The Major Cause of the Collapse of the Versailles System

Abstract

The establishment of the Versailles System was marked with the Paris Peace Conference, which aimed to settle peace for World War I. The peace settlement was an excuse for the allied countries to regain and recover their powers. This, in turn, called for large amount of reparations and punishments on the losing countries. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles heralded the collapse of the volatile system set up afterwards. Countries adopted the policies of appeasement, complied to the race of powers, and abandoned the so-called consensus on “peace”. Indeed, the collapse of the Versailles System had many causes. However, the rise of Nazi was its direct trigger. This article will mainly focus on how the Versailles System led to the rise of the Nazi and what the Nazi did to accelerate the fall of the system.