The Treaty of Versailles and Its Role after The First World War

America and the Great War

Nationalism is mainly blamed to be the reason for the breakout of the World War I in 1914. The United States’ joined the World War I in 1917, which was a representation of the most astonishing development in the history of America. Its connotation, though, barely goes beyond modern America’s combined lack of knowledge of it. It is not possible to clutch with lucidity American history throughout the World War I period devoid of precisely mentioning President Woodrow Wilson similar to Lincoln and Roosevelt who respectively have to be tacit in order to understand the war among the States and consequently World War II (Bade & Brown, 2003).

It was not the authority of the antagonists, open-minded or traditional, of the U.S. that directed the concluding conquer of the Treaty of Versailles, but rather the sustaining deficiency of knowledge, inability and persistence of the President Wilson. With the acquiesce of Germany after WW1, it presented numerous diverse ways to build harmony. In 1918, Wilson forwarded his plans for harmonizing the situation in the form of 14 points. The most significant of this was the League of Nations. After a year subsequent to this, President Wilson was seen to be leading Paris Peace Conference in Versailles which was to arrive at a global deal that incorporated the fourteen points that were suggested. However, United States of America was not apt to signing the agreement or bond with the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson's thoughts for stillness were well entrenched in consideration, but in politically pertaining his concepts, he made irreversible faults (Cockfield, 1997).

World War I established the horrifying idea of complete war that the world could not suspect. Nationalism and illusion of global invasion transformed the civilians into soldiers. Technology was being produced as fast as never before and right after the war came to a closure, President Wilson and the other leaders of Allies were accountable for the defiance of taking Europe again towards a complete piece just like fixing a major dilemma. Unluckily, as the turning of these events was happening so rapidly, it proved catastrophic for the prospects of the entire world and President Wilson's incompetence and obstinacy caused the Senate to lose the Treaty of Versailles.

As mentioned earlier, Nationalism had been the main cause of the Great War. Up to the late nineteenth century many nations in Europe, especially those who were speaking the same language and living the same culture, were not prone to unity in any of the state. An example, the primaries of Italy were not united as one nation until 1861 up to a decade after (Chickering, 2004). The increasing surge of nationalism was particularly sturdy in the Balkan territories under the power of Austro-Hungary till the start of the Great War. They were particularly defenseless to such actions. Pan-Slavism, was a Slav autonomist group, had been a rising difficulty for Austrians for a little time and the killing of the Archduke was actually constituent of a secret Slav separatist group recognized as The Black Hand. Although Serbia was a self-governing Slav state, it believed as in danger by Austro-Hungarian authority as the Austro-Hungarians dreaded the mutiny of their Slav counterparts, urged by Serbian Pan-Slavists (Bass, 2002). The Russians and Slavs always posed to be the leaders of all subjugated Slavs and expectant Pan-Slavism. This patriotic craziness developed an environment of doubt and disbelieve in the South East Europe.

The Treaty of Versailles cannot be considered as anything more than a channel for the subsequent wars in Europe. The similar nationalism and struggles among classes that flared up the First World War were there and exaggerated by the Treaty of Versailles (Bade & Brown, 2003). As an alternative of serving Europe to pull through, the Treaty of Versailles deepened the troubles of World War One. Great losses were being experienced since of the system in which the society had turned out to be most important up to the First World War Unluckily, these fatalities were now the primary of the numerous to be mourned by citizens from all over the world (Chickering, 2004).

Setting aside the weaknesses within the suggestion for the League of Nations, there was still prevalent uncertainty in the morals at the back of the remains of the Treaty. Inspite the mistakes of Germans, the winners of the Great War had no permission to give any punishment to them. People were not permitted to devalue the million lives and take away the happiness of the entire country no matter how wrong they were. Not only the media, but also the government of Wilson, had great concerns over the ethics involved in the Treaty of Versailles (Cockfield, 1997).

Even though, most of the Americans were more apt to go with England and the Allies, very few of them actually wanted the United States to go into the World War I. The U.S. had a strong example of hostility on its own part political mess of England, and had no wish to modify that custom. The Congress along with the President was in favor of this reservation of the American nationals. In a public remorse, Wilson mentioned that America will remain neutral and impartial not only in actions but also in decisions taken during the World War (Bade & Brown, 2003).

Throughout the World War I, the Treaty of Versailles stands out to be most conflicting issues between the years 1917 - 1921. Only World War I and the transient of the nineteenth amendment could challenge the global power of the treaty (Bass, 2002). The Treaty of Versailles was the reason for ending the Great War, sanctioned by France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain but never initiated by the U.S. This was one of the very main reasons for the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles. Other factors that contributed towards the failure were the empowerment of the opposition, resistance towards the League of Nations, and the discontentment of the Foreign Relations Committee's on not involving themselves in the alterations of the terms proposed by the Treaty (Chickering, 2004).

In practicality, the grave after effects was developed by the French and the throng of other European nations who administered the World War. The Treaty of Versailles was the main reason the war ended officially in 1919. The devastating impact of this treaty on an already-significant Germany is as astounding as its lapse. The overpowered country lost almost half of its land area, other than the many lost colonies and citizens (Chickering, 2004). The brash and embarrassing obligation for the Germans to confess all accountability of the war – when Serbia, Austria, Russia, and France all detained identical or better roles for its investiture – set the phase for the starvation in the country to bear the financial loss of the war as well which was almost in trillions of dollars. This, together with later on disciplinary actions undertaken by France, caused the road to hyper inflation in Germany, socialist revolution, financial damage, societal disorder, ethical collapse, and last but not the least, the Nazis and Hitler.