This angered the German public as they thought that the government’s plan would just make living harder if they did increase the taxes. Taking advantage of this, Hitler told the public that the reparations and the Treaty of Versailles was to blame for Germany’s hardship. When America recalled all the loans that they gave Germany, Germany was left in immense debts. This proved Hitler’s point that the reparations and the Treaty of Versailles were wrong. After that the people of Germany began to vote for Hitler because the Weimar government had proved itself useless and Hitler was the only one offering a way out.
However as the war progressed and more issues became apparent, the divide between the rich and the poor and the left and the right wing became vaster. Before the war had commenced liberals and socialists were aggravated with German democracy. Germany portrayed itself as a democratic state, however all the power belonged to the elite. Kaiser Wilhelm II even boasted that he had never read the constitution. Therefore Liberals wanted constitutional reform and more power to be given to the Reichstag.
Communism’s goal was to bring down capitalism in any way possible. When Stalin came into power in 1924, the US mistrusted him even more. During this time, Germany was in the process of building itself up. Stalin was concerned that Russia would be attacked and the US was concerned watching Hitler spread his rule. Stalin and the US created a brief alliance because they were both concerned with stopping Hitler.
The months before and during the Bolshevik revolution, as well as the signing of the peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk cause turmoil among the socialists and brought Russia into civil war. The Provisional Government of Russia treated the middle and lower class citizens of Russia very poorly, ignoring their needs, as well as dragging them into World War I and two civil wars in a little over two decades. The workers of Russia wanted a democratic republic, or any government that would have allowed them to make a difference, and one that would help them as much as their current government was against them (Wade 27). In 1917, Russia was at war in World War I and was suffering economically because of it, as well as loosing the lives of many of their young men in battle. The people of Russia desired to leave World War I as smoothly and as quickly as possible (Wade 29).
However, you shouldn't make the assumption that devotion to ideology was all that was behind Cold War animosity; countries tend to be more complaint trading partners with countries that share their political systems and both Stalin and the Cold War Era presidents in the US knew this. The tension eventually built, but no one wanted to go to actual war again after the colossal massacre of WWII, hence the term Cold War. 2. Describe and explain the ideological differences between the United Stated and the Soviet Union. In 1917, Russia became a communist country with an agenda of converting the world to communism.
For Germany the main consequences were that they lost raw materials, manufactured goods, raw materials and precious mining land. Instead of using force, the government told the workers to resist peacefully and show the French and Belgian soldiers they were unwelcome. This was known as passive resistance. Another consequence to the occupation was that many former soldiers, such as Hitler, saw passive resistance as surrender and though that force from the German army was needed to evict the invaders. The occupation of the Ruhr lead to a shortage of goods and increased both Germany’s debts and unemployment rates.
They were losing to a nation very few had heard of and it was humiliating. However, many of the defeats to the Russian military occurred after the Revolution had started, not causing its outbreak, but merely adding to the opposition to autocratic rule by the Tsar and prolonging the Revolution. The Russo-Japanese War brought economic problems for Russia, and this therefore meant there was a significant lack of money to solve any other problems present Russia, hence partly being responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution. The war costed an extreme amount of money. As it resulted in failure no money could be gained from the invaded territories.
The Nazi-Soviet pact was responsible for the outbreak of war because France and Britain had decided to finally intervene. Since Hitler had taken Czechoslovakia as a cause of Britain’s policy of appeasement, this frightened USSR and Stalin felt that the only way to keep the USSR safe was by signing the Nazi- Soviet pact. The Nazi-Soviet pact gave Hitler confidence in invading Poland and was a way to avoid war on two fronts. Britain and France on the other hand felt it was time to react and as soon as Germany’s army entered Poland they themselves prepared their own military defenses causing the Second World War. The pact was the final cause of war as Hitler could now invade Poland without any interference from Stalin.
German defeat in the Great War was largely down to the incompetence and mistakes of the German Military Elite. The failure of the Schlieffen plan in 1914 can be accredited to these German leaders and also more importantly blamed for the failure in the First World War. Schlieffen, Chief of the German General Staff (1891-1906) devised what is known as the ‘Schlieffen plan’ in 1905 in response to the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale and the further negations this alliance began to have with the huge empire that was Russia. These new relations began to worry Germany and create fears of a combined attack on the country. Schlieffen’s plan aimed to counter a joint attack and then later in the Great War the Schlieffen Plan was used as a strategy to ensure a swift victory and avoid fighting two-fronted war.
In general, I think all these reparations are required for a lost side but not in such a harsh way. In another hand, the Treaty of Versaille is shortsighted somehow. First, the “war guilt” clause becomes specially hated by Germans, who felt that all countries should bear responsibility for the outbreak of WWI in1914. This resentment and anger later helped Hitler to gain support from most Germans to rebuild a stronger and more powerful German which finally led to a even more destructive war. What’s more, the reparation has led to destruction of the economic life of German while in the long term, it actually threatened the health and