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High and Lows of World War 1 for **Germany** By **Abby Mudter, Rachel Scott, and Rolfe﻿**

 Required Background Information:

1. What caused your country to enter World War 1? Germany had made an alliance with Austria- Hungary to protect themselves from Russia until 1918, and they cannot break the alliance for 5 years. They felt obligated to help Austria- Hungary against Serbia because a Serb assassinated the Austro- Hungarian Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.

 Since Russia and Serbia were allies, they ganged up on Germany and Austria-Hungary.  Since France was allies with Russia, France found themselves at war with Germany. This whole Ally chain just led one to another  Also, Germany was really jealous against Great Britain because they had a great naval army and had a lot of countries all over the world and Germany only had a few in Africa. Germany was mad and jealous and wanted to fight back.

2. Were the leaders/people of your country satisfied with the terms of the peace treaty at the end of World War 1? Explain.

Not at all. Basically the whole war was blamed on Germany. Here are the consequences that Germany faced after the Treaty of Versailles:

 - Demilitarize the Rhineland  - Take complete blame for the war  - Pay 132 billion marks ($31.5 billion American dollars)  - Reduce army to a mere 100,000 men, take away tanks, and have no air force.  - Had to give up land all past conquests such as Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium, a larger amount to France and Poland. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Lost colonies in Africa to the Allied powers. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Lost 13% of land and 7 million of the population <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Woodrow Wilson didn't want Germany to pay so Germany was hopeful they wouldn't be blamed but the European countries didn't listen to Wilson and punished Germany.

<span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> As you can tell, this was an extreme punishment that Germany was not happy about. This led to the country being vulnerable to Hitler and eventually, World War 2. If all these punishments didn't happen, Germany would have been stronger and World war 2 might not have taken place.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">3. What were the high points (best moments) and low points (worst moments) for your country DURING World War 1? <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Low points: <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> -Germany marched into France, but didn't make it because Great Britain and France both stopped them. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> -Germany's naval forces steadily started to decline even more, and this brought America into the war and USA was just another country against them <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> -At first in the war, there were no rules to regulate Germany's economy for wartime footing, and the economy was really unorganized throughout the war. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> -Germany relied on imports of food and raw materials- they stopped getting them when the British put a blockade on Germany. Food prices were limited, and then rationing was introduced. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> -During the war, 750,000 German citizens died from malnutrition and people still died after the war because the Allied blockade was not taken away until the summer of 1919.

<span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> High points: <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Ignoring previous treaties, Germany marched into Ukraine and Russia. It was also kind of a low point becuase when they tried to re-make these alliances, the countries had pretty much already surrendered to Germany because the attack was so successful. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Around the beginning of the war, Germany's army was really strong and brilliant, three days later they moved soldiers into Belgium, and Belgium fell. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles, and this put them in a good defensive position inside France. They also immoblized 230,000 more British and French troops than they had lost itself. <span style="color: #e35fe3; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> - The British blockade against Germany was not effective because ships were not stationed at German ports.

SOURCES: <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_World_War_I <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Germany_during_World_War_I <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanyduringww1.htm <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">http://www.thecorner.org/hist/wwi/results.htm