The Treaty of Versailles: an atomic bomb waiting to detonate

       Woodrow Wilson originally went into the "Great War" with a specific purpose, "To make the world safe for democracy." even though he had originally said to stay out of foreign affairs. After the war, at the conference at Versailles Palace, Wilson presented his fourteen points in order to create world peace. Wilson was a driven president who wanted change in the world, and for this to be the war to end all future wars. While his fourteen points seemed pretty reasonable, they only took into consideration America's view of the war. Wilson never considered how the other Allied powers viewed the end of the war or what consequences they wanted.Take Wilson's second point for example, it called for freedom of the seas. This sounds like it would benefit everyone, but in actuality it only really helped Great Britain and the U.S. since it would basically give Great Britain control of the seas since they have the largest navy in the world. Also considering they took away Germany's navy it was even worse. The Fourth point as well calling for equal trade and the removal of economic barriers to trade, would greatly benefit the U.S. while hurting other smaller, less industrialized countries. Since the United States was one of the biggest trade countries in the world, Wilson's fourth point would allow U.S. goods to be sent into smaller countries markets, basically replacing the countries markets with American goods and the countries would be driven into even deeper into poverty forced to buy foreign goods. This was not favorable to countries such as France, since they were not as big of a trade nation as the U.S. or Great Britain. Furthermore, although Wilson presented a few valid points (the first point, prohibiting secret treaties among nations, the seventh point, freeing Belgium and allowing them to prosper without foreign troops present), He did not consider other countries' views of the war and how they would respond leading to the fourteen points being quickly denied in the Conference at Versailles
      The main objectives of the European leaders were to just make Germany pay. Through land, money and an almost non-existent military, and the guilt of the war they forced Germany to pay. Holding the versailles conference in class really helped show us how frustrating and selfish it was. Each country was only thinking about themselves and what they wanted and not even considering the moral choice. If i were an American or German for that matter after the Treaty of Versailles was signed I would be outraged. As an American citizen, I would be furious with Wilson. How could our own president (Who leads a nation based on liberty and freedom) agree to such unfair terms for Germany?! Even though Germany sunk our ships, threatened our land, and invaded many other countries during the war, the terms Germany was subjected to were completely ridiculous and I do not understand how the leaders of 4 different nations could agree to such harsh punishments. Also if they were good leaders, they would have considered the consequences of severely punishing a powerful nation such as Germany. If any of the leaders had thought about how their country would respond if they were subjected to the same harsh conditions, The Treaty of Versailles may have been revised. You cannot put the weight of an entire world war on one country and not expect them to rebel. World War II was a direct consequence of the Treaty of Versailles and not avoidable after the Treaty was signed and sent to Germany. It was a major mistake on the part of each of the leaders present at the conference to sign the treaty.