Question

Discuss the Treaty(ies) of Versailles that ended World War I. What do you see as its key characteristics? Was it a reasonable attempt to settle the problems created by the war or a ticking time bomb?

Answer 1

While President Wilson was heavily involved in negotiating the treaty, which represented his post-war world vision, U.S. Congress isolationists proved to be a major stumbling block to ratification. The so-called "Irreconcilables," mainly Republicans but also some Democrats, opposed the treaty, particularly Article X, which pledged League of Nations member states to go to war on each other's behalf in case of an uncaused act of aggression. The Irreconcilables saw this as a breach of US sovereignty and some thought it would bind the United States to a network of alliances that could lead to another war

After Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1934, his regime began breaking many of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty. Not only did Hitler declare a moratorium on all debt payments and stop making reparations, but he began to build up the German armed forces in earnest. Some historians believe the onerous terms of the treaty laid the psychological and economic groundwork for the emergence of the Nazi party, which capitalized on German resentment of the burdens placed.

Many historians argue that the combination of a harsh treaty and subsequent lax enforcement of its provisions paved the way for the 1930s upsurge of German militarism. The enormous German reparations and the war guilt clause fostered deep resentment of the settlement in Germany, and when Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland in 1936 (a breach of the treaty), the Allies did nothing to stop him, thus encouraging German aggression to come.