Describe the Treaty of Versailles. Why do many scholars believe it failed in its goal of achieving peace? How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to conflict and, eventually, to World War II? What lessons can be learned from the failure of this treaty about setting foreign policy in post-war periods?

What will be an ideal response?

The Treaty of Versailles grew out of a desire for retribution. In brief, Germany's
military was drastically cut; it was forbidden to possess heavy artillery, military
aircraft, or submarines, and its forces were banned from the Rhineland. Germany
also lost territory in the west to France and Belgium, in the south to the new state of
Czechoslovakia, and in the east to the new states of Poland and Lithuania. Overseas,
Germany lost all of its colonies. Finally, in the most humiliating clause of the treaty,
Germany was assigned responsibility for the war and charged with paying heavy
financial reparations for the damages. On learning of the treaty's harsh provisions, the
exiled German kaiser is said to have declared "the war to end wars has resulted in a
peace to end peace.".