Treaty Of Versailles Research Paper

The treaty of Versailles was a treaty signed at the end of World War I by Germany and the Allies. United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy negotiated the treaty at the peace conference held in Versailles beginning January 18, 1919. The treaty reduced Germany’s armed forces to very low levels and prohibited Germany from possessing certain kinds of weapons, it also established Germany’s liability for reparations. The treaty was supposed to ensure peace and help Europe recover from the war. In my opinion the treaty did not help with any of those two subjects.

The treaty humiliated the Germans. The war-guilt clause forced Germany to accept sole responsibility for World War I. And although the German military had played a major role in igniting the war, other countries in Europe had been guilty of provoking political crises before the war too.

The other point that could possibly have made the Germans angry the most, was article 231 "The Guilt Clause" which said that the Germans were responsible for the whole first world war. The Germans could not say or do anything and just had to keep quiet as they were blamed for everything. The Germans had expected better treatment from the treaty of Versailles as they expected it too be based on Wilson's 14 points. In the end only a few of the 14 points were actually included in the treaty of Versailles which annoyed the Germans immensely. The Germans also felt misled by the Kaiser. He started the war and then as they were looking like they might not win, he fled to Holland. The German

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.

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 troop amount for Germany had to be limited so they won't fight back. The number of soldiers they were allowed to have is 100,000 men. Germans found that unfair because the other militaries had a larger amount of troops. Compared to the other military Germany had the lowest amount of troops and that suggest that they found it unfair. (Document B)

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 was not permitted to attend the treaty. Had they been able to go to the treaty, it could have help resolve issues between the other countries and Germany. Although Germany may have caused great damage during the first war, they should have been treated in a way that caused the other three countries to look upon them as the aggrieved party. Document D sates “Allies saw the treaty of Versailles as an international contract.” It then stated that Germany saw it as a “ atrocious injustice” and that “it must be destroyed.” It is apparent that Germany was resented by the other countries. Document B showed how much land Germany lost due to the financial strain, but Germany should not have been held fully for their actions in the war. The Germans did not fight alone, and as tough as WWI was, the opposing countries should have taken responsibility for the damage they had done too. Together, they would need money for the damages that the war brought. With Germany being the issue from the point of view of the opposing countries, not allowing them to go to the Versailles treaty would only cause greater

The Treaty of Versailles was a major event in the 1920’s that was largely responsible for the events to follow, including the rise of Hitler and World War 2. Woodrow Wilson came up with a fourteen point plan of how to end the war with fairness and lasting peace. Germany was willing to accept the consequences because they trusted the treaty would be based off of Wilsons’ plan. Unfortunately for Germany and her allies, there were meetings with the four main allie leaders at Versailles to determine the final terms of the treaty without them. These men were determined to punish Germany, excluding Wilson, and hold them completely responsible for World War One. The consequences for Germany were unreasonable and unfair because Germany was not able

Document B states that Germany’s military troops are restricted to one hundred thousand men, three divisions of cavalry and seven divisions of infantry by the Versailles Treaty. As you can see in the cartoon in Document B that Germany feels trapped or “chained” in by their enemies with France, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Belgium holding the chains. Germany lost a substantial amount of their military due to the Versailles Treaty, which was signed by allied nations. The allied nations grounds for restricting German military was to keep Germany from rising to power again. As we can see Germany in return felt trapped with less power than their surrounding

One of those restrictions that provoked the Germans was on there military. Germany’s army had been reduced substantially, which created a major impact on the Germans, “Germany was not allowed to have submarines or an air force. It could have an army of only 100,000 men and a navy of only 6 ships, and it was not allowed to place any troops in the Rhineland” (Doc B). Germany, at one point being the most feared military in the world with around 3,000,000 soldiers,was left with nothing. At this point in time, Germany had felt weak compared to its surrounding countries. On top of Germany’s army being decreased, according to History.edu, “it was Forbidden to use tank or heavy artillery.” This especially was important because the two items is what helped made Germany so powerful. Now that the Germans are filled with anger, Adolf Hitler tops it off with his speech about the Treaty of Versailles, “...Today they are the foes of the Republic...because this Republic was founded at the moment when Germany was humiliated, because it so discredited the new flag that men's eyes must turn regretfully toward the old flag… So long as this Treaty stands there can be no resurrection of the German people; no social reform of any kind is possible! The Treaty was made in order to bring 20 million Germans to their deaths and to ruin the German nation. But those

Unfortunately, the peacemakers were unable to solve this problem in a mature manner and instead they let the hatred overcome their ability to establish a more proper and fair settlement. The peacemakers still could not set aside the accusations of guilt. In return, the peacemakers took away German territory and came up with a settlement that forced them to pay for the damage even though they were already in major debt. Even though the intention of the treaty was to create peace, it created an uproar of hatred by all the parties involved in the treaty and elevated German nationalism. The result of this treaty was a poor start to Wilson’s “New World” and democracy in

The Treaty of Versailles was an attempt to create World Peace after World War 1 by giving Germany all the blame for the war, but by blaming Germany it resulted in an inevitable second World War. The German Territorial Losses, Versailles Treaty, 1919 (Doc. A), Treaty of Versailles / The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Doc. C), and Treaty of Versailles / Victory Must Be Ours (Doc. D) all support that Germany's excessive war reparations lead the world into World War 2. Germany did not lose an excessive amount of territories in the result of the Versailles Treaty, but the territories Germany did lose were vital to their country.

This would obviously be upsetting to any country and would damage them economically and mentally for years. This marked the real start of the country’s animosity, but that part only held the beginning of the treaty’s punishment for them. “In addition to the economic ramifications of the treaty, Germany was required to demilitarized the Rhineland and had severe limitations placed on the size of its military, including the abolishment of its air force” (Hickman). To fully understand the severity of the treaty, one must first realize how much has really been done against Germany. They had been blamed, forced to pay reparations which nearly destroyed their economy, kicked down even farther by restricting their military, and even had their whole air force their abolished. Any country in this scenario would walk away extremely sore at the other countries if not enraged. They had no other option though, but to acquiesce to the greater power and bide their time until they actually had the strength to do something about it. Surely, as time passed, they slowly regained power and leaped back on their feet again thanks to the Allies and the Treaty.

The Treaty of Versailles was effective because it made territorial changes and had strict military terms for Germany. The Treaty of Versailles was between Germany and the allied powers, however Germany had no control of it. It assigned the War Guilt Clause to Germany stating they were the ones who caused the damage in World War 1. It also caused Germany to lose all its colonies and weapons. Germany had reparations, to pay the allied powers’ losses.