After World War I, the Big Three signed a document called the Treaty of Versailles, which punished Germany for being the cause of the Great War. The Treaty of Versailles had effects on many European nations both inside and outside Europe, the effects were mostly negative for the countries involved. The Treaty of Versailles mainly caused social, political and economic unrest in Germany. The country had to pay millions of dollars to the Allied nations to pay off the war debt, and due to the hardship, the people resorted to following Hitler as their new leader. Some effects of the Treaty of Versailles were immediate, such as the economic inflation that countries had to endure, and other effects were exceptionally long-term, as in the case of the reparations that Germany had to pay to meet the Treaty's guidelines. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay "Total War" killed many soldiers, men, women and children in every participating European country. At the Paris Peace Conference, representatives of Great Britain and France (Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George) wanted revenge on Germany, who they believed had started the Great War. Woodrow Wilson, the United States representative, wanted a “just and lasting peace” for all nations. At the Peace Conference the delegates presented the Treaty as a three-country agreement. Adopting the Treaty would be a mistake and very harmful to the German people, as it would kill innocent civilians in the midst of a territorial feud, introduce lack of natural resource production, and make it impossible for the German people to emigrate from their country. crumbling homeland. The Treaty of Versailles establishes that Germany will have to give up its merchant navy and ships suitable for foreign trade. Germany would also sever relations with “allied and associated countries”. This would lead to a lack of resources and the importation of goods. Without enough goods to import into Germany, its people end up starving. This change was harmful to other countries in Europe and to the United States because if Germany froze its imports, other countries would have one less option to export their products to. Natural resources became an issue once the Treaty of Versailles was adopted. Germany would lose much of its eastern territory, eliminating 21 percent of the country's food harvest. Due to the changes, the rate of agricultural production would be slowed. The import of raw materials essential for the production of fertilizers would be hindered and, due to the Treaty, there would be a great shortage of coal. There was a loss of nearly a third of production in the coal fields, as well as a ten-year needed export of coal to various Allied countries. Furthermore, the Treaty of Versailles would entail the export of three-quarters of the ore production and three-fifths of the zinc production. After these massive changes, Germany would no longer be in a stable position to import raw materials abroad. “In this way a huge part of German industry would naturally be condemned to extinction.” As stated above, Germany would not be able to import these products, precisely because the need for imports increases. Because of the inverse relationship that occurred, Germany could not produce enough bread to feed its population. People who could not afford food would have to emigrate to survive, but due to the German emigration ban this was not possible. The Germans inother countries would have to stay in those foreign countries, as it would be impossible and impractical to return to Germany. When the Treaty of Versailles was adopted, the estimated number of German deaths amounted to several million people. “Those who sign this treaty will sign the death sentence of many millions of German men, women and children” (Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, head of the German delegation on May 15, 1919). John Maynard Keynes, an English economist, predicted the effects of the Treaty of Versailles in Europe. Keynes had attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, but left the meeting in protest against the Treaty. It was clear to Keynes that the proposed new Treaty of Versailles would have little in common with Wilson's Fourteen Points. “On 5 June 1919, Keynes wrote a note to Prime Minister Lloyd George informing him that he would resign his office in protest at the impending 'devastation of Europe'” (History.com). Disgusted with the Treaty and what it offered, Keynes wrote The Economic Consequences of the Peace, published in late 1919. Germany was deemed weak and unstable economically as it attempted to repay the reparations imposed by the Treaty. As he had predicted, Germany collapsed due to reparations and the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles. Before and during the Great Depression, Germany experienced severe inflation. The value of the German mark against the U.S. dollar rose from 4.2 dollar-equivalent marks in 1919 to 4,200,000,000,000 U.S. dollar-equivalents in November 1923. In an effort to help, Germany lowered the average labor wage about twenty dollars. -five percent. Because the value of the mark dropped so much, people began buying almost anything in the hope that it would be worth something once the depression was over. Because of problems like these, the United States enacted the Dawes Plan. The Dawes Plan first reduced the reparations that Germany still had to pay and matched the payments to the country's capabilities. Additionally, the Dawes Plan granted Germany a $200 million loan for its recovery. After the implementation of the Dawes Plan, the whole of Europe experienced “brief prosperity” and “opened a door to heavy American investment.” Eventually, due to the many problems associated with the Great Depression, such as hunger and lack of resources, the crime rate increased. But due to the cost of housing criminals, the sentence was shortened. People who committed murder and were not imprisoned began selling their victims for meat because food