How Did The Treaty Of Versailles Cause Ww2

A war thought only to have lasted so shortly the soldiers would be home for Christmas, was one of the most devastating wars in the history of modern war. Rather than just a few month long war, World War One raged from 1914 to 1919. This war concluded with technically no winner or loser, rather, Germany sought out an armistice in an effort to end the fighting. After the conclusion of the war, the Allied nations gathered together at the Paris Peace Conference to decide the peace settlements. From this conference, The Treaty of Versailles was created. However, The Treaty of Versailles was one of the main causes for World War II for many different reasons. The Treaty of Versailles helped cause World War II because it imposed severe conditions on the German people. The terms in the Treaty that created resentment were

Germany was required to pay 132 billion gold marks, or 367 billion US dollars, over a course of thirty years (C, Source 2). This evidence supports the idea that the reparation payments helped cause World War Two because it not only angered the Germans, it also humiliated them. Due to this anger and humiliation, Germany paid little of these payments in the 1920s (C, Source 2). In 1933, German Adolf Hitler came into power and ceased all reparation payments. Germany also lost significant land because of The Treaty of Versailles such as Alsace and Lorraine. Because the Germans lost Alsace and Lorraine, extremely valuable land, Germany had access to significantly less resources, and therefore, was not able to pay the excessively high reparation payments (A, Source 1). The reparation payments required from Germany were not only very harsh and excessive, but they were also impossible to pay, especially because Germany lost extremely valuable land as