The Paris Peace Treaties(1919-1920)To the subject and passive onlooker, those meticulous organizers of the Paris Peace Treaties allowed for an unfortunate amount of flaws to enter their task of creating a treaty that could satisfy all of the nations of not only Europe but of the world as well equally. Yet one must attempt to put that passiveness behind and admit that those of the time of post World War I had truly no idea what was to come of their decisions. Thus, the decisions of these toilers of the Paris Peace Treaties undoubtedly made a medley of wrong judgments that were virtually unforeseen at the time. The first of these mistakes was that they looked over the problems that ...view middle of the document...
They lived mixed among themselves, dispersed throughout the regions with the race of the majority. In addition to the problems left to those who drew up the peace treaties (in accordance to the "ethnic problems") were that there were still populations of a race of people within various nations that belonged ethnically to another nation. For example, within Hungary were populations of many different groups that weren't distinctly Hungarian. There were many Romanians, for example. To solve this the Peace Treaties cut off a substantial part of Hungary to give to Romania which obviously did not please this once powerful state). Yet it couldn't give all of the Romanian inhabited area of Hungary to Romania and thus left many Romanians within a country of an ethnicity not their own. To name all the other races within Hungary would be impossible for they ranged into the hundreds. Another example is with the Rhineland. This piece of land was taken from Germany to serve as a protective barrier against the Germans for the French. The problem of this decision was that the population of the Rhineland was totally German. This would obviously cause for Germany to feel increasingly upset over the loss of a piece of land so obviously German, and to urgently wish for it back under any circumstances (much like the French with Alsace and Lorraine). Another example is with Poland. The peace treaties wished to give land to Poland that was "indisputably Polish" which also gave her "free and secure access" to the Baltic Sea . This was nearly impossible without taking some land from some other nations (most obviously the loser's) and greatly upsetting them because of it. Much like with the Rhineland. These are just a meager few examples of some of the mistakes made. To list them all would need an entire book dedicated to this one subject. To sum this all up, however, the Paris Peace Treaties contained innumerable flaws that could not be helped in that there were so many different and varied ethnic groups that to make every one satisfied was impossible due to this undeniable medley. Another one of the many mistakes made in the Paris Peace Treaties was the overlooking of the French insecurity of Germany.Ever since Germany's victory over France during the Franco-Prussian Wars, France had been extremely intimidated by its neighbor and thus wanted to crush this adversary into a point where it could never threaten France again. France underwent a humiliating defeat by Germany in the Franco-Prussian Wars in which Germany disgraced its enemy by not only overpowering it with disgusting ease but also by forcing France to sign the peace treaty within the Palace of Versailles and stealing the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Afterwards, France remained as being extremely cautious and horrified of the prospect of another German invasion. World War I was the illustration of this fear where a German military force once again entered French territory with the intent of seiz...
