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Aftermath of World War I lays the foundation for World War II The fighting in World War I stopped when the Armistice took effect at 11:00 am on November 11, 1918. The aftermath of the war saw the political, cultural, and social order of the world change in major ways in many places, even outside the areas directly involved in the war. New nations were created, old ones abolished, and many international organizations were established all while many new and old ideas took a firm grip of people's minds. Aftermath in Germany before the Treaty of Versailles While the armistice held and as the major parties at Versailles decided what to do about Europe the Allies maintained a very harsh naval blockade on Germany. Because Germany was dependent on imports, estimates range that from 200,000 to 800,000 civilians lost their lives during this blockade and many more died from starvation afterwards. Interestingly Robert Leckie, an American writer whose work Helmet for my pillow became one of the main inspirations for the HBO series “band of brothers” and “the pacific” wrote in Delivered From Evil, it did much to "torment the Germans ... driving them with the fury of despair into the arms of the devil." The terms of the Armistice allowed food to be shipped into Germany, but the Allies required that Germany provide the ships (which it had few of and which were restricted by the British Navy). In addition, The German government was required to use its gold reserves because it was unable to secure a loan from the United States. Some historians have argued that the slow food shipments in early 1919 were one of the primary causes of World War II; others have advocated the Allies should have been even harder on Germany. Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that many innocent Germans from every social class suffered very difficult and demoralizing choices from 1919 to the early 1930s and the Blockade was the first such time of tough choices. The blockade was finally lifted in late June of 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles went into effect after its signing. Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 ended the war officially after the Paris Peace Conference. It’s important to note that it took the 3 big nations and 30 other smaller nations that met at the conference took 6 months to arrive at the Versailles Treaty. The Paris Peace conference continued until January 1920, created 5 other treaties and the League of Nations which convened directly at the end of the Paris Peace Conference. In the Versailles Treaty there were 450 articles which demanded Germany accept total responsibility for starting the war and pay heavy economic reparations. Germany itself was not included in the negotiations of the treaty and was forced to sign it causing futher humiliation for the German people all the while they were suffering the effects of the Blockade. The alternative, which was discussed was to not sign and thus continue the blockade and the war which most historians feel would have seen Germany disappear as a sovereign nation all together. Germany therefore became a scapegoat for much larger issues in Europe and a treaty was built on the back of indignation rather than reason and diplomacy. As was said earlier, the Treaty of Versailles only concerned Germany; other treaties were made for different countries soon after. The League of Nations which was one of Woodrow Wilsons “14 points” to avoid world war again in Europe was stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles and woven into the other treaties signed at the Paris Peace Conference but much to Wilson’s chagrin, the US Senate never ratified this treaty and the US did not join the League. This despite President Woodrow Wilson's active campaigning in support of the League. Thus the United States senate negotiated a separate peace with Germany, finalized in August 1921. Historians debate whether the treaty and failure of the US to join the League of Nations, was the foundation for the eventual rise of Nazism in Germany. Certainly there was a sense of injustice for regular Germans who felt the clauses of the treaty and the Weimar republic formed as a result of the treaty placed unreasonable and at times enslaving restrictions upon them. We know that Hitler played heavily upon the indignation Germans felt for these two events which helped him utilize democratic means to create A totalitarian regime. Influenza epidemic A related yet separate occurrence was the 1918 flu pandemic. A new and virulent type of the common flu first seen in the United States but mistakenly known as the "Spanish flu", was carried to Europe by infected American forces. The disease spread rapidly through the continental U.S., Canada and Europe, eventually reaching around the globe, partially because many were weakened and exhausted by the famines and food shortages of the World War. One in every four Americans had contracted the influenza virus. The total number of deaths is not known but most estimates place the number at 50 million people worldwide. Of interest to us is that a study in 2005 found that the 1918 virus strain developed in birds and was similar to today’s 'bird flu' or ‘swine flu’ that today has spurred fears of another worldwide epidemic, yet has thus far proved to be a normal treatable virus that did not produce a heavy impact on the world's health. There is no doubt that the misnamed “Spanish Influenza” of 1918 contributed immensely to a mindset in the 1920s that was prone to supporting ideologies built on fear and apocalyptic reasoning. The Treaties effect on Germany Along with the communist revolution in Russia, there was a socialist revolution which led to the brief establishment of a number of communist political systems in (mainly urban) parts of Germany, and the abdication of the Kaiser. However the allies intervened and helped overthrow the socialist and put to death there leader Rosa Luxemburg “Red Rosa” and create the infamous Weimar Republic. On 28 June 1919, Germany was not present to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty placed the entire blame for the war upon Germany. She was forced to pay 132 billion marks ($31.5 billion, 6.6 billion pounds) in reparations which historians say was about 15% of the total cost of the war for all involved. It’s important to note that these war reparations were legitimized by the French and British who argued that the majority of destruction and impact of the war was outside of Germany (remember all fighting happened in France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and Eastern Europe). What is more, because Germany could mobilize the single strongest army in Europe–a possibility seen as an ongoing threat by France—blaming Germany for the war created a justification to force Germany to permanently reduce the size of its army to 100,000 men, renounce tanks and have no air force or Navy. Germany saw relatively small amounts of territory transferred to Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium, a larger amount to France and the greatest portion of all to Poland. Germany's overseas colonies were divided amongst a number of Allied countries. It was the loss of territory to Poland that caused by far the greatest resentment. Nazi propaganda would feed on a general German view that the treaty was unfair—many Germans never accepted the treaty as legitimate, and later gave their political support to Adolf Hitler, who was arguably the first national politician to both speak out and take action against the treaty's conditions. The Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany that replaced the imperial form of government. It was named after Weimar, the city where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was the Deutsches Reich (German Empire), however. Following World War I, the republic emerged out of a complicated German socialist Revolution that actually started before the end of World War I in October and November of 1918. In January and February of 1919, a national assembly convened in the city of Weimar, where a new constitution for the German Reich was written and adopted on August 11th. It was the Weimar Republic that eventually signed and agreed to the concept of “German guilt” built into the Treaty of Versailles. The liberal democracy that gave a great deal of direct input to all the people of Germany was blamed for many economic and social crises in the 1920s. The liberal democracy eventually lapsed in the early 1930s, leading to the ascent of the NSDAP “The Nazis” and Adolf Hitler in 1933. Although the constitution of 1919 was never officially repealed, the legal measures taken by the Nazi government in February and March 1933, commonly known as Gleichschaltung ("coordination") meant that the government could legislate contrary to the constitution. The constitution became irrelevant; thus, 1933 is usually seen as the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Hitler's "Third Reich". In its 14 years, the Weimar Republic was faced with numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremists and their paramilitaries, and hostility from the victors of the First World War. However, it overcame many discriminatory regulations of the Treaty of Versailles, reformed the currency, unified tax politics and the railway system. But in the end the weakness of the government and the willingness of the German people to turn their backs on the young constitution made many of the successes of this liberal government superfluous to it’s failures.