The Treaty of Versailles ended the First World War. However, the treaty placed prohibited restrictions upon the German military and government that crippled the German nation. It also had debilitating effects upon the post-war German economy by facing Germany to pay war reparations. These territorial, military, and economic restrictions operated in such a fashion upon the spirit of the German people in a way that substantially contributed to the rise of the National Socialist Party and later German militarism. This militarism eventually fueled the Second World War. .

             The Versailles Treaty was signed on June 28th 1919. The main architects of the treaty were the leaders of America, France, and Great Britain-Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and Lloyd George. Woodrow Wilson wished to make an equitable peace with Germany, and create a treaty with no real winners or losers. However, because the American Congress refused to allow America to become part of Wilson's League of Nations and because America was a late entrant into the first war, the words of France and Britain had more sway in the terms of the Versailles Treaty. The French leader Clemenceau wished to bring Germany to its knees, militarily and economically, so it could never rise again. The pragmatic Lloyd George knew faced an irate British public that had seen tremendous casualties during the war. (1)"The conduct of Germany is almost unexampled in human history. The terrible responsibility which lies at her doors can be seen in the fact that not less than seven million dead lie buried in Europe, while more than twenty million others carry upon them the evidence of wounds and sufferings, because Germany saw fit to gratify her lust for tyranny by resort to war," fumed Clemenceau during the negotiations between the three major winners of the war. (2) Ironically, by placing the blame only on one nation, Clemenceau planted the seeds that would depress the Germany economy, anger the Germany populace, and cause populist hatred against the other European powers, from which Germany would become isolated after the treaty.