Effects Of The Treaty Of Versailles

According to the National World War II Museum, during World War II there ended up being 15 million battle deaths and 45 million civilian deaths. After four long years of fighting, World War I ceased its fighting. Even though they stopped fighting, a treaty had to be made and a written plan of peace. This treaty, later named the Treaty of Versailles, ended up taking six months to finish. The people included in writing this treaty were from countries that were severely impacted by the war. So they wanted revenge on Germany and planned to punish them harshly. Wilson had his own draft that was not as harsh, but everyone else overruled him. Through an analysis of what could’ve been the outcome of World War I, why people had turned to Hitler, and

The Treaty of Versailles, which ended up being agreed on, was mainly for countries like Great Britain and France, which the war had severely affected. Since countries in Europe were in the middle of all the fighting, there were many cities that were crumbling. Since the war did not take place in North America, we were not as fueled to punish Germany compared to other European countries. Some things that the treaty did to Germany are, “The Treaty of Versailles also reduced the size of Germany. This had numerous outcomes, among them losing key economic outputs, as well as making people who had previously been German part of other countries. The change in the eastern borders of Germany, in particular, became a source of contention, and as a result, many people within Germany felt that the treaty was unfair.” (The Holocaust Explained n. d) The Treaty of Versailles took away a significant amount of land from Germany, and gave it to Poland, France, and Belgium. In addition, the treaty forced Germany to limit their military from almost two million soldiers to only one hundred thousand. The treaty also imposed a point that Germany had to pay around 269 billion dollars. This left a feeling of belittlement in the citizens of Germany. This shows that although the countries might have felt strong while punishing Germany, it only caused them to

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles, many German citizens were angry that the treaty humiliated and punished them. Many wanted to fight back, but were not in the position to do so. Because of everything that was taken away from them, it was hard for them to grow strong enough to fight back. The emotions of the people clear the path for a leader to get back at the people. This leader was none other than Adolf Hitler. Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, explains how he turned from anger to power. “Hitler had exploited prejudices and postwar humiliations: ‘The war, the Versailles treaty and the treatment of Germany since the war have made Germans turn to new leaders,’ he said. ‘Hitlerism is in a very real sense a gift of the Allies and the United States.’” (Baker 40) Hitler could use the anger from the citizens to convince them to follow him to get revenge. He influenced the idea that they needed to show that they were the superior race. Baker explains the treaty had been a gift to Hitler because it made people more willing to follow a leader who wants revenge. For example, imagine you are a poor citizen who had everything taken away from you. You want to get back at the people who had taken this away from you. But because you don’t have enough power to actually get back at them, the second best thing is to