The world war began in 1914; Quick victories and a short-lived war were expected. This certainly wasn't the case. What they experienced was a prolonged global war that cost millions of lives, destroyed lives of work, and caused hatred for generations to come. Defeated Germany was then humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles and the conditions it demanded. On November 11, 1918, the armistice was signed, officially ending the war until a peace treaty was agreed upon and signed. The peace treaty was signed by Germany on 28 June 1919 in the Palace of Versailles. This peace treaty known as the Treaty of Versailles was exclusively for defeated Germany. When Germany signed the treaty, its army was in ruins, the government was collapsed, and the people were exhausted. The four powers were all greatly affected by this war and therefore revenge intentions were present during the creation of the treaty. Germany had been defeated and the Treaty of Versailles was the finishing touch to the devastation for Germany. The Treaty of Versailles brought with it many territorial changes for Germany. In Article 51: "The territories ceded to Germany in accordance with the peace preliminaries signed at Versailles on 26 February 1871 and the Treaty of Frankfurt on 10 May 1871, are returned to French sovereignty from the date of the armistice of 11 November 1918.” I believe Article 89, although not mentioned in the pages of the Modern History Sourcebook, although very important was the Polish Corridor; this piece of land ran straight through the center of Germany, separating the rest of Germany from East Prussia, weakening seriously Germany. East Prussia was a great source of money for Germany and the... paper medium..., first during the inflation and then during the Great Depression economic conditions and the reaffirmation of Germany's claim to world power status." (p. 806) The Treaty of Versailles was humiliating; it forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the war. The treaty also stipulated that no German troops could be stationed in their industrial heartland; limited their military size for the country; took away foreign holdings and forced Germany to pay crippling reparations. The Treaty of Versailles paved the rise of Hitler and the Nazis just as World War I did for the communist revolution in Russia. Works Cited http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1919versailles.html. Kishlansky, Mark, Patrick Geary, and Patricia O'Brien. Pearson Custom Library: Western Civilization. Columbia College ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.