How the Versailles Ended the world war I and Paved for world war II

How the Versailles Ended the world war I and Paved for world war II

After the Great War, Europe severely punished Germany. The treaty signed at Versailles laid the foundations for the Second World War.

United States President Woodrow Wilson smiles as he leads the motorcade following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Although Wilson personally negotiated the treaty, it was never ratified by the US Congress.

On June 28, 1919, on the outskirts of Paris, European dignitaries gathered at the  Palace of Versailles  to sign one of the most controversial treaties in modern history. Known as the Treaty of Versailles, it officially ended World War I and, at the same time, laid the foundations for World War II. Although it was preceded by a peace conference of more than a year, the  treaty  did not suit all the signatory countries.

More than 65 million people had  fought  in the First World War and more than 8.5 million soldiers and  at least  6.6 million civilians died in this trench warfare. Europe at the end of the four long years of war was a vast battlefield. And for many, Germany was solely to blame. Although contemporary historians still disagree  on the division of responsibility for this conflict, the treaty was intended to punish Germany.

FROM IDEALISM TO PUNISHMENT

During  World War I , US President Woodrow Wilson proposed what he called the  Fourteen Points , a plan for world peace which included the creation of an association of nations to ensure European security and prevent nations to conclude secret treaties assuring the parties of mutual protection. Much of this idealistic plan was scuttled in negotiations when the other Allied nations shifted their reparations priorities in a battered Europe.

European leaders sign the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors to officially end the First World War.

The treaty itself was based on Germany's admitted culpability in this conflict. The document deprived Germany of  13% of its territory  and a tenth of its population. The Rhineland was occupied and demilitarized and the German colonies were placed under the government of the new  League of Nations . The German army was reduced to 100,000 men and the country was prohibited from recruiting soldiers. Its weapons were largely confiscated and its navy stripped of large ships. Germany was forced to  try  William II, its emperor, for war crimes. And the treaty obliged Germany to discharge a debt of 269 billion gold marks, the equivalent of 33 billion euros.

European leaders  signed  the treaty in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, the very place where the German Empire was created. It was a slap in the face to Germany, compounded by the famous “war guilt” clause as the ultimate humiliation. 

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY

Although the Great War created a real desire for peace, the treaty did not have the expected effects. Furious at what they saw as a harsh “diktat,” Germany's right-wing politicians used the treaty as a nationalist rallying point. The staggering amounts  of estimated reparations  reduced the country's industrial output, and other forces pushed Germany into hyperinflation in the 1920s, which contributed to the economic instability of the Great Depression.

European leaders were not comfortable with the new map of Europe and the concessions they had all made in the name of an uneasy peace, with some feeling that Germany had not been treated harshly enough.

In 2010, 90 years after the entry into force of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany finally  repaid  the last installment of its war debt, well after the end of the Second World War it had provoked. Today, the Treaty of Versailles remains one of the best examples of which, in matters of conflict, the best intentions can have terrible consequences.

What Are League of Nations ?

The League of Nations ( SDN or SdN 1 ) was an international organization introduced by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 , and dissolved in 1946 . This same treaty is drawn up during the Paris Peace Conference , during which the Covenant or Pact which establishes the League of Nations is signed, in order to preserve peace in Europe after the end of the First World War . Based in Geneva , in the Wilson Palace then the Palace of Nations 2 , it was replaced in1945 by the United Nations Organization , which took over a number of its agencies. The main proponent of the League of Nations is United States President Woodrow Wilson . The last of Wilson's so-called Fourteen Points ofJanuary 1918which advocates an association of nations constitutes the official political basis. However, the United States Senate , opposing the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, voted against joining the League of Nations and the United States did not take part.

In addition to being a free trade treaty affirmed in the first three of Wilson's Fourteen Points 3 , the objectives of the League of Nations include disarmament , the prevention of wars through the principle of collective security , the resolution of conflicts through negotiation, and the overall improvement of the quality of life .

