Was the TOV not harsh enough?

• The redrawn map of Europe provided the opportunity for Hitler to realise his foreign policy vision in the mid 1930s.
• The principle of self-determination demanded that the Tsarist, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires were dismantled, but in their stead smaller, weaker states vulnerable for future German aggression were created.
• France had hoped to permanently cripple Germany - however - the need for a strong bulwark against Bolshevik Russia meant that Germany could not be dismantled. The enlargement of Poland that so enraged German popular opinion was also a response to this need.
• Reparations demanded were high, German economic potential meant that if the country introduced careful economic policies, they were actually affordable.
• If Germany had possessed a government secure enough to introduce effective economic reforms, it might have been able to pay the bill.
• No such government able to make the difficult economic choices such as cutting costs and raising taxes.
• Tensions between the more aggressive French and the conciliatory English weakened the Allies' commitment to upholding the conditions of the settlement.
• Weakness of the treaty itself and the lack of commitment by the Western democracies to uphold it emboldened Hitler and provided an opportunity for him to realise his expansionist vision.