Different Perspectives for Reparations

 

 

3. Student explains or illustrates perspectives of people in their historical context

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During the Paris Peace Conference, the discussion of reparations for Germany was a very important topic for many of the Allied nations. Reparations are seen as providing payments or assistance to people that have been wronged. The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay 33 billion dollars in reparations to cover the damages of the war. A typical opinion about Reparations for Germany was that they needed some amount to pay back. This idea might have been popular because of the Allied nations, especially France and Britain, who fought with Germany and faced a lot of damages. For the perspective of the president of France, Georges Clemenceau, France experienced a lot of damage to their country and resources during the war. France’s population was also starving and in need of money. Clemenceau, therefore, wanted Germany to pay billions of dollars in reparations. David Lloyd George, the president of Britain, agreed about having reparations but not to the same extent as France. He wanted Germany to be able to pay off the reparations. These facts in mind might explain why Clemenceau and Lloyd had different sentiments towards reparations. France faced territorial damage while Britain did not face territorial damage. This suggests that it was common sentiment throughout Europe and even in other countries such as The U.S. to demand reparations from Germany. These countries neede money and many people were very angry with the number of lives lost. When many countries blame something in another country, it makes an argument sound much more justified since a collective group agrees on an issue.

However, Germany did not want to pay the same amount of reparations the Allied nations believed  Germany should. Germany felt guilty about Belgium because they had invaded Belgium which was a country not involved in the war. Germany felt that they owed money to Belgium fro wrongdoings, however, they didn’t feel as of they owed any other country Reparations. Germany believed that everyone was at cause for World War One. Therefore, Germany believed they owed a very small amount of reparations to Belgium and no one else for those reasons.

Sources

Swift, Dean. “The Paris Peace Conference 1919/1920.” General History, 9 Mar. 2015, general-history.com/the-paris-peace-conference-19191920/.