To begin, the Treaty of Versailles, derived at the Paris Peace Conference, ended World War I. The four nations that controlled the punishment of Germany, known as the Big Four, were the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy. The leaders from The Big Four were Woodrow Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Vittorio Orlando of Italy. President Wilson, prior to the end of the war, had already written a treaty to end World War I. Wilson's treaty was called Wilson's Fourteen Points and would be used as the bases of the Treaty of Versailles (Versailles, OCLC).

The League of Nations (Articles one through twenty-six), point fourteen of Wilson's Fourteen Points, would unite countries across the globe to stop all future wars (Fourteen Points). The League of Nations had little power in regulating countries because the United States failed t

In conclusion, the terms of Germany's surrender in World War I laid the groundwork for Hitler's rise to power and ultimately World War II because of the controversial Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Republic. Adolf Hitler was a reigning terror upon the world and its people with his Aryan race idealism. Even though Adolf Hitler's control of Europe was a tragedy to Europe, it has shaped and set a precedent for the world in actions of war. "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind."-John F. Kennedy.

The next big factor that contributed to Hitler's rise to power and eventually World War II was the democratic government set up at the closing stages of World War I. First, a democratic government was to be formed for Germany for the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles. Kaiser Wilhelm, the dictator of Germany during World War I, fled the country at the end of the war; this is where the "stab in the back" philosophy came in to existence in the hearts of Germans. Germans believed they could have won the war if they were not "stabbed in the back" by the politicians. Because of the fact that the government was now democratic, twenty-one parties were running for election; this meant that any person elected to office would not have a majority of the votes. Also, the Weimar constitution had a major flaw in it, Article forty-eight. Article forty-eight "allowed the president absolute decision-making power in the event of a crisis in the nation (Ashby)." From any perspective, the president had a dictatorship like power and all he had to do was claim Article forty-eight. From the beginning, no German approved of the democratic government.

The ideas of a supreme Aryan race was set forth in Mein Kempf. The Aryan race was simply Hitler's idea of a perfect race of German people with no Jews, Blacks, handicapped, or any other foreign race from which Hitler deemed imperfect or inferior to the German race. Hitler always felt that the Jews were to blame along with other minorities for Germany's increasing problems socially and economically. Hitler used the Jewish people as scapegoats for Germany's current problems. It was very simple for him to pass off the idea of an Aryan race among the German people. Do to the fact it was a simple answer to their problems and many Jewish people were doing well at that time, while many German Christians and Catholics were not. It was only a matter of time before Hitler attempted to create this race of perfect people after he came into power over Germany.

Germany and her allies (Schoenherr, ver231)." Reparations, or payments, were to be made by Germany to the United States, Great Britain, and France. This would come to be known as the "guilt clause (Versailles, OCLC)." The reparations set forth in Articles two hundred and thirty-one through two hundred and forty-seven were to be paid in cash, war materials, ships, and livestock (Versailles, OCLC). Sums totaling thirty-three billion U.S. dollars were to be paid. In Annex II of the Articles for Reparations, the commission that will determine forms and sums of payment will be called "The Reparation Commission." In Annex III, "Germany recognizes the right of the Allied and Associated Powers to the replacement, ton for ton (gross tonnage) and class for class, of all merchant ships and fishing boats lost or damaged owing to the war (Schoenherr, ver231)." Also, all goods "seized, consumed or destroyed by Germany

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Approximate Word count = 2324
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)