Jan 7, 2018 3 min read

In something of an irony, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which went into effect this week in 1920, guaranteed its own destruction. For starters, one provision called for the formation of a League of Nations, an international association whose primary goal was to ensure global peace by preventing or quickly ending wars between its members. Unfortunately, the language describing how this would work stated that under the power of “collective security” the League could dictate that members contribute military resources, including troops, in a communal war-ending effort.

That ensured the United States would not approve the Treaty of Versailles, and therefore not join the League, because all U.S. treaties need approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, and most senators objected to language that gave an international body, not the U.S. Congress, the authority to send American troops into harm’s way. According to the Constitution, that responsibility is solely delegated to Congress. Subsequently, the absence of the United States seriously eroded the League’s power.

Additionally, several other treaty provisions guaranteed that one country would challenge the global peace-keeping mandate of an international body now seriously weakened by America’s non-membership. The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I, in which the Allied powers of Britain, France, Russia and the United States defeated the Central powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Italy. Therefore, as with most war-ending treaties, it included provisions meant to punish the losers and prevent them from ever again threatening the peace.

However, the terms of the Versailles Treaty were unduly harsh on Germany, both in war reparations it had to pay – approximately $30 billion – and in territory it had to relinquish, including Alsace and Lorraine (returned to France), the Rhineland (a demilitarized zone under League supervision), and the Danzig Corridor, which included the economically vital port city of Danzig on the Baltic Sea. Militarily, Germany’s army was limited to 100,000 men, and the production of military equipment such as tanks and airplanes was forbidden.

Finally, the treaty included a “War Guilt” clause that infuriated the German people because it said Germany was solely responsible for starting World War I.

It was in great part the harshness of this treaty, and the anger among Germans it provoked, that led to the rise of a former corporal in the German Army, Adolf Hitler, whose incessant message to the German people was, “Support me, and I will right the wrongs of the Versailles Treaty.”

Subsequently, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, as did its future WW II-ally Italy, and, too weak to prevent Germany’s new leader, Adolf Hitler, from starting a second world war, the League disbanded.