World War 2 is the most devastating war in human history. Numerous large cities were left crumbling after this war. London, Tokyo, Hamburg, Berlin. Today, nearly all geopolitical events and international relations can be traced back to this War. Let’s understand World War 2 in depth. What happened exactly? Why? And what was its impact? This is the story of World War 2.
Let’s begin this story in 1919. The year when World War 1 ended. And the famous peace treaty was signed known as the Treaty of Versailles. This treaty contained an important clause, Article 231.
Which held that, all the losses caused due to World War I, Germany was to bear the responsibility for all such losses. This clause is also known as War Guilt Clause, because basically, it was trying to imply that regardless of the countries participating in the war Germany was to be blamed for it entirely.
France and Britain wanted Germany to pay heavy costs for losing this war. They wanted to recover their losses from Germany. As a result, according to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was told to pay a fine of $33 Billion to the other countries. In today’s money, it amounts to around $270 Billion. This is such a large amount that you won’t believe that it was only in 2010, Germany made the final payment of this fine. It took almost 100 years.
