Essay Plan: The Versailles Peace Settlement failed to secure

British foreign policy interests How far do you agree with

this view?
Introduction
You need to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
The terms of the Versailles Settlement (i.e., terms of the Treaty of
Versailles, war guilt, reparations, military disarmament, territorial
losses and the creation of the LoN from which Germany was banned
from joining, and also a brief knowledge of the other treaties that
dealt with the other defeated powers at the end of WW1)
British foreign policy interests/aims/objectives for the period. (i.e., to
keep the peace and maintain stability in Europe, economic recovery in
Europe, reduced commitments in Europe, protection of the Empire and
disarmament)
Your introduction needs to cover these points.
Main part
There are two ways you can tackle this question.
1. Start with each foreign policy interest and show, in separate
paragraphs, how far each term of the Versailles settlement secured
each of the foreign policy interests.
2. Start with each term of the Versailles Settlement, and show in separate
paragraphs, how far foreign policy objectives were secured by each
term of the settlement.
Example 1:
To keep the peace and avoid war
(the main point here is that Versailles failed to fulfil the foreign policy objective of peace. Evidence of
this is the problems with Anglo-German relations in the 1920s and the development of the policy of
appeasement in the 1930s. )

GB hoped Versailles would lead to a new era of peace. Although peace

was established, it was an uneasy peace. Germany viewed the
Versailles settlement as a diktat. The Treaty had created a hostile
Germany that was likely, as soon as it had the chance, to take action to
disturb the fragile peace of post-war Europe. Lloyd George had expressed
privately his fears that a harsh settlement would create a vengeful
Germany, and he was, in time, proved to be correct. In 1923, the uneasy
peace was disturbed by Germany defaulting on her reparations
payments, which led to the French occupation of the Ruhr and passive
resistance by the German workforce. Although after Stresemanns

actions to solve the crisis (for example the Dawes Plan) did eventually
pave the way to a peaceful, stable Europe in the late 1920s, it did not last
long. The onset of the Depression in Germany created the circumstances
which led to rise to power of Hitler, who had gained popularity in
Germany partly due to his promise to smash the treaty. After Hitler
began to break the terms of the Versailles Settlement, by rearming,
introducing conscription and remilitarising the Rhineland, many
conservative members of the government, supported by some of the
general public and the press, such as the Times, believed Hitler was
simply righting the wrongs of Versailles. This demonstrates that as far
as the British government was concerned, foreign policy objectives at
Versailles had not been fulfilled the treaty had placed unfair restrictions
on Germany, which had created animosity between the two countries. It
was felt that these restrictions needed to be lifted in order to create peace.
Further evidence of this is provided by Chamberlains increasingly
desperate attempts to avoid war by following the policy of appeasement
when Hitlers demands over the reversal of Versailles increased over
Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The policy of appeasement was
based on a need to avoid war and anti-Versailles sentiment. If Versailles
had created a lasting peace, then perhaps the policy of appeasement
would never have been necessary, thus demonstrating that the settlement
itself failed to secure the foreign policy objective of peace. The ultimate
proof of this is the fact that by September 1939 Britain was once again
fighting a war that she had so desperately hoped would be never again.