The Effects of the Treaty of Versailles

The world war started in 1914; quick victories and a war of short duration were expected. This certainly was not the case. What they experienced was a prolonged global war that cost millions of lives, destruction of lifetimes of work and caused hate throughout for generations to come. The defeated Germany was then humiliated by the treaty of Versailles and the conditions it required.

The armistice was signed on November 11, 1918 which officially ended the war until a peace treaty could be agreed to and signed. The peace treaty was signed by Germany on June 28, 1919 in the palace of Versailles. This peace treaty known as the Treaty of Versailles dealt exclusively with defeated Germany. When Germany signed the treaty, their army had been ruined the government was collapsing and the people were exhausted. The four powers were all greatly affected by this war and therefore vengeful intentions were at mind while creating the treaty. Germany had been defeated and the treaty of Versailles was the final touch to the devastation for Germany.

The treaty of Versailles came along with many territorial changes for Germany. In article 51: “The territories which were ceded to Germany in accordance with the Preliminaries of Peace signed at Versailles on February 26, 1871 and the treaty of Frankfort of May 10, 1871, are restored to French sovereignty as from the date of the Armistice of November 11, 1918.” I believe that Article 89 although not mentioned in the Modern History Sourcebook pages, although very important was the Polish Corridor; this piece of land ran straight through the middle of Germany which separated the rest of Germany from East Prussia this weakened Germany severely. East Prussia was a great source of money for Germany and th...

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..., first in inflation and then in the Great Depression. He promised a way out of economic hardship and the reassertion of Germany’s claim to status as a world power.” (pg. 806)

The treaty of Versailles was humiliating; it forced Germany to accept the full responsibility for the war. The treaty also commanded that no German troops could be stationed in their industrial heartland; it capped their military size for the country; it took away foreign holdings and forced Germany to pay reparations that were crippling. The treaty of Versailles paved the rise of Hitler and the Nazis just as the World War I did for the Communist revolution in Russia.

Works Cited

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1919versailles.html.

Kishlansky, Mark, Patrick Geary, and Patricia O'Brien. Pearson Custom Library: Western Civilization. Columbia College ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.