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16.2: Treaty of Versailles (1919)

  • Page ID
    132586
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    Even after all of the hopes and aspirations of the last century, Europe had degenerated into a horrendous and costly war. The war had not purified and invigorated the great powers; they were all left reeling, weakened, and at a loss for how to prevent a future war. Science had advanced, but its most noteworthy accomplishment was the production of more effective weapons. The global empires remained, but the seeds of their dissolution were already present.

    The results were bitterness and reprisals. The Treaty of Versailles that ended the war imposed harsh penalties on Germany.

    • It was to return Alsace and Lorraine to France.
    • Pay a massive indemnity (a sum of money paid as compensation) to the Allies.
    • Accept the "war guilt clause," in which it assumed full responsibility for starting the war.

    Simultaneously, the Austrian Empire collapsed, with Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the new Balkan nation of Yugoslavia all becoming independent countries and Austria a short-lived republic. Almost no one would have believed that another "Great War" would occur in twenty years.

    World War I did not resolve any of the problems or international tensions that had started it. Powerful and devastating modern weapons were developed, and no single power was able to assert dominance.

    World War I provided the trauma, the bloodshed, and the skepticism toward liberalism and socialism that underwrote the rise of fascism. Fascism was a modern conservatism, that promoted order and hierarchy, but which did not seek a return to the days of feudalism and monarchy. It was a populist movement, a movement of the people by the people, but instead of petty democratic bickering, it glorified the (imagined) nation.


    16.2: Treaty of Versailles (1919) is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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