Treaty Of Versailles Essay, Research Paper

2. Describe the peace conference of Versailles & the values & and concerns of its members. To what extent was this conference the basis of World War II?

In 1919 leaders of Allies met at a place at Versailles to decide on a peace settlement after the Great War. The decisions that they took were going to influence Europe for the next twenty years, in addition to another world war.

At peace conference most of the discussions were about Germany, but the leaders also tried to redraw the map of Europe. They wanted to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire and give self-determination to the peoples of eastern and central Europe.

In the treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to; reduce its army to 100,000 men and was not allowed to have conscription. Reduce the navy to 6 warships and was not allowed to have any submarines, and destroy all its air force. In addition Germany was to give land to Belgium, France, Denmark, and Poland, and to give up all their colonies. Agree to pay L 6,600,000,000 Reparations to the Allies for all the damage caused by the war. Put no soldiers or military equipment within 30 miles of the east bank of Rhine. Accept all the blame of the war, which is called War Guilt Clause. Further more Italy was given the two small areas Istria and South Tirol. The Adriatic coast was made part of a new country called Yugoslavia, which included Serbia and Bosnia. Other new countries were also created such as; Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland were formed from land lost by Russia. The Allies also gave Germany a new form of government based on proportional representation. It was intended to prevent Germany being taken by dictatorship, but it led to the creation of more than thirty political parties; in which none of them was big enough to form a government on its own.

The Treaty of Versailles seemed very unfair to Germany. When the details of the treaty was published in June of 1919 most Germans were horrified. Several of the clauses were thought to be harsh. It was to be almost impossible to pay the Reparations. In fact, the German government gave up only one year, and the War Guilt Clause seemed unfair. It was felt that Germany had simply been made a scapegoat by other countries for all that had happened. Returning soldiers formed gangs, attacking people, and trying to seize power. A number of extremist political parties were set up, including the German Worker s Party, which Adolf Hitler took over in 1921. He based his support upon the hatred that many Germans felt for the Treaty of Versailles. The German government became more and more unpopular and appeared to be very weak because it was not able to deal with the revolutions and the unrest. Feelings like these towards the Treaty of Versailles led to a great deal of unrest, and the birth of Adolf Hitler, which sparked the dynamite of World War II.