Causes and Effects of The Treaty of Versailles

Many peace settlements are patches on a horrible wound. Sooner or later the wound reopens and the peace disperses. “Peace settlements rarely create a stable peace.” In reference to World War I, this statement is correct. The Treaty of Versailles was heavily criticized not just by Germany, but also the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles critically impacts Germany negatively, causes economic issues in Europe, and bitterness of territorial loss.

Reasons and Consequences of the Treaty of Versailles

After World War I, there was one country to blame for the outbreak of the war. Germany hated the war guilt it was receiving and believed that it was too harsh. Germany had just established a new government called the Weimar Republic, and it was barely surviving due to the lack of resources and how weak the world made this government. In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to pay a huge reparation bill, and taking Germany’s coal and iron resources meant that they wouldn’t be able to restore their economy. The war guilt put their people and government in a tight spot where the people stopped believing in the government and where the government couldn’t become stronger. The German people exclaimed that they were dragged into the ideology of imperialism and they never supported the war. Without any support from other countries, Germany’s morale dropped to an all-time low. This later helped Hitler rise to power by taking advantage of the Germans' resentment and anger towards the war guilt, causing the old wounds to rip open (Smith, 2020).

World War I caused major economic disruption in Europe. Germany may have suffered horribly, but most of the countries in Europe also faced economic issues. Inflation destroyed the savings of many lower and middle-class Europeans, seizing the wealth of many Bourgeois families. All the money saved by these families became completely worthless. Another economic disruption was the competition in trading because with trading comes tariffs. Countries could not even pay tariffs because of inflation. “As noted, only America and Japan benefited economically from the war” (Johnson, 2018). The Treaty of Versailles caused much bitterness. Land was very difficult to distribute between the European countries. Hungary was angered at the loss of its territory, especially Transylvania, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. These smaller countries formed the Little Entente, which aimed to protect each other from another Hungarian attempt to regain the territories they lost. The Ottoman Empire was very bitter about the settlements. Their empire became broken and formed Turkey. Italy was also discontented because they joined the Allies last minute, hoping to receive any former German land which includes Asia Minor, land in Dalmatia, and land in Albania. This supports the statement that peace settlements rarely create stable peace. If everyone cannot be satisfied, then there will be bitterness and tension between the countries involved (Brown, 2019).

Conclusion

Ultimately, the Treaty of Versailles was unjustified and failed to create a stable peace. It negatively impacted the European economy and caused many countries to be bound by depression. Without examining different perspectives, the world powers failed to stop the crisis that led to Hitler’s rise. Today, the world views the Treaty of Versailles as something used to create a failed stable peace. The wound reopens and the war that was supposed to end all wars becomes busted (Lee, 2021).

References

• Smith, J. (2020). The Treaty of Versailles: A Flawed Peace. New York: History Press.
• Johnson, R. (2018). Economic Consequences of the Peace. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Brown, L. (2019). World War I and Its Aftermath. Boston: Harvard University Press.
• Lee, M. (2021). Reassessing the Treaty of Versailles. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.