Was Germany Responsible For Ww2 Dbq Essay

Between the years of 1914 and 1918, tragedy spread widely across the globe as an event called World War I was responsible for killing over 17 million people in Europe. The feuding sides of the Allies and the Central Powers hoped to end all wars by creating an agreement titled the Treaty of Versailles, but the Treaty failed as World War II was soon to start within the next two decades. The Treaty eventually took an opposing turn and was a contributing factor towards the start of World War II due to the claims that Germany was responsible for every act in World War I. Although the Treaty of Versailles was not the initial cause of the start of World War II, it helped to cause the war through the notions that the treaty removed too much of Germany’s gained territories, it deprived Germany of its military, it severely restricted Germany economically, and it caused Germany to feel guilty towards the war. It is unquestionable that Germany was stripped of all of its colonized land due to the Treaty of

As stated in Article 232 of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany became angry and humiliated as it was being forced to pay 132 billion gold marks ($367 billion in US Dollars, 2010) over the next 30 years (Doc C). In 1929, these payments were reduced to 112 billion gold marks ($341 billion), but Germany still fell behind on these payments as they were struggling to pay for their own reparations of World War I (Doc C). As Hitler rose to power, he stopped all of the reparation payments and continued to rule Germany in his own reign. The payments required for the reparations of the victorian countries did not allow Germany to strengthen itself, thus allowing anger towards the Treaty of Versailles to lead as a contributing factor of World War