did that.16 When Germany signed the Treaty, the blockade was supposed to stop since it was meant to exist only during the wartime, however it continued. Food import was strictly controlled and thousands of people felt the shortage. The blockade was a political step to make Germany accept all the clauses in the treaty but it was definitely