The Treaty of Versailles caused the collapse of the German economy, due in most part to the rigid demands of the French in payment of reparations. The French wanted a weakened German State; after invading German territory on at least seventeen different occasions in the mid 1800's, and after their defeat in the Franco- Prussian War, the French inddirectly brought Otto v. Bismarck to power, who unified the German States, creating a potential economic and military powerhouse in Central Europe. It was in the French' best interests to secure a weakened German State, to obtain their ascendancy into a major world player once more. The Treaty seemed to be especially harsh towards the Germans, who were only one part of the Triple Entente.

The Republic was flawed from the beginning. It was formed during a time of economic and political upheaval within the German States. Ideologies of the Left and Right fought for control of the government, and the German people, having been ruled by kings and generals since the formation of the first Reich under Charlemagne, were never exposed to the form of personal freedoms that brought about the French and American Revolutions. The Republic was utterly doomed to fail from it's founding.

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