Treaty Of Versailles Dbq Essay

Ironically the League of nation’s answer for world peace was the main cause of World War II. Germany loss World War I and was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, saying that there would not be anymore wars ever. The Treaty of Versailles was created at the end of World War I in hopes to keep world peace; both the Allied Powers and the Central Powers signed the treaty and agreed to keep the peace with one another. The Treaty of Versailles was a great idea on paper, but unfortunately it helped cause World War II. The Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II by taking land away from Germany, limiting the size of Germany’s military, pushing war reparations on Germany, and using the War Guilt Clause against the Germans. After World War
I, Germany had important territory taken away from them. Germany lost Lorraine, Alsace, Danzig, and the Polish Corridor (Document A). The Polish Corridor was a significantly difficult loss for Germany because it was in between Germany and East Prussia, who decided to stay with Germany. Thus making travel and transportation difficult. The treaty had taken away coal-producing territory from Germany, reducing their coal production by 40% and slowing down German industrialization significantly. Hitler convinced the German people that they should fight for what was theirs in the first place. “No nation can remove this hand from its throat except by sword,” -Adolf Hitler Mein Kampf (Document A). Not only did the treaty limit Germany’s coal production, but it also limited their military. To limit Germany’s power the Treaty decided to reduce and limit Germany’s military to 100,000 soldiers total. Germany’s military was to be devoted to and only used to maintain order within the territory that Germany still had in their possession and to control frontiers (Document B). After the reduction of their military size, Germany’s army was now drastically smaller than France’s, Belgium’s, Czechoslovakia's, and even Poland’s military. A smaller military gave Germany next to no chance in victory in a war, which was the exact reason for reducing the size of their military. If Germany had a small military, they couldn’t start a war without losing quickly. Even if Germany did try to start a war with another country their supplies would be very limited since they still had another thirty years of war reparations to pay. Germany had to pay thirty years worth of war repair all the damage that they had created during World War I. In total, Germany was asked to pay 132 billion gold marks, 367 billion U.S. dollars, starting in 1921 (Document C). By 1929 that amount was reduced to 112 billion gold marks, or 341 U.S. dollars (Document C). But in 1933 Hitler came to power and stopped all reparation payments (Document C). Germany hated that they had to pay all this money by themselves when they weren’t the only ones involved in the war, nor were they the only ones to cause damages. Along with having to pay billions of dollars in reparations, 100% blame for World War I was put on Germany. The War Guilt Clause was used to force all the blame of World War I onto Germany shoulders.
The War Guilt Clause is a section in the Treaty of Versailles saying that “Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage….” (Document D). Germany was humiliated, not only had they lost the war after lying to the German citizens by saying they were winning, they were now being punished harshly. The Treaty of Versailles rubbed the Germany’s loss in and only infuriated Germany more and more. The Germans saw the Treaty of Versailles as an “atrocious injustice” and wanted it destroyed (Document
D). Although the Treaty of Versailles didn't single handedly start World War II, it did put a lot of pressure and blame on Germany’s shoulders causing them to burst and start a conflict in attempts to destroy the treaty and abolish their punishments.
The Treaty of Versailles took important land away from Germany, Reduced Germany’s military significantly, made Germany pay all the war reparations alone, and the treaty put all the blame of the war on Germany. Germany was being punished harshly and severely, and as Hitler came into power he turned the German people against the Treaty of Versailles and they eventually fought back. The Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II by punishing Germany to the severity that they
did.