Study SOURCE 15 and using the evidence in the source say whether they think the treaty of Versailles was fair. Remember, to look at symbols, language and context. [8mks] The peacemakers of 1919 made mistakes, of course. By their offhand treatment
of the non-European world they stirred up resentments for which the West is
still paying today. They took pains over the borders in Europe, even if they did
not draw them to everyone's satisfaction, but in Africa they carried on the old
practice of handing out territory to suit the imperialist powers. In the Middle East
they threw together peoples, in Iraq most notably, who still have not managed
to cohere into a civil society. If they could have done better, they certainly could
have done much worse. They tried, even cynical old Clemenceau, to build a
better order. They could not foresee the future and they certainly could not
control it. That was up to their successors. When wer came in 1939, it was a
result of twenty years of decisions taken or not taken, not of arrangements made
in 1919.
Historian Margaret MacMillan writing in Peacemakers, 2001