Another reason as why I believe that Germany should have been stopped is that it would just create more havoc just as Winston Churchill said about the Munich conference “we have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat. All is over… I think you will find a period of time… Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the Nazi regime. We have passed an awful milestone in history, when the whole equilibrium of Europe has been deranged… and do not suppose this is the end. This is only the beginning of a reckoning. This was said by him meaning that nothing was solved by this agreement and that it has just caused more problems.
The peace settlements left a layer of bitterness specially in Germany. Germans felt that Treaty of Versailles was unjust in holding Germany alone responsible for the war because even if Germany played a vital role in causing the war, the other nations also participated in it and therefore, made a minor war into a total war. In addition, the military terms of the Treaty (army of 100,000, only 6 battleships, no submarines or aeroplanes) is another part that disappointed Germans a lot. For Germans, not to be able to send troops even to places inside Germany was a national insult.The Germans were not invited to negotiate the treaty even. The Versailles Treaty required Germany to pay stiff reparations.
The Weimar Republic looked to be collapsing from the beginning. All the events that finally led to the ending of democracy in Germany were seemed to be caused by the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the war for the Germans was a huge turning point as it was seem that the Allies wanted to crush Germany. They were unable to pay the reparations, as extremists from both the right and left wing found the war guilt clause unacceptable. When the Germans had lost World War I, had a huge impact back in Germany.
Britain refused to accept freedom of the seas, and neither Britain, France nor Belgium would allow self-determination to the colonies in their empires. Self-determination was not allowed elsewhere – Wilson had wanted Anschluss between Austria and Germany, but this was denied; in 1919 the Czechs took over Teschen by force; and in 1920 Poland attacked and took land inhabited in Russia and Lithuania. All this Wilson had to accept. Finally, when he went home, the Senate refused either to accept the Treaty or to join the League. Wilson tired himself out trying to persuade
The peace treaty did not satisfy France as it was not harsh enough in the eyes of France. After suffered badly from WWI with umpteen casualties, France was determined to cripple Germany completely as a form of revenge as well as an assurance against future German revival. Some provisions of the treaty did meet French demands, such as the return of Alsace-Lorraine from Germany; the German disarmament which set a maximum strength of 100000 soldiers together with the dissolution of the air force and the reduction of navy to 6 batttleships; and a whopping reparation of 132 billion gold marks to be paid over 42 years. These clauses would severely weaken Germany economically and militarily which certainly catered to French aim. However, French felt these punishments were not harsh enough to eliminate the chance of future German revival.
Also, Germany were restricted to an army only 100,000 strong, which lead to mass unemployment, making the lives of many Germans very difficult. Lastly, they weren’t allowed an air force and had a small navy which made them vulnerable also, when airplanes were beginning to be used commercially, the Germans weren’t able to have this luxury. On the other hand, I disagree with the statement as the Germans were one of the main reasons for the first war and although they weren’t completely to blame, they still were a big reason for the war. The German forces caused a huge amount of damage to France and Belgium and it would be unfair for these countries to have to pay for the repairs completely themselves through their population’s taxes. Also, if Germany were still allowed a full army force the Germans could restart another war or attack a country, which is what they want to prevent.
They expected to have open discussions with everyone involved to produce a treaty and that there would not be any secret treaties. They hoped to be treated equally amongst other allies and managed fairly especially with negotiations. They did not expect the treatment they were given, and most of the fourteen points did not apply to Germany when she lost the war. Germany was not allowed to be part of the League of Nations, which meant she wasn’t involved in key decision making, the Germans felt this was hugely unexpected and unfair as she lost much of her strength and power. It resulted in diplomatic isolation, as she couldn’t defend lost Germans in other countries, and there were huge military restrictions where she was only allowed an army of 100,000 soldiers and very little weaponry.
The reality is there was no one individual cause for Hitler’s rise to power; it was combination of all of these situations which fit together like pieces in a puzzle to create a unique situation for Hitler’s emergence to dictatorship. While Hitler’s chance to take power in Germany did not occur until the 1930’s, factors that made this possible were already occurring in the early 1920’s when Adolf was still a mere street painted in Vienna. When the Germans heard about the Treaty of Versailles which ended War War One, they felt ‘pain and anger,’ and felt it was too harsh and unfair. The Weimar government it brought about was despised by many Germans, as it caused large government coalitions where decisions could not be made. Hitler’s While there was a brief “Golden Age” of economic upturn, the death of Gustav Stresemann and especially the Wall Street Crash put a quick end of this.
In a democracy along the lines of the United States or Great Britain, Hitler could have never risen to power. (1) Germany had no democratic tradition, and in fact many parties were deeply opposed to the creation of a democracy. These included old monarchists, the Army, the industrialists, the Nationalists and several other conservative parties. Many, like the Nazis to come, were not so much members of the Republic as they were conspirators to overthrow it. When it came time to create the Republic, the conservative parties took no part in the process.
In 1932 Hitler won 230 seats in the Reichstag, making the Nazi party the largest in the Reichstag automatically making Hitler Chancellor. But it wouldn’t work like that. President Hindenburg, Franz von Papen and General von Schleicher all hated and distrusted Hitler so it was not going to be easy for Hitler to become Chancellor. Hindenburg could however see that Hitler and the Nazis could prove helpful so he appointed von Papen as Chancellor. Von Papen had no support in the Reichstag but he hoped that he could ‘get in’ with the Nazis and other right-wing parties.