was so scarce. The Great Depression led to war in many different ways, all of them questionable. But I think some of the reasons are that during the Depression people started looking more towards communism as a way out. But there were still people and countries that did not like communism. Disagreement over the type of government may have partly led to World War II. People also began to separate for a solution and began to follow leaders like Adolf Hitler for help. And Hitler, like many others, sought revenge on the Allies, thus provoking the start of World War II. Many things contributed to the cause of World War II. Some of these major causes included the effects of the Treaty of Versailles and how it caused the Great Depression in Germany, as well as the impact on the rise of Hitler, Adolf Hitler's power and decisions in Germany, and Japan's actions during the war. In November 1923 Hitler led a revolt against the Munich government. The uprising, called the Beer Hall Putsch, ended and Hitler was put in prison. There he wrote Mein Kampf, a document of his beliefs. In 1932, Hitler's Nazi Party numbered 800,000members and was the largest party in the Reichstag. In 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor. Two months later, on March 23, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act allowing the government to ignore the constitution while attempting to rid Germany of its serious economic problems, stemming primarily from the Treaty of Versailles. Thanks to the enabling law, Hitler was able to become dictator. At the Munich Conference of 1938, Great Britain and France agreed that Germany could acquire the Sudetenland. Six months after conquering the Sudetenland, Hitler also seized all of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. A year later, Germany wants the Polish corridor back. At the same time Great Britain and France try to ally themselves with the USSR and Great Britain gives protection to Poland. On September 1, 1939, Germany faked a Polish attack on itself to justify the invasion of Poland. This is considered the beginning of World War II. Immediately after the attack on Poland in 1939, the main conflict is between Great Britain and France, as on 3 September 1939 they declare war on Germany, Germany, Poland and the USSR. All Hitler really wants in World War II is for all of Germany, and certainly the rest of the world, to follow his lead; because that would bring peace. This idea is called pacification. “A policy based on the belief that if European states satisfied the reasonable demands of the dissatisfied powers, the dissatisfied powers would be content and stability and peace would be achieved in Europe” (Pollack). In 1931, Japan gained control of Manchuria, which shocked the defenseless League of Nations, and of northern China in 1937. In 1937, the Rape of Nanking occurred in Nanjing, the capital of China. Following this massacre, over 300,000 Chinese civilians were brutally killed. On December 7, 1941, Japan declared war on the United States by bombing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In the attack on Pearl Harbor, 2,402 Americans died, 350 aircraft were destroyed or damaged, and eight battleships were sunk or damaged. Also in December 1941 the Germans reach Moscow. It was freezing cold there and the German soldiers wore only short-sleeved summer uniforms. Their fuel froze and their tanks became unusable, but Hitler refused to order a retreat. Finally 500,000 German soldiers died in early December 1941 on the outskirts of Moscow. The main conflict at that point was between the United States and Germany, after the United States entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The main causes of World War II were the effects of the Treaty of Versailles on the decisions of Germany and Japan. Adolf Hitler is certainly primarily responsible for the Second World War and the actions of Germany and its allies. World War II impacted many different types of people in many different ways. One of those types of people who are non-combatants. Civilians in Japan, Germany and all countries involved in the war were killed due to sheer human brutality. Examples of situations where such brutality occurs are the bombing of Japan and the internment of ethnic Japanese U.S. citizens. On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 was signed by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The order authorized the sending of all Americans of Japanese descent to internment camps. This occurred after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by the Japanese government. At the time, all Japanese were considered a threat to the United States by many non-Japanese Americans. There were 127,000 Japanese Americans living in the continental United States at the time of the attacks on Pearl Harbor. InFollowing Executive Order 9066, more than 120,000 Japanese of all ages and genders, 65 percent of whom were born in America, were imprisoned for up to three years. The signing of Executive Order 9066 was an unconstitutional action and demonstrates that the rule of law can be abandoned in circumstances of war, whether it is morally correct or not. Adverse situations bring out the best and worst in people. In many cases people have no public prejudices, or perhaps none at all until they feel threatened and scared. In this case, many Caucasian Americans felt threatened by the Japanese in the United States. As I researched the internment of ethnic Japanese in the past, I heard many stories about the Japanese and their experiences in America at the time of Executive Order 9066. One that I distinctly remember involves a Japanese family who was rounded up to be taken to prison . an internment camp in 1943, as told from the point of view of the neighbor's daughter. When the girl's Japanese neighbors are kidnapped, she quickly realizes that there are people in town who are openly racist who weren't before the internment camps. Bombs were dropped frequently on Japan during the World War II years. The United States participated in extensive bombing of civilian populations in Japan. On March 9, 1945, Tokyo was bombed by American troops. 