There were delegates from twenty-seven different countries there, but the Germans and the Russians were not represented. How can you have an effective peace conference if the country you are trying to punish is not involved? The Treaty of Versailles was hammered out by the "Big Four," which were the leaders of the United States, France, Great Britain, and Italy (Mack 667). When it was all said and done Germany was held responsible for the war and was required to pay for the war, an amount that came to $33 billion dollars. Also, new countries were formed and these countries were "Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungry, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. These countries were carved out of the homelands of the defeated central powers" (Mack 667). The Germans did eventually sign the treaty, but they thought it was unfair to them. Then the Great Depression came along and the countries that the Germans owed money to came to collect the money that was owed. The Great Depression was not only in the United States, but it affected the entire world. Because of this, Germany did not have the money to pay the countries when they came to collect the money.
As the war started to come to an end this problem was in the back of the minds of the people that were going to decide Germanys fate. Even as the war continued to rage on, there were wartime conferences. One of these conferences was the Yalta Conference, which was held form February 4 - 11, 1945. During this conference they agreed on the dismemberment of Germany. Article 12 was amended to say, "The United Kingdom, United States of America, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics shall possess supreme authority with respect to Germany. In the exercise of such authority they will take such steps, including the complete disarmament, demilitarization, and dismemberment of Germany, as they deem requisite for future peace and security (Dept of State pg 43 - 44). The question of war reparations came about as well.
