Download Aftermath of World War I

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.