100,000 innocent Japanese citizens were killed in this act of war. By bombing Japan, the Americans were attempting to destroy the will of Japanese citizens and soldiers to continue fighting the war. Faced with the deaths of tens of thousands of their fellow citizens, the Japanese faced drastic character challenges. For example, in the film Grave of the Fireflies, Seita had to make important decisions in caring for his sister, such as leaving his aunt's house and stealing to feed her. In Seita's case, the adversity of the situation brought out the good in him. On the other hand, Seita and Setsuko's aunt reacted very differently to the stress of war. She was uptight and rude to the children and ended up kicking them out of the house with full knowledge of the health and safety risks they would face. In the winter of 1918, the former American president, Woodrow Wilson, wrote and presented "the Fourteen Points" to the American Congress. The document could be applied to a number of regions of the world, particularly the Middle East. Wilson's fifth point, which stated among other things that "all decisions regarding colonies should be impartial," would later serve as a source of guidance for the reconstruction of the Middle East. Hidden under a veil of secrecy, the United Kingdom, represented by Sir Mark Sykes, and France, represented by François Georges-Picot, made an agreement: the Sykes-Picot of 1916. The agreement concerned the division of the Arab provinces that once they belonged to the powerful Ottoman Empire. The secret treaty, however, came to an abrupt end when the Bolsheviks brought the agreement to light following the Russian Revolution. The Balfour Declaration was a letter written, after long periods of negotiation, by Arthur James Balfour, a British Foreign Secretary. In November 1917 the letter was sent to Lord Rothschild, president of the British Zionist Federation. The letter publicly expressed Britain's support for a national homeland for Jews in Palestine. The declaration, however, did not advocate undermining the rights of the non-Jewish populations already living there. Eventually, in July 1922, the proposal was accepted by the League of Nations, this acceptance giving the British temporary control over Palestine. TheWestern allies, in an attempt to gain Arab support against the Ottoman Turks during World War I, had promised to recognize the independence of Arab countries within the Ottoman Empire in exchange for support during the Great War. In the end, the war actually succeeded in dismembering the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the war, however, a change of heart followed on the part of the Western Allies. Instead of being recognized as an independent state, as promised, France assumed administrative control over Lebanon and Syria; and Britain on Iraq and Palestine. The outcome of these acquisitions led to the formation of the mandate system; a system in which one nation could rule another country on behalf of the League of Nations, even though the governing nation would not own the land. Today, conflict brews within a divided Israel. Establishing mutual recognition of control of Jerusalem, borders, water rights, security and the endless search for a solution to the refugee issue remain sensitive and controversial topics, even if both sides often fail to take and maintain the engagements. The recent discussion on the creation of two separate states, a Palestinian state and a Jewish state, within a given territory seems like a rare, but possible compromise, although both sides are hesitant to cede half of their precious country to the adversary. Because of an undying disagreement, violence has become a common aspect of life in Israel since the conflict began in the early 20th century, although deaths have not been limited to military personnel. Wilson thought that letting the people have a say and make the calls, and letting the majority rule was what it truly meant to be an American. Likewise, the Chinese and Vietnamese wanted to be able to choose their own type of government. As a result, some Vietnamese and Chinese nationalists turned to the Russians, especially Lenin, because they liked his ideas and concepts of communism, including Ho Chi Minh. Lenin took power and was head of the communist party in Russia, but he wanted it to continue to expand. He convinced Western Europe to join him and his party in rebellion against their leaders. The United States didn't like this, considering the free-thinking democracy they seemed to have. The United States believed that communism was aggressively expansive and posed a threat to any country with a government that did not follow communist beliefs. They saw how Lenin was trying to bring other nations together and turn them against capitalist countries like the United States. The French and English were cautious because they did not want the Soviets to control them. The French and English may have been cautious because they did not want to face another revolution. The French put an end to one, and that didn't last long. In 1920, Lenin adopted a new strategy to try to spread communism beyond the borders of Europe. Lenin attempted to create an international way of thinking, and thus spread his ideas throughout Asia. Ho Chi Minh went to the peace conference trying to take back his land from the French and hoping to be listened to. Ho Chi Minh also wanted to be in charge and wanted to run his own government. At the conference he received neither. Tired of the people in power, he decided to join the French Communist Party. By the late 1920s all the Asian colonies followed a communist way of thinking. Ho Chi Minh founded the Vietnamese Communists in the 1920s. The United States feared that because it didn't like it, other nations would begin to resort to communism, following Russia's path. In previous years the Chinese possessed and.