![]() In the years following the Treaty of Versailles, many ordinary Germans believed they had been betrayed by the “November Criminals,” those leaders who signed the treaty and formed the post-war government. The United States would never join the short-lived League of Nations. Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, and later concluded a separate peace with Germany. Keynes was not the only prominent critic of the Treaty of Versailles: The French military leader Ferdinand Foch refused to attend the signing ceremony, as he thought the treaty didn’t do enough to secure against a future German threat, while the U.S. The nation’s burden of reparations eventually topped 132 billion gold Reichsmarks, the equivalent of some $33 billion, a sum so great that no one expected Germany to be able to pay in full in fact, economists like John Maynard Keynes predicted the European economy would collapse if it did. Germans were furious about the treaty, seeing it as a diktat, or dictated peace they bitterly resented the sole blame of war being placed at their feet. Though the treaty included a covenant creating the League of Nations, an international organization aimed at preserving peace, the harsh terms imposed on Germany helped ensure that peace would not last for long. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of the war. How Did the Treaty of Versailles Lead to World War II? Most importantly, Article 231 of the treaty, better known as the “ war guilt clause,” forced Germany to accept full responsibility for starting World War I and pay enormous reparations for Allied war losses. Other key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles called for the demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, limited Germany’s army and navy, forbade it to maintain an air force, and required it to conduct war crimes trials against Kaiser Wilhelm II and other leaders for their aggression. In the end, the European Allies imposed harsh peace terms on Germany, forcing the nation to surrender around 10 percent of its territory and all of its overseas possessions. The other leaders saw Wilson as too naive and idealistic, and his principles were difficult to translate into policy. Wilson opposed Italian territorial demands, as well as previously existing arrangements regarding territory between the other Allies instead, he wanted to create a new world order along the lines of his Fourteen Points. For his part, Orlando wanted to expand Italy’s influence and shape it into a major power that could hold its own alongside the other great nations. Lloyd George, on the other hand, saw the rebuilding of Germany as a priority in order to reestablish the nation as a strong trading partner for Great Britain. ![]() He sought heavy reparations from Germany as a way of limiting German economic recovery after the war and minimizing this possibility. The Big Four themselves had competing objectives in Paris: Clemenceau’s main goal was to protect France from yet another attack by Germany. Also absent was Russia, which had fought as one of the Allied powers until 1917, when, following the Russian Revolution, the country’s new Bolshevik government concluded a separate peace with Germany and withdrew from the conflict. Germany and the other defeated powers-Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey-were not represented at the Paris Peace Conference. ![]() ![]() The “ Big Four” leaders of the victorious Western nations-Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italy-dominated the peace negotiations in Paris. Did WWI Lead to WWII? Treaty of Versailles Terms ![]()
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