How Did The Treaty Of Versailles Help Cause World War II?

Can one believe that a treaty ment for peace would be the cause for another war? From August 1914 to November 1918 there was a war between the major powers of Europe. The war left 10 million soldiers and civilians dead and 10 million more wounded. After the war there was a meeting held at the Versailles Palace. The purpose was to create a treaty for future peace, but peace did not come. The Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II in Many ways. There was much territory loss, military restriction, economic losses and reparation, and much war guilt. To begin, the Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II by much of the territory lost from Germany. Germany was such a big county that it had land as far as from the boards of France to the borders of Poland. Since it is such a big country with many territories, it had lost many of those territories because of the Treaty of Versailles. Germany lost the Polish Corridor, Alsace, and Lorraine. To make things worse, much of their Western side became demilitarized. This left Germany's Western side unprotected. This left Belgium, Netherlands, and France an open view of Germany without having to think about getting into any problems. In addition, the treaty took aways Germany's coal producing areas. As a result it reduces the German coal production by 40 percent. Other problems that came across with losing much of its territories. For example, When Germany lost the Polish Corridor and Danzig, it made it very difficult to get the East Prussia, and use the Baltic Sea. Clearly people were not happy. Adolf HItler published his book, Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’) in 1924. In his book, he expressed his hatred about the Treaty of Versailles and he was suggesting that in order to conquer what one needs, they need to fight. For these reasons, the Versailles Treaty helped cause World War II. (Document A). Also, the Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II by restricting Germany's military. Military is a very important factor when it comes to the protection of ones country. In total German military troops were only allowed to have one hundred thousand men, including the officers. “The Army shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of order within the territory and to the control of the frontiers. . . The total effective strength of officers, including the personnel of staffs, whatever their composition, must not exceed four thousand” (Article 160). All of these figures came out of the Treaty of Versailles, whom wanted to control everything that Germany had. Germany was the only country that had such little protection. Frankreich, also known as France, had 4,753,000 soldiers. France was the country that was controlling Germany for the most …show more content…
In the Article 231 the main idea was that Germany should accept the responsibilities of the damage and that was set by the Treaty of Versailles. The made Germans feel hatred for the Treaty. Not only that but overall the people of Germany felt humiliated. Everyone was seeing the Treaty of Versailles to be something wonderful, but the Germans had a very different view. The Treaty was just a way to humiliate Germany and make they pay for everything that has occurred. Through all of this devastation, Adolf Hitler came. Adolf Hitler became a salvation for the German people, they all admired him because he brought back German pride and self-respect. He made the gErmans stop and think that everything that they went through was not their fault. Hitler in return wanted to fight. Fighting and disregarding everything that the Treaty had set was what made a second World War come up. Since the Treaty of Versailles kept on pushing and pushing many had enough and they wanted to come back stronger. ( Document D). All in all, the Treaty of Versailles had a major effect in creating the second World War. There was much territory loss, military restriction, economic losses and reparation, and much war guilt. This made Germans stand up for themselves and finally fight back. In doing this, everything that the Germans faced with the Treaty made them revolt and fight back. Thus, creating World War