Essay/Term paper: Another world war i

Essay, term paper, research paper:  World War

How the Treaty of Versailles Effected Germany

Wen World War I ended on November 11, 1918, peace

talks went on for months due to the Allied leaders wanting to

punish the enemy and "dividing the spoils of war." A formal

agreement to end the war was made and called the Treaty of

Versailles. The issue that took the most time were the

territorial issues because the empires of Russia,

Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman, and Germany had collapsed.

These fallen empires had to be divided up and America"s

President Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau of

France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and David Lloyd George

of Great Britain, were the main deciders of this deal. During

1918, Russia was knocked out of the war due to military

defeats and the Bolshevik Revolution. Even though Russia

had not been part of the Central Powers, Germany seized

much of western Russia. After many months of arguing, the

four men had made western Russia into the nations of

Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland. The Treaty

of Versailles was either a treaty of peace or a vengeance for

the Germans. In April of 1919, Germany was previously

captured and made to wait in a small house that was

surrounded with barbed wire. The Allied, who captured

Germany, wanted to make a peace treaty to end the fighting.

The Germans agreed, but they wanted a treaty that was

based on the Fourteen Points but obviously they were not

going to get it because of the way they were treated; the

barbed wire was unnecessary and "should have tipped them

off to what lay ahead." When the treaty was first introduced

to the Germans, they declined to sign it. It forced the

Germans to accept full responsibility for the war and strip

themselves of its colonies, coal fields, and the provinces of

Alsace and Lorraine. It also made them pay outrageous

reparations to the Allies. Nevertheless, on June 28, 1919,

the Germans reluctantly signed the treaty because the Allies

refused to change one word. Out of the $33 billion dollars

the Germans had to pay for damages, the country was only

able to pay $4.5 billion of it. The terms of the Treaty of

Versailles helped set the stage for another world war less

than 20 years later because the Allied wanted to stop

Germany from ever becoming imperialistic again and still

have them pay the war reparations. Germany opposed these

actions and was the most effected by the terms of the

Versailles Treaty. Germany got the blunt end of the war and

was desperate to find a new leader to get out of their

depression. That leader was Adolf Hitler. World War I was

won by the Allied in which a formal agreement was made

called the Versailles Treaty. It both brought peace and war

in the coming years. Due to the harsh life styles it forced

Germany to live, World War II broke out within twenty

years time from the treaty.