Treaty of Versailles

Question

What was the main purpose of The Treaty of Versailles? Who were the countries making out the terms and what kind of terms were they? Did the Treaty of Versailles accomplish it's core ideas?

Answer 1

The purpose of the Treaty of Versailles was to punish Germany in a manner so harsh that she would not be inclined to ever make war again, nor have the capability. In addition, the idea was to set up a financial mechanism to pay back the Allies their cost of the war as monetary reparations. Also, it was to push out the borders of Germany's neighboring states to create additional buffer zones against future German invasion, at the expense of the loss of a considerable amount of German land. The resulting end state basically eliminated the German Navy and Air Force, and gutted the Army. The loss of huge chunks of land on both her eastern and western borders, and the resources that went with them, threw Germany into a financial collapse and Germans starved in the streets. The Allies all had a hand in this, but it was France, Belgium and England that comprised the faction seeking the most harsh punishment, as it was they who had suffered the greatest losses. Instead of making the Germans penitent, it had the opposite effect. Years of post WWI hardship sowed the seeds of German anger and revenge. When a charismatic leader and motivational speaker came along named Adolf Hitler, he found a ready and willing populace eager to embrace twisted notions of German rights and supremacy. The mistake angry vengeful Germans made was that they didn't question too much how he wanted to do what he wanted to do, as long as everyone had food and employment again and apparent German honor was restored.

It was for this reason, that the Allies at the end of World War II took an entirely different approach, called the Marshall Plan, which sought to rebuild and renew former enemy nations, instead of trying to further crush them. This is the biggest and most enduring lesson learned from the Treaty of Versailles, and it is still with us today. .