WH10: WWI Exam Extra Credit Essay Question
Name: _______________________
Shortly before 3 p.m., on July 28th, 1919, five years to the day after the assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, the prime minister of France George Clemenceau opened the signing ceremonies for the Treaty
of Versailles In the Great Hall of Mirrors at the Paris of Versailles outside of Paris. It had taken five long
months of frenzied, often combative negotiations between the victorious nations of WWI, France, Great
Britain, Italy, and United States, to hammer out the agreement. With thousands outside the hall straining to
catch a glimpse through the windows of the historic proceedings within, Clemenceau loudly exclaimed,
“Bring in the Germans.” The Germans, who had not been part of the negotiations of the treaty, were now
given a stark choice: sign a treaty that they had had no part in creating or face the continuation of the
blockade of their ports and a resumption (restart) of the Great War. The two German representatives, with
faces as white as ghosts and avoiding eye contact with any of the representatives from the other nations,
walked slowly into the hall, sat down at their designated places, and signed the treaty, using their own pens
rather than those offered to them by their French hosts, which they considered “enemy pens”.
Germans back home, already angered that they had been excluded from taking part in the negotiations
of the treaty, now reacted with shock and outrage when they read the terms of the newly signed
agreement: Germany would lose all of its overseas colonies and large tracts of land to France in the west
and to the newly formed Poland in the east, would have to give up its air force, hand its battleships over to
Great Britain, reduce its army to a mere 100,000 men, and pay $32 billion in war reparations to the victors.
Worst of all for many Germans was what later came to be known as the “war guilt” clause in the treaty,
which forced Germany to admit full responsibility for WWI and all of its terrible consequences.
1. In a brief essay of at least 100 words, respond to the following question. Be sure to give reasons for your
opinions.
Do you think the harsh treatment of Germany by the victorious powers from WWI as described above was:
a. understandable?
b. fair?
c. judicious (a good idea or decision in the long run)?
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