The diplomatic approach that presided over the creation of the Society represents a fundamental departure from the thinking of previous centuries, advocating collective bargaining against the secret diplomacy hated by the American president. However, the Society has no armed force "of its own" and, as a result, depends on the great powers for the application of its resolutions, whether economic sanctions or the provision of troops in case of need. . The countries concerned are reluctant to intervene. Benito Mussolini thus declared: “the League of Nations is very effective when the sparrows cry, but not at all when the eagles attack” . In the interwar period , three countries (theNazi Germany , as well as Japan in 1933, and Italy in 1937) left the League.

After many notable successes and some particular failures in the 1920s , the League of Nations was completely unable to prevent the aggressions of the Axis countries in the 1930s .

Despite the peaceful settlement of minor tensions and conflicts (in the Åland Islands, in Albania, in Austria and Hungary, in Upper Silesia, in Memel, in Greece facing Bulgaria, in Saarland, in Mosul, in the sandjak of Alexandretta , in Liberia, between Colombia and Peru), the League of Nations is considered a failure because it failed to stem neither the Spanish Civil War , nor the Italian aggression against Ethiopia , nor Japanese imperialism , nor the annexation of Austria by Hitler, nor the Sudetenland crisis , nor finally the German threats against Poland , that is to say the set of international crises which prelude the outbreak of the Second World War. Moreover, its management of certain colonies by European powers under the format of mandate will pose problems whose effects will be effective until our days ( Rwanda , Near East )

Circumstances of the Birth of the SBN End of World War 

In 1917 , the Germans , knowing the arrival of American troops, decided to concentrate their efforts in the west, to win the war before the Allied reinforcements landed. In march 1918, the German general Erich Ludendorff attacks Picardy and opens a breach between the French and British armies . For the first time, the allies created a single Command entrusted to Marshal Ferdinand Foch on March 26 . In May, the Germans reach as far as the Marne and threaten Paris , but Ludendorff cannot take advantage of this success, for lack of reserves. The troops of the United States therefore have time to disembark and contribute to repelling the Germans. The Italians obtain in 1918 the capitulation of Austria, while the Allied troops gathered in Salonica forced Bulgaria and then the Ottoman Empire to ask for an armistice . Germany surrenders November 11 , 1918. The human losses of the war are impressive, nine million men lose their lives during the conflict. Malnutrition and epidemics also cause the loss of a significant number of civilian and military lives. The material damage was also enormous: many cities and towns, particularly in France, were affected by the bombardments, and sometimes wiped off the map. Industrial production has fallen: Germany and France are the two most affected countries with a drop compared to 1913 of 39% and 38% respectively.

Treaty of Versailles 

The Treaty of Versailles ends World War I. It is signed on June 28 , 1919 at the Palace of Versailles between Germany and the Allies . Although this conference brings together 27 states (exclusive defeats and, in reality, 32, with the United Kingdom speaking on behalf of Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and India) , the work is dominated by a kind of directory of four members: Georges Clemenceau for France, David Lloyd George for the United Kingdom , Vittorio Emanuele Orlando for Italy and Woodrow Wilson for the United States .

The sanctions taken are extremely harsh for the defeated :

• Demilitarization of the surroundings of the Rhine  ;
• Dissolution of Austria-Hungary  ;
• Reconstruction of Poland, particularly to the detriment of Germany and Austria-Hungary;
• Loss of the colonies to the profit of the victors;
• Total liability for war damage and duty to reimburse;
• Occupation of certain German territories by the Allies;
• Restitution of Alsace-Lorraine to France and detachment of the Sarre which is subject for 15 years to the control of the council of the SDN.

When defining the new borders of Europe, the United States and the United Kingdom refuse to accede to the request of the French to create a military barrier on the Rhine, to avoid a French hegemony on the continent. Moreover, these two countries are convinced that Europe cannot rebuild itself effectively without a strong Germany. That is why they are trying to moderate France's enormous demands. To avoid the creation of this barrier, the United States and the United Kingdom propose to sign with France a treaty of common defense in the event of German aggression, which means that France would immediately receive military aid from these countries. . Clemenceau accepts this proposal, but the American Congress refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles .

Since Germany was extremely dissatisfied with the provisions of the treaty, the French saw fit to protect themselves in another way. They will then form a small agreement with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania to replace the non-existent support of the United States and the United Kingdom.