How Significant Was The Treaty Of Versailles To Germany

In 1914, Germany and Austria-Hungary allied against France, Britain, USA and Italy in World War 1. The war resulted in resentment towards the Germans. Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, established a treaty that would bring everlasting peace. For the Germans however, the treaty served as a punishment, as they were required to accept the responsibility for causing all of the damage. Germany was angered by the treaty as they would have to pay for reparations and take responsibility for everything. Territorial losses, militarism, economic reparations and blame were all causes of World War II.

Between the years 1919-1939, the Treaty of Versailles affected Germany in many ways such as economically, politically, loss of German territories, and caused Germany’s armed forces to struggle. The Treaty of Versailles was when Germany and The Allies signed a peace treaty, ending WW1. The treaty stripped Germany 25,000 square miles of land and over 7 million people. The treaty also caused Germany to go into a great depression.

World War II was undoubtedly one of the most important parts of not only U.S. history, but world history as well. But do you know what contributed to the start of the war? The Treaty of Versailles was created to stop World War I, and any other future wars that could occur. So how did the Treaty of Versailles contribute to the start of World war II? The Treaty took away much of Germany’s land, gridlocked the German military, forced war reparations on the German government, and ordered them to accept responsibility for causing the war.

Ninety-eight years ago, after the fighting of World War I subsided, the Treaty of Versailles (“the Treaty”) was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France by the Allied powers and Germany. The compromise of the Treaty is that it ended World War I. The conflict of the Treaty is that it fed the German’s hate for the Allied Powers and, in turn, was the cause of World War II. “In their hearts was a stern resolution that the fiasco of November 11, 1918, would not be repeated for all serious people in America, as in all nations, remembered that much hailed Versailles Treaty was sown the very seeds of World War II” (Library Of Congress. Manzanar free press, November 12, 1942. 1942. Newspaper. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84025948/1942-11-12/ed-1/. )

The Treaty of Versailles could be described as a great step for peace by some, but in Germany the people were enraged. The Treaty of Versailles was seen by the German people as a way to take away Germany’s land and make Germany have to pay for the war. Extreme Nationalists like Adolf Hitler had a strong idea on who should be the blame for Germany’s loss of land and the failure at the Treaty of Versailles. Adolf Hitler and the Nazism party blamed the Weimar Republic. “Hitler and the Nazi Party gained power in Germany by exploiting the economic problems and constitutional weaknesses of the Weimar Republic.”

The role of a treaty is to serve as the compromise between parties involved in a particular debacle when they must decide on a solution that will ensure that said debacle does not result once more. If the treaty does not fulfill its necessary duties, it is considered ineffective. The Treaty of Versailles, while it was just in holding Germany accountable, was too harsh on the defeated powers and created unnecessary economic turmoil in Germany and most of Europe by imposing all too much on the nation and therefore was an ineffective treaty.

World War I was one of the most destructive wars in modern history. Nearly ten million soldiers died as result, in part, from the introduction of new weapons, like the machine gun and gas warfare, as well as the failure of military leaders to adjust their tactics to the increasingly mechanized nature of warfare. Viewing Germany as the chief instigator of the conflict, the Allied Powers decided to impose particularly harsh terms and conditions upon defeated Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, signed June 28, 1919, did little to shape any sort of long-term peace from the results of World War I. Instead, the treaty, hastily put together, was vague, exposed the Allies’ inability to cooperate toward an agreement, and fueled German nationalism from resentment over its treatment by the Allies. It was doomed from the start, and another war was practically certain. The main reasons for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles to establish the long-term peace it envisioned involved the Allies disagreement on how to treat Germany, Germany’s refusal to accept the terms of reparations, the “war-guilt” clause which led to growing German resentment and nationalism, and the lack of enforcement and willingness of the Allied powers combined with the United States’ isolationism.

