The First World War had been fought for four years when, on November 11th 1918, Germany and the Allies signed an armistice. The Allies soon gathered to discuss the peace treaty they would sign, but Germany and Austria-Hungary weren't invited; instead they were only allowed to present a response to the treaty, a response which was largely ignored. Instead terms were drawn up mainly by the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Frances Clemenceau and US President Woodrow Wilson. The result was a treaty which tried to compromise, and many of the details were passed down to un-coordinated sub committees to work out, which thought they were drafting a starting point, rather than the final wording. It was an almost
Explain why the European powers avoided war in a series of crises between 1905 & 1913, but not in 1914 Throughout the early part of the 20th Century, various European powers came into conflict with each other over the issue of territory and land, as the struggle to establish an Empire which had dominated the 19th Century spilled over into the new one. Despite initial conflicts, however, such as the 1905 Moroccan Crisis, war did not break out until nearly 15 years into the Century. What makes this even more surprising is the fact that war plans such as the Schlieffen Plan and Plan 16 proved that some nations thought war was inevitable, and that they may have actually wanted war. The European powers avoided war for the length of the time that they did because the Alliance System hadn’t developed fully yet, because of internal conditions in Germany at the time, because tensions in the Balkans reached a boiling point in 1914 and because of Germany’s poor judgement. Firstly, the European powers avoided war up until 1914 because the Alliance System wasn’t as well developed until then.
The British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, realised the severe implications that this could have and so wanted a more lenient peace treaty. The American public had little interest in Post War Europe but their President, Woodrow Wilson, wanted a Germany that would make a good neighbour in Europe, hence his fourteen points. To reach a compromise a meeting was needed at the small palace of Versailles, not far from the French capital, Paris. Here the leaders of ‘The Big Three’ (Clemenceau, Wilson and George), tried to find a lasting peace of Europe. This meeting was intended to bring stability and peace into a crippled Europe.
There were many reasons and causes leading up to the civil war, and can usually be divided into two categories: long term reasons and short term reasons. Some long term reasons include money and religion, whilst examples of short term reasons are Charles bursting into Parliament and demanding the arrest of 5 MPs, as well as other things like the Irish Rebellion. These all split Parliament and the King apart, and soon the country was forced to decide whose side they were on. This could only mean one outcome: war. One of the long term reasons is religion.
From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people. The public did not support the Weimar, and the administrative branch of the government, including the Judiciary, also teachers did not back it up either. Mass unemployment, damages to the infrastructure also from World War One, and the demand for reparation payments put lots of pressure on the inexperienced democracy. Not only in Germany, but all over Europe, fundamental and anti-democratic movements gained support. 2.
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.
During the early years of the Weimar Republic they encountered many difficulties. One of the major difficulties that they faced was signing the peace treaty after World War One known as the treaty of Versailles, this treaty lead to resentment from the army, economic hardship as well as the introduction of political extremists from the right and the left. The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty drawn up after the war had finished at the Versailles peace conference although Germans were not allowed participation. The loss of territory, war guilt and reparations were some of the major issues Germans found hard to accept. Despite protest by majority of the country the German government agreed to sign the treaty on 28 June 1919.
Germany was forced to take all the blame for damages received by the allies. They were also forced to accept charges of starting the war. This left much of the German population feeling cheated by the ‘Big Four’, moreover, Germany had to pay all damages incurred in the French and Belgian territories during fighting. This subsequently caused great tensions in Germany, as they were bemused as to how they could be held responsible for starting the war, when they felt it was equally the faults of the four allied countries. It is commonly accepted that Germany were eager for a war, however in 1914 they were only responding to events in Sarajevo by agreeing to back Austria, as opposed to starting a war with no origin.
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
They consisted of Britain, Russia and France against Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy (who later switched sides). I believe that alliances were the most important cause of WW1, because instead of making allies to prevent war, the alliance system actually had an opposite effect. Alliances are a long-term cause to WW1 because they take a considerably long time to make. It led to distrust for each country and secrecy with some countries resulting in an increase in tension. The main leaders of ‘World War 1’ in the ‘Triple Entente’ were George V (British Empire), Raymond Poincaré (France) and Nicholas II (Russia).