Britain and USA were thinking more on economic matters when discussing Germany’s penalty of compensations. Britain had gotten rid of its main economic rival, but now saw France as the new upcoming rival in Europe, even as it’s possible upcoming successor. Britain did not want to cripple Germany totally since it still wanted to trade; the US shared the same reason to sympathise with Germany. Although the US did not want to participate too much in the affairs of Europe, they were very much interested in getting Germany’s loans paid back. Britain and America’s only demands were a slight demilitarization, few industrial cutbacks and payments for the widows and injured.
“The Big Three” found a compromise which consisted of special legal restrictions, military restrictions, and territorial changes which Germany was forced to accept. The most known, and most discomforting for Germany, was “Article 231”, known as the “War Guilt Clause”:
"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies."
This was kicking Germany while she was down, making them look like “the bad guys” in the war, by making them accept this article. But this was only the beginning of Germany’s suffering and the beginning of a twenty year period now called “The Interwar Years”.
Germany suffered large military losses during the Great War, but the army was thereafter reduced to a sheer size of 100.000, aircrafts and tanks were forbidden, and the navy was also reduced to almost nothing, which humiliated Germany since it had been a military nation since it had united with Bismarck’s help. The territory that Bismarck had unified was also in danger from the results of the treaty, the Rhineland was demilitarized, Alsace Lorraine was ceased by France, northern Schleswig was returned back to Denmark and most of former Prussia was taken by Poland. This meant that many Germans had now become minorities outside the empire. As if losing 13% of its territory was not bad enough, they also had their colonies stripped from them.
To maintain world security and economic growth, the allies created The League Of Nations, which was a promising way to create a “world-police” keeping all nations in order and ensuring that all nations kept to their deal of the peace treaties (mainly Germany). Although the intentions were good, the US questioned its effectiveness and legitimacy. This lead to that the US did not join, which crippled the League of Nations respect and authority, because they were missing the largest and most influential participation of them all; The United States of America. American president, Wilson Woodrow, was not interested in including the US in the European affairs, so this was the first step of America’s isolationism.
The Americans enjoyed living independent from the other nations, they only had a say in a few factors in Europe. The economy was healthy, and they were all optimistic from the gains and wealth of the “Bull Market”, until October 29, 1929, when stocks crashed for four days straight. “The Wall Street Crash” pulled the world’s largest economy down to its knees; the consequence of this was that it spread out to almost every country on earth. “The Great Depression” hit hard on cities dependant on heavy industry because of the decline in trade, which then resulted in a fatal price drop in the crop prices. The farmers were getting poorer because a large group of the industry workers were becoming unemployed and had no money to buy food.
All nations were occupied by trying to recover from the fatal happenings of the great depression, so the League of Nations was at its weakest, not being the world police it had started as. They did not react on Japanese invasion in China, nor did America, so Japan had free play in Asia. This showed the whole world how weak the League of Nations truly was, and two men saw a possibility of rising to power now that the “world police” was weaker than ever. These two men were going to be some of the key figures of the war that started in 1939; they were called Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
Dictator of Italy, Benito Mussolini, had been in power since 1922, and had created a powerful fascist empire. To prove its strength and to expand the empire, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1936 with great strength and success. Again the League of Nations did nothing to stop or punish Italy for its actions. Adolf Hitler saw this as a fitting time to rebuild the German Empire. He had been chancellor of Germany since 1933, and had won the people’s heart by promising that he would rebuild the empire. He secretly rearmed the army in Russia, and quickly gained more confidence breaking the rules of Versailles after Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia. As he predicted the League of Nations did nothing, they only warned Hitler that if he invaded territories outside of Germany they would declare war on him, which was also a halfhearted threat because German and French troops were face to face in the Alsace area, and the French government did not order to attack. From there on Germany invaded Poland, starting the Second World War.
Germany is to blame for the outbreak of the war, but it was only an act self-defense from twenty years of humiliation and repress from the Versailles treaty. “The Big Three” had compromised on a deal that was too harsh, but yet it did not weaken the Germans enough to get rid of the threat to start a new war, it only angered them even more. The Versailles Treaty could have worked though if The League of Nations also contained the US and had worked as they should have to keep peace; by beating down on Japan and Italy when they were breaking the pact. This might have stopped Hitler in thinking that he could rebuild the Empire, since he would have to break some the rules while doing so, risking that the League of Nations would strike down on him. “The Big Three” are all responsible for the long-term causes of the Second World War, by declaring an unofficial war against Germany already in 1919. They could have won this “war” by cooperating, but they were weak because of the lack of teamwork, and weakened even more by the Great Depression. Although Wilson Woodrow wanted the US out of European affairs, he predicted this: "With absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it."
He was right.
History Essay
To what extent must Germany, England, France, Japan or the US bear the responsibility for the fact that the peace of 1918 crumbles 1939?
Nicholas Larsen 3.u
Word count: 1688
”Heavenly Twins” (Sumner and Cunliffe) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Twins_(Sumner_and_Cunliffe)
Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_231_of_the_Treaty_of_Versailles
Wilson Woodrow: Appeal for Support of the League of Nations