Cory Rutherford How did the Versailles Treaty help cause WW2?
“The idea is not to please the most amount of people. Growing up in Versailles, the idea was to please the least amount of people.”
Versailles was created to make
WW1 the war to end all wars. How did it help to start an even larger war less than 20 years later? The Treaty of Versailles helped cause WW2 by, Territorial loss, Military restrictions, and the “War Guilt Clause”.
The Treaty helped cause WW2 by severely weakening Germany through territorial losses. Germany was forced to give up all their possessions (Africa). Germany lost about 13% of it’s territory and about 10% of their population. The Treaty of
Versailles was a little bit too harsh, territory loss was difficult because in resources. The
Germans now living in other countries resented these nations and remain loyal to
Germany (Doc A).
Another connection between the Treaty of Versailles and the start of World War 2 were the restrictions on the German Military. Their Military was so restricted and relatively small compared to neighbors, the German people felt really insecure. This made them more likely to support Military attacks on the Germans neighbors as WW2 began (Doc B).
A final critical way that the Treaty of Versailles was a cause to WW2 was how the
War Guilt Clause started a cultural sense of Anger in the Germans. The War Guilt
Clause (Article 231) said that Germany must accept all the responsibility for starting

WW1