The Versailles Peace Treaty was signed in June 1919 after the First World War by the victorious Allies and defeated Germany and was intended to punish Germany for what was seen as her war guilt and to prevent her from becoming powerful enough again to disturb European peace. It was called a Carthaginian peace in the first instance by Jan Smuts (a member of the British Delegation at the Peace Conference in Paris) in a letter to Lloyd George dated 16th March 1919[1] and in 1920 by John Maynard Keynes (also a member of the British Delegation) in his book The Economic Consequences of

​Second, the Treaty of Versailles was so vindictive, so punitive, so vengeful that the reparations were never going to be realistic for Germany to manage​ and it all but paved the path to WWII​.

The Treaty of Versailles greatly affected Germany’s military. Once Germany’s Military was great, but by the time the Treaty was over with, it was probably one of the weakest in the world. France was the harshest it made Germany limit its military to only 100,000 soldiers, and made it get rid of all its tanks. England made Germany limit its navy to 15,000 sailors. The Allies wanted Germany as weak as possible.

The Treaty of Versailles had a significant impact on Germany and greatly effected the Weimar Republic. The legacy of the Weimar was tainted by the bitterness and humiliation brought about by the Treaty, described Historian Antony Lentin as “[the Treaty] left her [Germany] scourged, humiliated and resentful”. The severe ramifications of the Treaty, such as the military sanctions, economic burdens, consequently brought about the instability of the Weimar government. The Treaty of Versailles proved to have significant social and economic consequences that would see the longevity of German Democracy severely reduced and would “cast a spell over the [Weimar Constitution] and the Republic which it was to establish”(William Shirer).

After The Great War, the citizens of Germany looked for a new hope. The Treaty of Versailles wrecked the German state and morale seemingly beyond repair with its harsh terms of negotiation. Of course, the German people expected some reparations to be demanded, but they were shocked when the meeting of the Allied Powers at the Paris Peace Conference resulted in the creation of the Treaty of Versailles, a harsh, demanding cry of retaliation. The Treaty of Versailles effectively forced the return of all lands taken during the war to their rightful governments, including all overseas colonies, which meant a loss of a symbol of world power status. Most of these demands for land return were unsurprising to the German people, yet still they took a toll on the German morale. To further damage Germany’s power, the Treaty also called for a mass disarmament of the German military. Though promised that this was “merely a first step in a worldwide process of disarmament”, the German army and navy were severely reduced, and their ability to produce military weaponry and submarines was greatly restricted. Yet, even these harsh plans to reduce German power did not have the greatest effect on German confidence. The most damaging portions of the Treaty of Versailles were its honor clauses. These allowed individuals to be tried as war criminals and, even more injurious, established in writing that Germany was guilty for the majority of violence and aggression during the war and called for

After World War One, the allied powers had Germany sign the Treaty of Versailles. The document stated that Germany would pay for reparations and re-assigned German land boundaries. This treaty left Germany’s economy in shambles, unemployment was at an all-time high and inflation skyrocketed. The German people, left without a voice and in economic ruin, began to look to a new leader, Adolf Hitler.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 at the great Palace of Versailles in France. The victorious Allies, (Great Britain, France and Italy, and the United States), all came together to decide what punishment Germany should receive for the total devastation left by this war that they started, and what to do with the Central Powers, (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) in general. The Allies were furious that they had lost so much in this war, and gained so little; while Germany’s land was practically untouched. The armistice was a slap in the face to Germany, especially because it was being announced at the palace of Germany’s most hated rival, France, and because Germany

Prior to the Munich Putsch Germany had just gotten out of World War One. “Germany was rapidly falling apart in the last few weeks of the war.” Many Germans had lost their hope for the war, the Kaiser had been abdicated and loss was practically inevitable. The Treaty of Versailles was born out of the war as a way to punish Germany for its actions. The Treaty of Versailles triggered two different viewpoints; there were the Germans who viewed its harshness as necessary and there were those who felt that it was unfair and cruel.