“The Treaty [of Versailles] includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitations of Europe.”[1] After World War One, Europe had broken down. The war not only had a lot of casualties but created an enormous amount of economic problems in Europe. “Europe is not self sufficient; in particular it cannot feed itself.”[2] No one was there to help Europe; The League of Nations was the closest they had and the League had no army, many weren’t included, and it really couldn’t solve domestic problems[3]. All the major European governments faced many troubles at the end of the First World War.
The French were extremely angered at the end of World War One. Clemenceau wanted to destroy his enemies’ Economy, Germany’s economy. Through the Versailles treaty, which was a treaty made by the winning allies in World War One[4], Germany had to pay huge reparations to all of the allies; France made sure this happened. France being out for revenge was a hypocritical move to the League of Nations. The Covenant of the League states that the league shall, “promote international co-operation and achieve international security.”[5] Making Germany pay as many reparations as they had to, plus feeling bad about themselves wouldn’t create international or European co-operation. Also, after World War one, France too Many casualties from war so their society and social economy was in a state of shock.
Like France, Britain took a leading role in the League of Nations. The British wanted peace in Europe at all costs after World War One. Not only did they lose a lot of casualties but their society didn’t want to enter in another war of any kind. Everyone believed that the First World War would be a very quick war, but when it wasn’t everyone was sick of war.[6] As a leading role in the League, after breaking up countries and reduction Germany, British helped establish new unstable countries which brought about the concept of irredentism[7]. This will play a big part in the introduction of the Second World War.
On the other side of the spectrum, Russia was not invited to the League of Nations. This brought a negative attitude toward the allies to the beginning of World War two. During this time in Russia, there was a bloody revolution going on. Knowing that Russia was unstable with a “social unrest”,[8] Germany sent Lenin, who was a banished communist, back into Russia in a sealed off boxcar of a train. In the revolution, the communist side was winning which brought a large fear into Europe and the rest of the world. The Spread of communism was the arch enemy of the democratic world.
Germany, after the First World War was in complete shambles. From their economy to their international status was torn to pieces. To start off, Germany had no food. Before World War one, Germany made its money and food from agriculture. While the First World War was happening, during total war and mobilization when their whole country put in every effort for the war, they had an industrial revolution. Germany was one of the last to revolutionize industrially seeing as how there was a big industrial revolution in Europe from the late 1800 to about 1904.[9] At this point, they started importing a lot of their materials and foods. Then, after the loss of a world war, Germany didn’t have a way of getting food. They weren’t growing it because they moved away from agriculture. “Germany has become transformed from an agricultural state to an industrial state.”[10] Also, because the whole war was blamed on them, no one wanted to trade with them, which gave them no imports of food or raw materials. This created a movement for people wanting to leave Germany and to avoid being associated with it. Another problem then arose when other countries didn’t allow immigration from Germany. On top of all of this, no other country would come to Germany’s aid to help them in this horrible time of depression; Germany was only restricted, not helped. In the end, this all led to Heavy inflation and even starvation for many. Inflation made Germany take a huge toll. Average citizens didn’t obtain enough money to buy essentials; for example, many would just barely, if that, to buy a loaf of bread. Much of the economy was left without jobs. There were also many problems in the governmental sides of Germany. The new liberal democracy that was set up was achieving nothing. There were too many different parties and a lot of separate, conflicting interests. This paved the way for an extreme ideology to gain power, an ideology that is on a far side of the spectrum. Another problem was that Germany’s soon to be allies were both having revolutions at this time. Italy was turning fascist and Russia was having a communist revolution. This was a huge scare for all of Europe, not just Germany. No country, at this time, wanted to have a communist revolution or even have their society think about the word communism. Lastly, the deal that tied the knot was the Versailles treaty. This demolished any hope of anything that Germany could have possible had. It restricted Germany’s army to essentially nothing. The only arms they were supposed to have been for defense. Germany also had to take full blame or war guilt[11] for World War one; this stricken down any possible thought of national pride. And as icing on the cake, Germany had to pay huge reparations to the allies of the First World War, but especially to France.
With the French out for revenge, British as a mediator, Germany demolished, and the Russian revolution, Europe was a mess. Being in such a horrible state, brought the opportunity for World War Two to start. If the French weren’t so greedy or if the German’s would have received some help, then possibly that could have been avoided. Much could have been done to help the state of Europe, but everyone was faced with their own troubles.
[1] “Modern History Sourcebook: John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920″ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920keynes.html (accessed through E-Reserve, History 249, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Spring 2009)
[2] 1″Modern History Sourcebook: John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920keynes.html (accessed through E-Reserve, History 249, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Spring 2009)
[3] Winson Chu, “League of Nations” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, January 2009).
[4] “The Treaty of Versailles and Germany,” printed as Document 1 in: Richard J. Overy, The Origins of the Second World War, 2nd ed. (Harlow: Pearson Longman, 1998), pp. 101-102
[5] “The Covenant of the League,” printed as Document 2 in: Richard J. Overy, The Origins of the Second World War, 2nd ed. (Harlow: Pearson Longman, 1998), pp. 102-103,
[6] Winson Chu, “Spirit of 1914” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, February 2009).
[7] Winson Chu, “Europa Irredenta” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, February 2009).
[8] Winson Chu, “Revolutions in Russia” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, February 2009).
[9] Winson Chu, “Europe before WWl” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, February 2009).
[10] “Modern History Sourcebook: John Maynard Keynes: The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920” http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920keynes.html (accessed through E-Reserve, History 249, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Spring 2009), here p. 2
[11] Winson Chu, “Treaty of Versailles” (History 249 lecture, University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukee, February 2009).
