After the events of World War I, leaders around the world came together and created the Versailles Treaty. The response to the treaty was met with anger and humiliation from the Germans as they suffered from a failing economy, starvation, and war debt. The people needed a strong government that would solve their issues, which is why Hitler and the Nazi regime were able to rise to power, and their actions and beliefs eventually led to WWII. In the Versailles Treaty, Germany lost many territories such as Lorraine, Alsace, and the Polish Corridor which greatly impacted their economy. In a speech made in 1924, Hitler suggests that “Only childish and naive minds can lull themselves into the idea that they can bring about a correction of Versailles
Although there were different factors that contributed, they were inferior to the treaty of versailles, which caused severe exasperation and antagonization within Germany.
The three main reasons of why the Treaty Of Versailles helped cause World War Two is Germans restricted army, War guilt, and having to pay reparations. The first point of why the Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War Two is that Germany’s army was restricted. Germany’s army was restricted to only having 100,000 men including officers stated by document B. Along with only have 100,000 men including officers, they soldiers weren’t allowed to leave the county to help fight battles, so they were really just “peace keepers”, said document B. This decrease of army made Germany weak and a very easy target compared to France, who had a much larger amount of soldiers and were allies with Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium.
The Versailles Treaty helped cause WW2 due to Germany’s territorial loss as well as the strict limitations imposed on Germany’s military. Germany’s territorial losses were one of the main contributors to the beginning of WW2. Document A provides a map showing the German border before WW1, and the territorial loss by Germany after WW1. Germany lost a significant amount of land including: the Polish Corridor, Lorraine, Alsace, and Danzig. Throughout, Document A helped suggest Germany’s territorial struggles.
In 1914, World War I started and ended four years later in 1918, almost a year later World War II had just begun. Treaty of Versailles would become a peace treaty between the Allies and Germany in 1919. How did the Treaty of Versailles trigger World War II? German territorial loss, military cuts, and the payment of reparations were all repercussions of the Treaty of Versailles, which later started World War II. The Treaty took a major amount of coal-producing land from Germany, which reduced coal production by forty percent. Along with the reduction of coal-producing land, the German military was limited one hundred thousand men, including officers. Additionally, Germany was required to pay reparations for the damage done during World War I, which cost them over two billion marks (6 million USD).
The paper, originally designed to be the sole protector from future German invasion, cost 75 million lives. This paper caused humiliation, cost billions of dollars, and most importantly, did the opposite of its intended purpose. This paper was designed to maintain peace and stability in the world after the outbreak of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles planted the seeds of hatred in Germany, and soon enough, this hatred allowed for the rise of Adolf Hitler, a cruel and vicious dictator. The Treaty’s territorial losses, harsh reparations, war guilt, and military restrictions imposed on Germany caused the outbreak of World War II.
Hitler would later use the treaty as the cause of all the problems faced by Germany and convince the people that he could restore national pride and world recognition of Germany as an equal nation. The treaty of Versailles helped cause world war II by demanding that they pay billions in reparation, forcing them to sign the war guilt clause, taking vital land away from them, and most importantly greatly restricting Germanys military.
Germany, after losing World War 1 encountered social and economic changes. The treaty of Versailles, which was one of the peace treaties created at the end of the war, made various restrictions to Germany. Consequently, the Nazi party, greatly affected by this punishment, tried to reestablish Germany prior wealth. Germany was blamed for the harm caused during World War I, and therefore, it placed total responsibility on the reparation payments, creating huge problems that disrupted their good economic development. Part of their territory had to be given to nations such as Belgium, France Poland and Denmark, how it is clearly stated in part II of the treaty 1.
“The treaty was made to bring twenty million Germans to their deaths and to ruin the German nation... At its foundation our movement formulated three demands. ”- Adolf Hitler. Germany was blamed hard for World War l causing much damage to Germany.
The Versailles Treaty was when the Big Four countries met together to see what could be done to help end the war and for it not to happen again. These Big Four countries were the ones that controlled the negotiations and made the decisions, people could make suggestions, but it was up to those countries. These Big Four countries were Britain, France, Italy, and the United States. These states were trying to get their wishes to come reality, and hopefully not starting another war. This leading to Germany becoming very weak and without a way to fight for a very long time, which was about 20 years. The Treaty of Versailles was actually a very big contribution for starting World War II.
The Treaty of Versailles was Flawed. World War I began when the future leader of the Austro-Hungarian empire, archduke Franz Ferdinand, was killed by Serbia in 1914. This caused the secret alliances that were in Europe at the time to defend and attack each other, starting the war. One side of the war was the Triple Entente, this was Great Britain, France, and Russia, with additional Serbia. The other side was Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, even though Italy remained neutral.
After World War I ended, Europe and its allied countries wanted to create a treaty as a form of security to prevent another situation like this ever happening again. Included in this treaty was an agreement to join the League of Nations, a group of world leaders formed to ensure international peace. While the United States wanted to agree the other terms and sign the Treaty of Versailles, there was much debate over whether it was wise to agree to help in affairs across the seas. Many Americans did not want to get involved if Europeans were fighting as it gave them more to worry about when the issue never should have concerned their country. Members of the United States government believed that that it would be a breach of American freedom and
The Treaty of Versailles changed Germany’s boundaries and had it pay for all the reparations from the war. John Maynard Keynes predicted that it would lead to Germany’s economic destruction. It did eventually, especially after 1931 when the German economy collapsed. Adolf Hitler came to power just three years after, blaming as many people as possible for their lack of economic security. This
In 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference The Treaty of Versailles was formally drafted and World War I was finally brought to an end. The treaty was drafted by the Allied Powers, which consisted of Great Britain, France and the United States. This treaty blamed the war solely on Germany, and it required them to pay an amount of “$33 billion dollars in reparations, cede all of colonies, dismantle their air force, and greatly reduce their other military operations”(German Delegation, 291).
There is no question that the German people showed a high level of discontent with the Allies after World War 1, especially since the unveiling of the terms from the Treaty of Versailles. Possibly the most humiliating clause implemented in the Treaty of Versailles was Article 231, also known as ‘War Guilt.’ This was a term, which forced Germany to accept all responsibility for initiating the First World War along with paying a detrimental bill of £6.6 billion for war reparations , strongly demanded by French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, even though it was apparent that Germany would not be able to keep up with this payment. So clearly from the aftermath of the First World War, Germany became a bitter nation filled with hatred towards the Allies. However, there had to be an outlet for all this anger, which some historians argue was redirected towards the Weimar Republic. In result, this was a source of promulgation for the Nazi Party as the Germans were deviated towards extreme radical parties. The National Socialist Workers Party, also popularly known as The Nazi Party, was founded after the collapse of the First World War. It was first regarded as the Germans Workers’ Party until the infamous Adolf Hitler assumed leadership of the organization. The primary purpose for this party was a cry for German nationalism and anti-Semitism. Throughout the early 1920s, Hitler attempted to lead the Nazi Party to success, trying to persuade the nation into adopting the Nazi
What responsibility did each of the “Big Three” have for the failure of the Versailles Treaty to bring peace to Europe? Be sure to discuss what each wanted to accomplish.