Soviet Aggression And Its Effects On The World War II

was a slap in the face. Hitler soon became bitter over the treaty and over the loss of German The

There was much opposition to the Treaty in the United States, as well as the rest of the world. In the excerpt from "The New Republic," it proves the public's general disdain for the Treaty. Whether they had hoped for the treaty to be more lenient on Germany, or more severe,

Article 231, in the Treaty, is commonly known as the “Guilt Clause”. This said that the Germans were responsible for the whole of the War. The Germans had no say in anything and just had to keep quiet and take the blame for everything.

The accusative countries decided the amount of compensation Germany had to pay: “Germany undertakes, that she will make compensation for all damage [...] of the Allied and Associated Powers” (Doc C). This caused Germany to spiral into starvation and debt. Hitler sought revenge and rejuvenation because of this.

In Document C, it states that Germany “will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allied and Associated Powers and to their property during the period of the belligerency.” They were making Germany pay an impossible amount of money, and only gave Germany thirty years to pay it off. In 1929, the reduced amount was 20 billion, 112 billion gold marks and the value in 2010 US Dollars is 341 billion. This made Germany so bitter because they were held responsible for the WWII and were made to pay back so much money, which later on will make Germany go into

For article four, we voted to pass motions three and six. Motion three was for colonies such as Libya be given to Italy due to the Treaty of London. We voted to pass this as we wanted our colonies promised from this treaty, as we switched alliances during the war. In addition to giving us our colonies, we also wanted to split up the rest of the German colonies equally to all the nations. As for motion six, we voted to pass its since it didn't affect us in any way as they wanted the island colonies, which no one else claimed they wanted it. For motions one, two, four and five, we voted to not pass as all these motions as they benefited one country over another, and we believed the german colonies should equally go to one another, and the promised colonies to go to who they would belong to. All these voted also went the way we voted.

Since Germany was defeated in World War I, the victorious Allies enforced harsh provisions on the country. Article 51 in the Treaty Of Versailles (Document 2) demands that Germany give their territories back to France, and document 1 showed a map of this. It also displayed the countries that occupied territory owned by the USSR. These countries include Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. This made the two countries angry. Germany was blamed for the war and was charged an incredible amount of money. In document 3, Hitler stated, “The German people after twenty-five or thirty years, in consequence of the fact that it will never be able to pay for all that is demanded of it, will have so gigantic of a sum still owing that practically it will be

One way the Versailles Treaty treated Germany unfairly was by having them take full responsibility for the war damages. Document C states in article 232 “that she will

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 would do several things that would make once proud Germany a nation what was beat and would have to pay the price of war, both literally and figuratively. Woodrow Wilson, current President of the United States at the time of the war, had the philosophy that there should be no winners, as with winners there were losers. He had 14 points that would end the war, and leave little to no gunpowder to ignite another. However, they British and French did not heed these warnings, as they would go on the limit Germany’s army. Including officers, the army would be limited to 100,000 men (Document B). While it can be seen as rational, as a restricted army would limit Germany’s chance of wanting to cause another war, it could also be seen as embarrassing. As Belgium, a country that was one of the smallest at the time had 530,000 troops after Article 160 of the treaty was passed (Document B). Now if a country that is almost one-eighth the size of you, has an army that is 5 times larger than your it is quite embarrassing, especially at a time that the size of your army was almost representative of your power. The new country of Poland had 3.2 million troops, despite its young age, (Document B). All of this was just simply unbearable to the German population, but the fact that they had to agree to a guilt clause

“The Allies continued to regard the treaty as an international contract” (Doc D) Laurence V. Moyer, Victory Must be Ours: Germany in the Great War 1914-1915, 1995 since Germany accepted the fact that the war was caused because of Germany’s aggression and her allies, and caused all the loss and damage to the allies. After continuous years of the treaty, Germans saw the Versailles treaty as an “evil thing which must be destroyed,” and as an act of humiliation because they were made to be seen as a disgrace and cast off from other nations. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Germans admired him because he made them feel a sense of pride, reawakened a sense of self-respect and forced the world to look at Germany from a new perspective. (Doc D) Leading to a huge impact on why it helped cause World War II since Germany now saw how betrayed they were by the treaty, and felt the need to put their trust on a new leader such as Hitler, who could restore Germany into a powerful nation again, in their

1. According to the authors of Germany’s complaint. The various provisions of the treaty hurt Germany’s economy by forcing Germany to accept full responsibility for the damages caused not only by the Germans but also by everyone associated with them and the damage that was caused. As stated in the article, Comments of the German Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 President Wilson recognized in his speech of 1916 “no single fact caused the war, but that in the last analysis the whole European system is in a deeper sense responsible for the war, with its combination of alliances and understandings, a complicated texture of intrigues

The final product of the Versailles Treaty’s terms was the humiliation of Germany and more importantly, its individuals. Supportingly, Document D reports that, “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.” (Document D) As the Treaty enforces blame, it singles out Germany. This attempt to prevent war only fueled the fire, creating bitterness that would be a massive contribution to World War II. In agreement, Document D continues the theme, relaying that, “What they knew of the treaty was etched

How significant was the Treaty of Versailles to Germany? This is the question that has been posed to us for our first analytical history essay. I will go into depth about my opinions on both the long-term and short-term effects of the Treaty of Versailles. I believe that the Treaty had a powerful impact on Germany- it practically ruined their economy, and gave the Germans all the more reason to hate the Allies, eventually contributing to the beginning of World War 2. Although the Allies had a right to demand certain things from Germany (as they were the instigators of the war), they should have been more lenient and taken Germany’s poor economic situation into account. The war was a mistake on the part of the German government, but it was the people who payed the price. I have taken into account Germany’s loss of territory, the war guilt, the economical effects of the Treaty, and the armaments and discussed them in this essay.

The Article never used the word guilt, but read, "...Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war..." In response to taking the blame for WWI, Germany proceeded to produce a great supply of records disproving the guilt they accepted in the Treaty of Versailles. During and after the war, many of the European powers also provided inconsistent records of the events of the war -- this was later referred to as the ‘World War of Documents’ by Bernhard Schwertfeger. Again, this information lends itself to the argument that while all the great powers in Europe shared some responsibility for the events of WWI, Germany is still the most at