Should We Condemn The Peacemakers Of 1919?

<Name> <Student Number> AIH107 Should we condemn the peacemakers of 1919 for producing a peace settlement that failed to prevent future conflicts, including the Second World War? The First World War left its mark in the world which can still be felt today. Many speculate and adamantly profess that the main reason why World War I left and is still leaving a bloody stain on our history is because of the failure of the peacemakers of 1919 to draw a favorable and long-lasting solution to the skirmish between the nations. Two historians, David Andelman and Margaret Macmillan offer two different takes on how the actions and decisions of the peacemakers of 1919 at the peace conference held in Versailles, France affected the course of the political and social workings of the nations that survived the war as well as the surrounding nations. The two historians delved into the premise and workings of the decisions finalized by those three key peacemakers and examined if they have established stable solutions to restore order or they may have sowed the grounds for the Second World War and all other future conflicts, by extension. In his, work Andelman focused on the postcolonial nations that attended the Paris conference. These nations were drawn by Woodrow Wilson’s talk on the importance of self-determination and moral responsibility in dealing with international affairs. However, this was then debunked by the traditional ideals of the leaders of the Allied Forces. Andelman pointed out that as the leaders of the four victor countries, Italy, France, Britain and the United States debated and toyed with the nations left behind by the war, they neglected to think about the those who were disdained and ignored in the peace talk. 1 The four peacemakers neglected to consider the future repercussion of their decisions and actions. They did not have the hindsight to expect that the descendants of those weaker nations would wreak havoc on the following years as retribution of their ancestor’s plight. Those descendants became state politicians, became diplomats, presidents. They became people who can sway their nations and shape them according to their ideals. There have been a lot of peace talks and conference following the 1919 event but none of them were as decisive and has caused devastating effects as that of the one in Versailles decades ago. To this day, we can still feel the resounding reverberation of that failed attempt at order and peace by the three peacemakers of 1919. Andelman, in his analysis, pointed this out clearly and vehemently. In contrary, Macmillan provides her insight on the 1919 peace talk and how it shaped the nations today. On that day, the leaders of the victor nations, the peacemakers met to discuss many points, but these points centered on four revolutionary questions: How should the division between the central Europe and in the Middle East be decided? What grounds should be established for the treaties with the Axis forces, Germany, the Ottoman em...