Analysis of Versailles Treaty

End of World War I

Typically, 11th of November 1918 is thought to be the date that marked the end of WWI (Woodward 8). Nevertheless, the date simply meant the end to the actual fight, and the commencement of the armistice. To formally put an end to the great war, the victorious group, the Allied Powers (Italy, Britain, United States and France) had to sign several peace treaties with the opponents, Central Powers (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, and Ottoman Empire). Among the treaties signed was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Gusejnova 216), and the most famous one being the Treaty of (Versailles Litvin 16). However, the treaties that ended this war were blamed and maligned for inevitably causing economic, political and military conditions twenty years later in the WWII. Ultimately, they failed to achieve their intended purpose of establishing lasting peace to the warrying parties.

Treaties and Impact on Germany

Overly, the treaties imposed heavily on the helpless losers of the war with Germany being the on the losing end, and the most affected. She (Germany), was forced to take all the blame for the war, and consequently faced war reparations to Belgium, France and Britain for damages caused to its civilians (Woodward 541). Moreover, she also had to comply to military restrictions and power boundaries provided for in the treaty. All these harsh treaty provisions angered and prompted the rise of Nazi party under Hitler Adolf who catalyzed the next war. Mistakenly, again, Germany was voluntarily left to comply with the provisions which she later defaulted immediately as she had no incentives to fulfill the obligations (Versailles Litvin 18). Besides failure by Germany to comply with the set regulation, the treaty delegation, despite large representation by 27 countries, was primarily dominated by the Allied Power who only pursued personal agendas and goals that contradicted those of their counterparts. Irrefutably, long lasting peace could thus not be attained through such contradicting treaties, enough reason why WWII erupted.

Works Cited

Gusejnova, Dina. “Brest-Litovsk as a Site of Historical Disorientation.” Cosmopolitanism in Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018. 213-246.

Litvin, Elisa. “Peace and future cannon fodder: The armistice and the treaty of versailles.” Agora 53.2 (2018): 16.

Woodward, Llewellyn. Great Britain and the War of 1914-1918 (RLE The First World War). Routledge, 2017.