Why Versailles Failed (Part 1)

 The Treaty of Versailles. A treaty that has made itself infamous for trying to solve the world's problems and spectacularly failing to do so. A piece of paper that had so much potential, yet completely flopped in keeping world peace as it was meant to and instead having the exact opposite result by sparking the fervor for World War II . So why, exactly, did the Treaty of Versailles fail at its job? Well, there are several reasons. The first and foremost reason, as most can easily find clear, is because it put all of the blame for the war on Germany. Now, any American on the street will tell you that the Germans did, in fact, start the war and they know this because it's the only major country they can remember actually being competent against the Allies during World War I. However, those who think this are sorrowfully mistaken and probably had a great grandfather by the the name of Huey Long. No, the Germans were not responsible for the war's outbreak. Instead, it was actually Serbia and Austria-Hungary who plunged the world into chaos for the first time on a global scale. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot in Serbia, Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government and began taking offensive action. What followed next was the largest "domino effect" anyone has ever seen. Germany joined their ally's ,Austria's, cause while Russia joined their ally's, Serbia's, cause. France then wanted a piece of the action and joined Russia's cause since they were in an alliance. The Ottomans in Turkey had the same idea and joined Germany's alliance to take back their land from Russia. Later on, when Germany wanted to invade France by going through Belgium Britain was dragged in because they were allied with Belgium. It's this last bit that causes some Americans to think Germany started the war, since America loves Britain and Britain was dragged in because of Germany's inability to see this would mean more enemies. With this in mind, and France wanting to see Germany humiliated worse than they were humiliated in 5 wars against them, Germany recieved most of the blame for the war not just overall, but also in the conference room since they were the only central power still technically alive and since France and Britain were the only two allied "Big Whigs" there (Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans had split up, Russia was in a civil war with the communists, and Italy had switched sides and didn't feel comfortable showing up).