Alliances are nations that team up and help one another for a common goal, especially countries during a war. Alliances were designed to keep the peace, but not when rival alliances are formed (Causes of World War 1 Handout, pg 3 & 4). The Schlieffen Plan, created in 1905 by General count Alfred von Schlieffen, was a German war plan. The plan stated that Germany was to attack France then Russia to avoid war on two fronts. This of course got the French and the Russians mad so they teamed up and became apart of the alliance, the Triple Entente.
Wilson had the league in place and believed that if there were any mistakes they could be corrected later. In June of 1919, the treaty of Versailles, the most important treaty of this peace meeting was ready. None of the Allies were satisfied with it. The representatives from Germany had no choice but to sign the treaty, but it would make Germany take full blame for the war. Germany would have to pay over $300 billion to the Allies for repairs and they were stripped of their overseas colonies.
The investigation will not assess the Fourteen Points nor the extent of which it affected the peacemaking process. It also will not evaluate how the peace treaties led to the start of WWII. Word Count: 165 B. Summary of Evidence During the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, the overthrow of the Provisional Government was feasible with the immense contributions of money from the German government, which approximated to 18 million dollars. The German assistance came at the price of agreeing to work for a peace treaty
However when the Great Depression hit “Americans immediately calling in foreign loans”1. Therefore this meant that the banks of Germany had to give America their money back; taking the German peoples savings, and leaving them financially ruined as they had to collect all of their money from their debtors. This led Germany to a financial crisis. Furthermore, this source has also highlighted other points that have helped Hitler to rise to power, such as, “hyperinflation”1, “propaganda”1, “Hitler was a gifted speaker”1, and, “the Treaty of Versailles”1. Arguably, the Treaty of Versailles, was one of the main points that Charles Hawley made, as it stated that Germany had to pay “132 billion goldmarks”1 in reparations, for the war.
Compared to Bismarck, who chose really conservative politics between the 1870s and 1880s, Wilhelm opted for a militaristic and expansionist political path, in order to defend Germany’s “Place in The Sun”. Many people believe that Kaiser Wilhelm’s role wasn’t as important for the outbreak of war, but what happened in the past proves the exact opposite, by realising that military and foreign campaigns were the main objectives of the Kaiser we can see a strong connection between the Wilhelmine policy, the Kaiser and the beginning of World War I in 1914.
The Treaty Of Versailles World War 1 officially ended with the signing of The Treaty Of Versailles. The treaty negotiated between January and June 1919 in Paris. The Treaty was written by the allies with almost no participation from the Germans. “The negotiations revealed a split between the French who wanted to dismember Germany to make it impossible for it to renew war with France and the British and Americans who did not want to create pretexts for a new war”(Versailles). The Treaty Of Versailles was what officially ended WW1.
One of if not the most controversial and unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles was article 231 or the War Guilt Clause. The War Guilt Clause was the and opening article of the reparations section of the treaty. This article of the treaty stated that Germany accepts the responsibility of all the loss and damage caused by Germany and their allies which the Allied Powers had been subjected to during World War 1. Germany believed this article to be humiliating but the opposing leaders saw the article as a requirement for a basis to receive compensation from Germany. Another of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles was the economic requirements which put strain on Germany 's already stressed economy.
It was one of the orders from the League for all countries to disarm to create peace within the nations and abolish war. Disarmament failed as the League of Nations needs were not met. The League had also failed in the same area during the 1920's, but during that time period, it was not a big matter that had to be dealt with. However, during the 1930's, the pressure increased for the League to take action upon global disarmament. Germany had already been fuming by the fact that they alone had to disarm after the First World War and all other countries had not done
The Army blamed the government for signing the armistice that led to the Treaty of Versailles, they referred to the government as the ‘November Criminals’ and the famous stab in the back theory which suggested that Germany could have won the World War 1 if the government didn’t sign the armistice. Thus the government
I think the most significant cause of WW1 was the alliance system. This was most important because different countries would not be involved if they weren’t allies. Before the war happened, Russia, France and Britain had formed an alliance- the Triple Entente. All three countries think that Germany would be a threat to them. Russia thinks that Germany’s army base is too big; UK thinks that Germany’s wealth and navy increased to threaten UK; The relationship between Germany and France had been sour as Germany stole a land from France, and had been in a long-standing feud with Germany from then.