Question

The 1914 and 1939 wars that engulfed almost the entire world, were known as World Wars due to its unprecedented impact and damage. In this context, answer the following. Mention any four terms of the Treaty of Versailles which affects Germany after World War I.

Answer 1

Hint: Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28th June 1919 between the central powers and the allied powers. It was in this treaty that the European boundaries got restructured after the First World War ended. It was very harsh for Germany being the main defeated party.

Complete answer: The First World War lasted from 1914 to 1918. The immediate cause for it was the assassination of an heir to Austria, Archduke Ferdinand in Serbia. Even so, it needs to be seen in the context of growing military powers of state in the name of defending oneself. The shallow nationalism of hating other nations and rising imperial goals already had the major world powers at conflict with one another.
The course o.f the war brought out two groups, first the Central power on Austria’s side including Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria. The others were called the Allies comprising England, France, Serbia, Russia, Italy, Japan and USA.
The war was devastating with the death of millions of soldiers on both the sides and also with the exhaustion of resources and economies. This indirectly affected those who were not participating in war as the prices rose to another level.
Well, the war did come to an end with the signing of an armistice on 11th November 1918 as the central powers got defeated. This was then followed by the Treaty of Versailles, whose terms were decided by the winning group mainly, USA, England and France. This treaty was especially humiliating for Germany. First, it was made to pay 65 million euros as war indemnity to the Allied powers. Through this, the entire responsibility of the war was shifted to Germany. Second, it wanted to keep Germany’s growing military and naval power so it disarmed it, limiting the strength of the army with only one lakh troops. Third, it forced Germany to let go of her colonies and even own territory in the Rhineland area. Fourthly, the German emperor had to abdicate the throne and also criminal trials were held to assess their role in the war.

Note: Germany faced harsh conditions even after the end of the second World War where it surrendered to the Allies. This resulted in a division of German territory into four parts with each under control of the USA, USSR, France and England.