The impact was largely destructive and this is why Germany soon rejected the terms of the treaty and   pursued rearmament as well as military aggression on Europe such that by 1939, World War II broke out. Below were the effects of the Versailles Peace Treaty on Germany;

She was forced to accept the war guilt clause by which she was held solely responsible for causing World War I. This was unfair to Germany because she was accused of a crime committed by all the major European Powers. This therefore made Germany to become bitter, hence making the Weimar republic so unpopular among the Germans which eventually led to its fall in 1934 and the subsequent rise of Nazism and Adolf Hitler in Germany.

Germany lost most of her nationals to the newly created independent states and this therefore undermined her political and economic prosperity. For example, she lost 2.5m Germans to Poland, 3 million to Czechoslovakia and 2 million to the new state of Yugoslavia. This created bitterness among the Germans who later rose up under Adolf Hitler to liberate their fellow Germans from foreign rule, something that finally sparked off World War II in 1939.

She was compelled to pay a heavy war fine amounting to 6,600million pounds which was unbearably too high for a country whose economy had been devastated by the war. She attempted partial payment in 1921 (paid 50million pounds) but eventually it repudiated (defaulted) payment by 1929. The war reparations therefore shattered the German economy such that by 1930, she had the highest number of unemployed people in Europe, the highest rate of inflation, poverty, and general breakdown of her economy.

Germany was severely disarmed by the Versailles Peace Treaty. For example, she was forced to reduce her army to only 100,000 men, to have only 6 small battleships and not to have armored vehicles and aircrafts. Her navy was reduced to 15,000 sailors. This was too small an army which could not even provide sustainable domestic security. This therefore made Germany more vulnerable to any attack than ever before.

The treaty further demilitarized the Rhine land which was a region on the border between France and Germany. By the Versailles peace treaty, Germany was forbidden from maintaining an army and constructing forts on the banks of the River Rhine. By denying Germany a chance to militarize the Rhine, France was able to have the guarantee that the former could not attack her form the western flank of the Rhine lands.

Germany lost an enormous territory in Europe through the Territorial adjustment Clause of the Versailles peace treaty. For example, she lost the mineral rich lands of Alsace and Lorraine, and the coal fields of Saarland to France for a period of twenty (20) years to compensate France because Germany had exploited her provinces since 1871. She also lost a long strip of land to Poland including port of Danzig. She also lost to Denmark the province of Schleswig which she had grabbed in 1864. She further lost Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia among other territories in Europe. Such territorial losses crippled the German economy more so because she lost a great deal of her industry and control of customs on port of Danzig.

With the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France, Germany was also forced by the Versailles Peace Treaty to return other treasures like the Arts of work, trophies and flags to France. These had been confiscated by Germany during the Franco – Prussian War of 1870 – 1871. This also further annoyed the Germans, hence making them to reject the treaty.

The Versailles peace treaty instigated a revolution in Germany by the right wing opponents of President Ebert. This was after the German Weimar government accepted to sign what they (opponents) saw as an unrealistic Versailles peace treaty. The revolution was however suppressed but it created instability in Germany which greatly undermined the survival of the Weimar Republic.

In 1923, Germany lost to France, her industrial territory of Ruhr when the French and Belgian troops invaded and occupied the disputed Ruhr region and simply took what was owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods. This was legal under the treaty of the Versailles. Because of the treaty, the German Weimar government ordered the workers in the Ruhr region to go on strike so that they were not producing anything for the French to take. The French reacted harshly by killing over 100 workers and expelled more than 100.000 protestors from the region. However, through the negotiations done by Stresemann, Germany’s Foreign Minister, the French withdrew from the Ruhr region and Germany thus regained it in 1926.

It also led to hyperinflation in Germany. In the wake of trying to overcome the economic crisis  created by the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, the government reacted by printing more money (Marks) but this instead caused severe or hyperinflation. Money was increasingly becoming virtually worthless such that workers needed to carry sacks of monies in order to buy small domestic items. Prices shot up in a spell of minutes among other economic disasters in Germany which increased the suffering of the Germans.

The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 made Germany to lose her colonial empire in Africa. At Versailles, Germany was forced to renounce all claims over her colonies in Africa as they were all put under the custodianship of the League of Nations. For example, Namibia, Tanganyika and Togo were among such colonies that went to Britain and France to take care of them on behalf of the League of Nations. Because these colonies were sources of wealth, the Germans felt bitter since the loss of these colonies had greatly undermined their overseas commerce and trade.

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