Causes Of The Treaty Of Versailles Dbq Essay

Though the treaty of versailles created peace and harmony in many nations after the first world war it left Germany to be humiliated and dishonored and to be worthless as a result Germany revolted, plunging the world into a second world war.

At the end of WWI many countries blamed Germany for starting the war. These countries used the Treaty of Versailles to punish Germany. These punishments included loss of land and military, infeasible reparations, and complete humiliation; this is how the Treaty of Versailles directly caused WWII.

The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty signed by the winners of WWI meant to punish the aggressors of the war. The treaty opened the door for WWII to develop into an international total war. The Treaty of Versailles made WWII inevitable due to the absurd amount of repercussions Germany had to deal with, the failure of the league of nations, and the expansion of Japan.

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

Some of these colonies included, Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon, Namibia, and Botswana. Germany hit a major loss in their economy by losing 60 million tons of coal. After the industrial land was given away, Germany only had access to 78 million tons of coal per year (Doc A). Adolf Hitler recognized the need for German territory, In his book “Mein Kampf’ He states the need for German expansion or the “Jewish Peril”.

How Did the Versailles Treaty Help Cause World War II? The Great War, or World War I, was a war that took the lives of 10 million soldiers, seven million civilians, and wounded more than 10 million men, finally came to an end on November 11, 1918. After the war, a conference was held at the Versailles Palace, just outside of Paris, to hammer out a treaty. The Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, of France, David Lloyd George of England, and the president, Woodrow Wilson, of the United States, were the victorious allied nations that came together and created the Versailles Treaty, where Germany was given no voice and Russia was not represented because they were pulled out of the war in 1917.

The Treaty of Versailles was a controversial treaty, not only because of what it embodied, but what it took to get the Treaty in motion. The Great War, or World War I, lasted between 1914 and 1918. This war occurred over a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, political alliances between nations, ethnic tensions in Europe, and most of all, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Austria-Hungary. With the bloody stalemate continuing without any end, the United States still held its position as a neutral world power, but events, such as the sinking of the Lusitania, caused the United States to recant its neutral position to a position in fighting against Germany. The end of World War I officially ended by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, but wasn't signed by the U.S. Whether this was President Wilson's fault or the Senate's fault, has been questioned over the last decade.

The Treaty of Versailles was created with the intent of preventing another war. The Allied powers met at Versailles to discuss the treaty without inviting the Central Powers. Although the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative reduced the possibilities of the treaty being passed, The Treaty of Versailles’ defeat was mainly because of Wilson’s quickly changed opinion on reparations, disapproval of senators, and his intransigence towards the treaty.

Article 232 of the Treaty of Versailles states, “The Allied governments require Germany to pay for all wartime damages…” (Cruxton, Wilson 160). After the war, the economy of all nations involved in the war was not very high, and thus Article 232 caused Germany’s economy to cripple. Instead of building on Germany’s own economy, Germany was required to pay the reparations. It also elevated the injustice of other nations towards Germany, because Germany was not the sole nation to have been involved in World War One.

However, the long term affects WWI had on Germany were even greater than the short term affects. At the end of the war and during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, all the Allied Forces agreed that the cause of the war was Germany and their selfish plan and that was what led to one of the deadliest conflicts in the World. Nevertheless, Germany, who had no representation during the Treaty, was order to pay for all the damages during and after the War and they were also to give back Alsace- Lorraine to the French. The devaluation of currency also was one of the main arguments the Nazi's used to seize power in Germany to make it a prosperous nation, which automatically plunged Germany into another World War. The German State only

When Germany was defeated, they were forced to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The terms included:

After the conclusion of World War One, Germany agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which imposed large restrictions on Germany’s ability to rebuild. One major imposition of the treaty was reparations equivalent to £6,600,000,000 that was to be payed to France, Britain and America to pay for damages dealt during the war. By 1923, Germany was struggling to pay reparations to France, as there economy was already struggling with a lack of able workers, which lead to the French invasion of the Ruhr; this was especially effective as the Ruhr – and the Saar coalfields – were major contributors to the German effort to rebuild their economy and the German military was hugely limited by the treaty. In the occupation of the Ruhr, German workers

The terms of the treaty can be classified into 3 groups- the first one is territorial. In sum, Germany forfeited

Germany itself was in hardship due to World War One. Although they were forced to accept the blame, the country was very poor, jobs were hard to find, food and basic goods were too costly. The people of Germany were unhappy and thus put their trust in the power of a man who promised to defend them against the Treaty of Versailles. This man was Adolf Hitler.

World War I was a major conflict fought in Europe and around the world between 1914 until 1918. In the end, the countries were striving to recover from World War 1 and were in need of a treaty to prevent any future war from occurring. The countries came to an agreement and decided to create the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty was made to end the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers, but Germany was not allowed to attend the Conference so they had no say in the terms that were discussed. The Allies punished Germany in the Treaty of Versailles because of 1) pressure put on the allied countries by civilians to discipline Germany and 2) the strong feeling that Germany should pay for all of the damage and destruction caused by the war considering they were a major cause of starting it. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles caused Germany to lose everything- territory, money due to reparations, alliances, military control, disarmament, and worst their pride; essentially Germany had to take full blame for the war. These terms were made to prevent Germany from exercising such aggression in the future. In reality, what ended up transpiring was that the Treaty gave Germany even more hatred to the point where they were looking for anything who could fix all of the ongoing problems they were facing- this setup Adolf Hitler’s rise up to power. Hitler’s rise to power was formed not only by the Treaty of Versailles, but also by his nazi propaganda, his fiery public speaking