Sage Reische

West Civ
5 May 2015
DBQ

The Versailles Treaty

Something so little can come around and affect the whole world. After seven long months fighting
in World War I, something had to be done. The Versailles Treaty came into mind, it was signed by the
great allied nations of Great Britain. Everyone thought that this treaty would help but the treaty ended up
sparking the next World War. Ironically, treaties are used to make peace, in this case, the Treaty of
Versailles caused many problems and eventually lead to World War II. There was territorial loss, military
restrictions, economic losses and war guilt, from just World War I, over 17 million casualties suffered
through the years of 1914 to 1918.

To begin, The Versailles treaty cost Germany a lot of land, Germany also lost a good amount of
money trying to rebuild everything at the end of the wars. The territorial loss also resulted in a decrease of
production of coal. Germany lost Loraine and Alsace, the Polish Corridor and the Danzig was difficult for
the government because they have to go under rule of a different country and Germany split. Hitler thinks
the germans should declare war, from the Versailles Treaty. Germany felt surrounded by all of these
countries and was tempted to surrender because of the strong military and structure all of the other
nations held.

By a certain date, the Germans werent able to have more than seven divisions of infantry and
three divisions of Cavalry. This was called Troop Levels, after that certain date Germany could not exceed
one hundred thousand men. The role of the army was to be devoted only to the maintenance of order the
frontiers. The alliances of military were reduced and that caused more for the war to start. (Document B,
Political Cartoons).

In addition to Germany having troop levels, it was time to plot against Germany. Germany had to
pay for all the reparations that they caused in the war. Reparations are payments for damage because of
wars and other costs. Fixing the roads, rebuilding the city, take full responsibility for the war, while getting
land taken away were all of the reparations. These payments were going to start getting payed off on May
1921, and everything be paid in full, in the next thirty years. The date everything would have needed to be
paid would have been May of 1995. Germany owed 367 billion to be paid back, subsequently by 1929 the
amount of money owed had been lowered from 367 billion to 341 billion. If Germany was not able to pay
back the money by that date, the Inter-Allied Reparations Commissions could change the payment date
so they could be made by that date.

Sage Reische
West Civ
5 May 2015
DBQ

Furthermore, Germany and its allies are blamed for all of the destruction in the war. The German
people saw that the Treaty of Versailles being atrocious and an evil thing that needed to be destroyed. It
made them unhappy with others, and the world around. The Germans admired Hitler because Hitler made
the people feel better about themselves, and proud. Everyone soon started following Hitler and his ideas,
and he rose to power very quickly. The war guilt was started, the country was changing, there was a new
leader, and a new political party. Hitler came up with the idea of a Nazi Party, this political party, grew and
was a very strong outcome in the next war.
Overall, the Treaty of Versailles affected the entire world, it changed how every war outcome.
With all of the territorial loss of different countries, military restrictions, the hard economic issues and war
guilt, the Treaty of Versailles was a war that later impacted entire world, not just the countries involved in
the war. It showed what the countries were really made up of, and how they could work together, or in
some cases get split up. Those are the reasons the Versailles Treaty was a main impact on the World
War.