Question

After WWI, the Treaty of Versailles
punished Germany with harsh reparations.
divided France into four territories.
created an alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union.
instituted the Marshall Plan

Answer 1

I'm not sure which one, but I would appreciate your help!

Answer 2

Your best bet would be to read a summary of the Treaty... I'd head to Wikipedia if I were you.

Answer 3

Well, France was on the winning side of the First World War, so that rules out (2). Russia was an enemy of German in the First World War, and its successor the Soviet Union wasn't very fond of Germany, either, and was also embroiled in its own civil war in 1919, so that rules out (3). It helps to know George Marshall was Secretary of State under President Truman (between 1947 and 1949), and that the First World War ended in 1918, which rules out (4). Reparations are a reasonable guess as to what the victorious allies might have imposed on a defeated Germany by treaty, so that makes (2) a good guess, even if you don't know for a fact this was in the Versailles Treaty. Whether the reparations were "harsh" or for the purposes of "punishment" is, of course, a subjective opinion.

Answer 4

I would say that they deffenitly punished Germany harshly, thats one of the reasons why they came back at us durring WWII

Answer 5

Punished Germany. Which is why some say the end of WWI was also the beginning of WWII.

Answer 6

As many have already noted, "punished Germany with harsh reparations" is the correct answer.

darkworld131 is correct in saying that it was harsh to Germany and was generally seen as victor's justice in punishing them for their role in WW1. The treaty had even contained a "War Guilt Clause" that solely blamed Germany for the war which, of course, the Germans felt was extremely unfair. Much of the effort to punish Germany was led by France at the time which had suffered incredible losses during the war and sought to exact what many felt to be vengeance. Even Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States at the time, had come up with a less severe solution with his Fourteen Points treaty, but the European powers rejected it, imposing the much harsher penalties on Germany.

Because of the brutal punishment meted out by Versailles, some historians would go on to say that WW1 and WW2 can be thought of as one huge war with the period in between an uncomfortable pause.

Answer 7

Great commentary, Cap, but I think that last sentence is a bridge too far for me. There is a world of difference between the imperialist and aristocrat-led European nations that fought the First World War, and the democracies and fascist nationalist states that fought the Second. You can't compare the Kaiser's Germany to Hitler's, nor the Russia of Tsar Nicholas II to the Soviet Union, Austria-Hungary no longer existed, Italy was on the other side, only the First had colonial issues, only the Second had "race superiority" issues, and even France and Great Britain changed considerably between 1919 and 1939. If nothing else, a brutal depression and general devaluation of Victorian values intervened in both countries.

I think the only real similarities in the First and Second World Wars are that it was a total war, fought largely in Europe (if we exclude the Japanese-American and Japanese-Chinese conflict), and many of the countries ended up on the same sides. But even this last point is relatively weak: Germany and France have ended up on opposites sides of almost every major European conflict, simply because their territorial and regional leadership ambitions are in natural conflict: one cannot become greater without the other becoming lesser.

Answer 8

punished Germany with harsh reparations. :)