Treaty of Versailles
Military Cut-down
Firstly, according to the Treaty Of Versailles, the German Army was restricted to 100 000 professional soldiers. Wartime weapons were all to be destroyed. Conscription was also prohibited and were not allowed any air force, submarines or tanks. The Germany Navy was limited to six battleships and a few smaller ships. German military forces were not allowed to be stationed at the Rhineland. By having this military cut-down, this would assure the “Big Three”, the leaders of France, Britain and the United States Of America that Germany would not be able to attack, only being able to defend. However, having such limited armed forces, even essential and basic maintenance of law and order within Germany internally was difficult to achieve and if Germany were to be attacked by a bigger army, they would have lost the basic need to defend herself and her people. To make matters worse, due to the war, Germany had a lot of losses. Knowing this, the Allies still threatened to attack Germany if she did not agree to the treaty even though she was suffering from the losses from the wars she had fought earlier on. From this, we can tell that Germany was humiliated by the terms of the treaty as having this military cut-down would mean other countries would view them as a weak and vulnerable nation, which was not the opinion she wanted to project. When the Allies made use of her vulnerable state, she felt even more humiliated knowing that other countries who were stronger may do the same thing to her.
Territorial Losses
Secondly, another factor would be territorial losses. After signing the Treaty Of Versailles, segments of Germany’s population were divided by new borders and the Germans were forced to join new nations. Examples are Alsace-Lorraine which went back to France, The Polish Corridor to Poland and Memel to Lithuania. Not to mention, Germany also lost all of her overseas colonies and they lost control of coal rich region, the Saar, to the French for
Firstly, according to the Treaty Of Versailles, the German Army was restricted to 100 000 professional soldiers. Wartime weapons were all to be destroyed. Conscription was also prohibited and were not allowed any air force, submarines or tanks. The Germany Navy was limited to six battleships and a few smaller ships. German military forces were not allowed to be stationed at the Rhineland. By having this military cut-down, this would assure the “Big Three”, the leaders of France, Britain and the United States Of America that Germany would not be able to attack, only being able to defend. However, having such limited armed forces, even essential and basic maintenance of law and order within Germany internally was difficult to achieve and if Germany were to be attacked by a bigger army, they would have lost the basic need to defend herself and her people. To make matters worse, due to the war, Germany had a lot of losses. Knowing this, the Allies still threatened to attack Germany if she did not agree to the treaty even though she was suffering from the losses from the wars she had fought earlier on. From this, we can tell that Germany was humiliated by the terms of the treaty as having this military cut-down would mean other countries would view them as a weak and vulnerable nation, which was not the opinion she wanted to project. When the Allies made use of her vulnerable state, she felt even more humiliated knowing that other countries who were stronger may do the same thing to her.
Territorial Losses
Secondly, another factor would be territorial losses. After signing the Treaty Of Versailles, segments of Germany’s population were divided by new borders and the Germans were forced to join new nations. Examples are Alsace-Lorraine which went back to France, The Polish Corridor to Poland and Memel to Lithuania. Not to mention, Germany also lost all of her overseas colonies and they lost control of coal rich region, the Saar, to the French for