Europe between Wars

The locus of world financial and industrial power shifted abruptly from Europe to America, a nation that was ill-prepared to assume the role of world leader. The economic and social demands of waging a total war also had the effect of profoundly transforming capitalism. As the victorious powers gathered in Paris in the bleak winter of 1919 to draw up peace treaties, much of Europe was mired in chaos and suffering. Under pressure from French diplomats the Versailles Peace Treaty contained the infamous Article 231, which was called by the Germans the "war guilt clause". In the midst of the psychological inability to accept defeat came Article 231 of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which blamed Germany and Austria-Hungary for starting the war. The ensuing economic crash in Germany, a country already struggling to adjust to the requisites of democratic politics, was far more severe than anything that hit the American heartland.