The Treaty of Versailles: Cause of World War II?

When World War II is mentioned, everyone thinks of a brutal global war in which nearly a hundred million people died. In addition, it is known that the cause of the great war was Hitler’s agreement with the Soviets and the invasion of Poland from the west. Well, is it really so? Or, as some historians occasionally state, could the Treaty of Versailles, which was a disproportionate form of punishment, be the root and real cause of this war? After all, if you belittle the national honour of a country and impose financial conditions that are difficult to cope with, you will have to expect marginal movements such as Nazism to emerge from it. People generally tend to adhere to extreme ideas in such bad conditions.

In his time, A. Hitler, the greatest representative of this extreme idea in Germany, came to power and brought the world into a great conflict. In this context, we will analyse the Treaty of Versailles, which was one of the main reasons for the war that threw the world into such a big ring of fire. This agreement, which included extreme conditions such as paying huge reparations and limiting the army, was, in a sense, suicide for Germany at the time. In this context, we will briefly review the Paris Peace Conference and this agreement and analyse its most important articles impartially and briefly.

The Importance of Versailles

What would you say if we said that the peace treaty of the German-French war of 1871, which was a great defeat for the French, was also signed in Versailles? In other words, the fact that the treaty in which German unity was achieved and France’s hegemony was dealt a great blow was signed in the same place where Germany suffered a great blow reek of French revenge. If we say that the German Empire collapsed after this treaty and the Weimar Republic was established in its place, we can already understand how difficult the conditions were.

In other words, states, just like people, have memories and feelings. If you hurt these feelings too much, their memories will work when the day comes and they will confront you with what you did in the past. At this point, the French have not forgotten that the Germans seized the Alsace-Lorraine region, which was French territory, in the 1871 peace treaty. One of the articles of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles is that this region be returned to the French.

After providing this brief background information, we would like to state that the most fundamental importance of the Treaty of Versailles was that it was one of the most important treaties of the Paris Peace Conference that ended World War I. The victorious Allied Powers of the period signed separate treaties with each country that lost the war. In this context, the Treaty of Sevres was signed with the Ottoman Empire and Saint Germain treaty with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, another importance of this treaty, accepted by many historians and rarely mentioned in official history, is that it was one of the most important causes of World War II.

The Big Four Approach!

In other words, Treaty of Versailles had such harsh conditions both financially, politically and sociologically; it was almost impossible for it not to cause a new war. It is very weird that although Germany was one of the parties to this treaty, the Germans were not invited to the Peace Conference talks. This is also a little-known fact in history. The articles were prepared by the so-called “Big Four”, the USA, England, France and Italy, and Germany was given a certain period of time to sign. At the end of this period, if the articles were not accepted, they were informed that their country would be occupied.

Chancellor Hermann Müller, who was afraid of this occupation or a sudden Bolshevik revolution, was forced to sign this heavy treaty. At that time, many European countries were affected by the Communist revolution that had recently taken place in Russia and were afraid of revolution.

Articles of Treaty of Versailles

By the way, let us state that the Russians were not a party to the peace talks and did not participate in these talks due to the withdrawal of the Bolshevik government established after the October Revolution from the war. In addition, although they were on the same side, each of the big four had different goals and expectations at the peace conference. The USA, under the leadership of Woodrow Wilson, was in favour of a moderate agreement. They did not want Germany to be declared a war criminal. It was still a serious market for their production and they did not want it to suffer economic destruction. On the other hand, France, under the leadership of Clemenceau, was completely out for revenge.

They wanted the Germans to be worn down as much as possible economically, politically and socially. French did not want the day to come when they would grow stronger and attack them again. They were right for their side because France had been devastated during the German occupation. The British, led by Lloyd George, were right in the middle. In other words, they neither wanted Germany to collapse completely nor to remain strong. After all, the Panzers, which were a very important market with their large population, had to have enough economic power to sell the British goods. However, they should not have had imperial ambitions as a powerful country as they were before 1914.

In addition, the French wanted the Rhineland region between them and the Germans as a buffer zone and wanted this region to be completely demilitarized. America also wanted the Germans to recover economically as soon as possible.

Wilson Principles and Keynes

In addition, unlike the other victorious states, the USA wanted to accept Germany as a member of the League of Nations, which was the basis of today’s United Nations. By the way, let’s also state that the aim of this society during its establishment was to prevent future wars and conflicts between countries. Let’s not forget that the USA emerged from this war stronger and Wilson’s famous 14 principles (Wilson Principles) created great excitement in the world. The most important of these articles is the right of nations to self-determination.

The negotiations began with these conditions and perspectives. It should be noted at this point that; While the negotiations were continuing, the famous economist Keynes, who was negotiating on behalf of the British, resigned from his position in the negotiations, stating that this would not be a peace agreement but rather a cause for war that would lead to another war in the world in just 20 years.

Economic and Political Articles

The most problematic and destructive of the political articles is the article known as Article 231, also known as the “war crime” article. The Germans did not accept this article for a long time. On the other hand, when the victorious states stated that every article had to be accepted or they would completely occupy their countries, they were forced to accept this article as well. Being a war criminal meant accepting many destructive articles. Here, Keynes and the Americans were against such articles.

To summarize the most important Treaty of Versailles articles briefly;

• Germany would be left without weapons and an army. It would have a small army limited to 100,000 people who would only undertake the duties of the police force, and this number would not be exceeded.
• Since it accepted that it was a war criminal, Germany would pay compensation of approximately 400 billion dollars in today’s money for civilians harmed by the war.
• They lost approximately 15 percent of their land. Approximately 10 percent of their population lived in these lost lands.
• The Alsace-Lorraine region, which was a constant topic of debate between both countries, was given to France.
• On the other hand, they had to give up some small lands to Belgium, Lithuania, Poland and the Netherlands.
• As a newly unified empire, they lost the colonies they had acquired. In this context, they gave up many of their colonies in Africa and the Pacific.
• Air and naval forces were be disbanded.
• Weapons and heavy industry were not be established.
• All relations with Austria were be cut off and a political union was definitely not be entered into again.

Results of the Treaty of Versailles

After this treaty, the German people felt completely humiliated. Their empire collapsed and the Weimar Republic was established. The Germans, whose honour was humiliated, became prone to marginal racist rhetoric such as Adolf Hitler when the economic crisis of 1929 was added to this.

As many historians have stated, the clearest result treaty of Versailles was the start of World War II. In addition, the conditions were so harsh that people began to think that the war was lost at the desk, not on the field. In fact, the idea thought that the Jews and generals living in the country they caused the war to be lost by stabbing themselves in the back caused extreme ideas to find supporters.

Finally, it should be noted that the Treaty of Versailles was a treaty full of revenge and hatred for the victorious states, and France mostly got what it wanted. On the other hand, this process, which was humiliating for the Germans, fuelled their hatred of the French and even legitimized the occupation of France in World War II among the Germans in general.

If we categorize the items we have detailed above in terms of their consequences:

• 1- Admitting war crimes,
• 2- Paying war compensation and reparations,
• 3- Demilitarization,
• 4- Territorial losses,
• 5- Loss of colonies,
• 6- Establishment of the Weimar Republic,
• 7- Exploitation of raw materials such as coal and steel in the Saar region in addition to cash compensation.

Meanwhile, the work titled “The Economic Consequences of Peace” written in 1919 by John Maynard Keynes, who was present at the negotiations and resigned afterwards, is a very important source for understanding the spirit and details of this agreement. Reading about the process in this book will increase the knowledge of those interested in the subject.