The Treaty of Versailles between Allies (Britain, France, Russia) and Germany was perhaps the most important peace treaty that concluded WWI. It was signed six months after armistice, by defeated Germany, in Versailles, France, 1918. While it’s importance in dealing with Germany post war must be recognized, the Treaty of Versailles was ultimately a dictated one sided peace.
It is necessary to take into consideration the circumstances beginning, and following the end of World War I to understand the purpose of the peace treaty. After a long, four years of disastrous war, and over 20 million deaths, the ending of the war left countries in a state of desperation. The resources and economic costs gone into war, in addition to land destruction and deaths impacted many powerful
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The Treaty of Versailles left Germany in shambles, humiliated and broken, with an unstable economy. As a result, many Germans wanted revenge and held intense resentment towards the Allied Powers. Eventually, this plunged German into a state of desperation, where people were willing to follow anyone to lead them out of darkness. This led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, who was able to persuade Germans to free Germany from the “chains of Versailles”, where his many speeches mainly blamed the provisions of the treaty with responsibility of Germany’s many problems. Hitler’s mind-set and determination, along with the support of Germans, to make Germany into a stronger nation once again led to WWII and attempts to revoke the treaty. Had the terms of the treaty not punished Germany so harshly, it is unlikely that Hitler would have had the opportunity to so easily gained the support of the German people, thus avoiding World War II. The unreasonable terms of Treaty of Versailles almost inevitably caused the outbreak of World War II, which clearly reflects on how the treaty resulted in failed peace in the