Versailles Treaty War

How the Treaty of Versailles changed the Trajectory of the World

Introduction

After six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference, the “Treaty of Versailles” was finally signed on November 11, 1919 in the follow-up of the “Armistice” treaty to officially end World War 1. The Versailles treaty basically required Germany and her allies to accept responsibility for the world war and agree to territorial concession, disarmament and to pay reparations to some of the Allied countries. However, the treaty began being undermined from as early as the 1922 due to subsequent events and by the 1930s, the provisions therein were almost totally ignored.

Negotiations

Prior to the signing of the Versailles treaty, negotiations had begun as early as January of 1919 with 26 nations initially participating. However, Germany, Austria and Hungary were excluded because they were the defeated parties and due to a separate negotiation between Germany and Russia in 1917, Russia was also excluded from the negotiations. The important roles played during the negotiations were by the five main victors: the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan but due to the impracticality of Japan at that time to remain fully committed in the negotiation process, its participation was limited. Italy also left the negotiations and later returned to make territorial claims, which were rejected. Thereafter, the United States, France and Great Britain decided the final terms of the treaty, which had been difficult to agree upon and unhappy compromise because of conflicting interests of these three nations.

Initial Rejection and Later Acceptance of the Treaty by Germany

Germany had initially protested at the terms and conditions of the treaty because it had not been allowed to negotiate the treaty. Besides this the conditions being imposed upon her included giving up all of her overseas colonies, partitioning her own boundaries in favor of surrounding nations including the losing of almost 12.5% of her population and being restricted in rebuilding her military capabilities had therefore to withdrew from the proceedings.

In June 1919, after the new German government had been installed, Germany agreed to the conditions and to sign the treaty, which was later ratified on January 10, 1920 by the League of Nations.

The Aims of the Victors

The intention of the four main victors of World War 1 was to punish Germany but they all had their different reasons as to how it should be punished. France wanted to be a dominating force in the region, while Britain wanted Germany to be viably strong enough to counter the France. The United States on the other hand wanted permanent peace with compensation for its military intervention with the destruction of the old empires.

The League of Nations

Before the end of World War 1, the United States had put forward a fourteen points program that was not as harsh as the British and the French wanted it to be with the Germans also being led to think the Versailles treaty would be based around these points. The American idea behind the League of Nations was to avert future wars in Europe, however, only three of the fourteen points were implemented.

Consequences of the Versailles Treaty

The eventual compromise between the victors was to none of their satisfaction and as Germany was not completely decimated, its rise in the coming years was the reason for World War 11. From an alternative viewpoint, Germany's weakening and humiliation through the Versailles treaty were so severe the its disarmament reparation payments had to eventually be cancelled and the financial burden for the reconstruction shifted to the countries that had been devastatingly occupied during World War 1. As Germany's industrial power and economy was not as much affected as her enemy nations and furthermore the creation of Poland provided protected from her powerful enemy Russia. In fact it had even stemmed Russia's advance towards Europe in the Battle of Warsaw in 1920.

In the immediate after-effects of the Versailles treaty, the German colonial empire had to cede its eastern frontier to the newly independent Poland and the city of Danzig was put under the governance of the League of Nations. Germany also had to give up control of its overall colonies and the it further territories were ceded to France and Belgium. Germany even had to concede to the demand for the recognizing and respecting the independence of Austria.

While full blame for the World War 1 was assigned to Germany, in severe reparations demanded by France were a retribution for similar reparations Germany had demanded of France through 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt.

Animosity and Persecution of Jewish People in Germany

The animosity towards the Jews, which later led to their persecution also stemmed from the 1918 war where Germany had still not surrendered and were fighting a war in France and Belgian and had defeated the Russians. At this time strikes had been instigated in the arms industry that led the failure of Germany's war effort, as soldiers did not get adequate supplier of war material. These strikes were attributed as treacheries of the Jewish people, furthermore many of the leaders of Bavarian Soviet Republic were also Jewish and this fact further allowed for anti-Semitic feelings and propaganda which eventually led to the holocaust in World War 11.

Conclusion

After the Versailles treaty, Russia had become diplomatically isolated and embroiled in its own civil war while the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy had been replaced by smaller republics that proved no obstacle for the revitalized Germany of Adolf Hitler. Germany therefore become more powerful than her eastern and southeastern neighbors and within two decades it had become such a dominant force in Europe.

The resentment in Germany towards the treaty proved fertile ground for the rise of Nazism and in defiance military buildup began and Hitler eventually tore up the treaty in front of a cheering crown. Consequently Hitler in 1936 reoccupied the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland; in 1938 he annexed Austria and in 1939 he occupied Czechoslovakia and also invaded Poland. This eventually led to the beginning of World War 11. Historian Dan Rowling (1951) in his historical assessments claimed, "It was this treaty which caused a chain reaction leading to World War II".

Works Cited

Gerhard L. Weinberg, 2005(2nd edition), A World at Arms: A global history of World War II, Cambridge University Press, pp 15-16. ISBN 0521853168

Margaret MacMilan, 2003, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, Random House, ISBN NR.: 03757605200375760520

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.geschichtsforum.de/archive/index.php%3Ft-4828.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=4&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DParis%2B1919%2BMargaret%2BMacmilan%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Margaret Macmilan, 2004, Paris 1919

http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:Yp9gJfmpr9cJ:www.math.chalmers.se/~ulfp/Review/1919.ps+Paris+1919+Margaret+Macmilan&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=pk

Treaty of Versailles, from wikipedia the free encyclopedia (Accessed: April 6, 2007)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles

We provide a professional essay writing service that thousands of our customers use as an effective way of improving their grades, improving their research and saving them lots of time.