These terms included Germany having to pay reparations to the Allies, Germany having to accept the war guilt, the seizure of German territories and colonies to the allies, limits on German armed forces, and the establishment of the League of Nations. The following essay will discuss the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and analyse how fair the treaty really was. The first term of the Treaty of Versailles was the huge sum of money that Germany had to pay to the Allies - £6600 million to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. This amount of money was well beyond Germany’s ability to pay and Germany was hugely affected as a result. A huge sum of money was being taken out of the German economy, which made it extremely difficult for Germany to compete in the trade market.
To what extent did the failings of Nazi economic policy contribute to the defeat of Germany in the Second World War? There were several different factors that all had an impact on the defeat of Germany during the Second World War and the extent of which the failings of the Nazi economic policy contributed can be argued. The meagre state of the economy, through insufficient planning, did put strains on the government and this limited the full potential of the army, the production of weapons and high demand for labour. No doubt, the economy did hinder the progression of the war however I believe that there were more significant factors that contributed to the defeat of Germany. Hitler’s strategy incompetence, the Allied bombings and losing the Battle of The Atlantic were all also important factors in the defeat of Germany.
Hitler used propaganda, elimination of the opposition, and a cult of personality to gain the support and trust of the German people in a time of economic crisis to his benefit and the rest of the world's loss. Single party states arise from a crisis, and Germany was suffering from a very large one at that time. The end of World War I in 1918 had left the economic state in shambles, and the loss struck the German people hard. Furthermore, the Treaty of Versailles the following year resulted in the demilitarisation and many cuts from German land and territory. Hitler criticized the carving up of Europe by the "Big Four" (the US, UK, France and Italy), stating that the Germans were the "master race".
There long term causes were the Treaty of Versailles, The American policy of isolation etc. The mid term causes were the failure of the League of Nations and Hitler’s nationalism. The short term causes that led to war erupting in 1939 were Hitler’s imperialism and militarism. All these causes had a significant contribution to why war erupted in 1939. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919 and played a very significant part to the eruption of war in 1939.
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.
The treaty created a history of bitterness in German Society. One of the major groups that were bitter about the treaty was the army it created a great level of discontent throughout the ranks. The Weimar Republic was forever associated with the shame of the Treaty. This was a difficulties encountered early on by the Weimar Republic. The reparations that had to be paid were perhaps the most debilitating part of the treaty as it put them through economic hardship and meltdown.
Explain why Germany was bankrupt by 1923. At first, Germany’s main problem was that its government was bankrupt. The cost of the war was so great that that all of the German gold reserves had been put towards the cause. After the Weimar Republic had made the decision to surrender, The Treaty of Versailles had made things considerably worse. It deprived Germany of wealth-earning areas, such as the coalfields in Silesia.
However, while both these reasons were of great importance in the arrival of Hitler as chancellor in 1933, there were also many other events which contributed to this rapid achievement of power. Out of the many conditions which helped in the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the Weimar was definitely of massive importance. Germany had emerged from the war a destroyed country with a starving population, the people were angry and the morale of everyone was low, this led to the outbreak of a series of strikes and uprisings; such as the Kapp Putsch and the Spartacist Uprising. Furthermore, the social democrats were forced to accept the other consequences of defeat which were presented to them in the ‘Shameful diktat of Versailles’. Having signed this treaty the Social Democrats gained the immediate dislike of German nationalists who quickly spread the myth of Germany being “stabbed in the back” by social democrats and Jews, hence creating great unpopularity for this new attempt at democracy.
The treaty of versailles was one of the peace treaties signed at the end of ww1 after months of argument and negotiation amongst the "big three" to what the treaty should contain. Germany dispised the treaty as they believed it was harsh and treated them unfairly. One of the reasons for which the treaty of Versailles was so harsh on the Germans was that everybody wanted to punish Germany for its crimes. One of its main crimes was having starting the war, which was considered the worst crime against humanity. Another was the Zeppelin air raids.
Likewise, both of the powers had to dismantle their colonies and ended their overseas and territorial empire. The war had demonstrated the European’s weakness and in the post war, uprisings happened especially in the East Asia that major aim was to achieve independence from the rule of the European. Economically, World War II boosted the United States economy. It ended their Great Depression. This was because there were an increase in their productions and employments in the production of war supplies.