Spoils of War, the Lessons of WWI Shape the WWII’s V-E Day

Today in 1945: Victory in Europe Day! The previous day, Germany surrendered to the allies ending World War II in Europe. This began a series of peace conferences.
When World War I, or the Great War as it was known at the time, came to an end, the peace treaties focused punishment. Germany was held responsible for the four-year-long war that had devastated Europe and its inhabitants. Germany was financially responsible and required to pay off the war debts. Not surprisingly, they were unable to make such expensive payments and defaulted on their loans. The U.S. loaned Germany some money that allowed Germany to pay other European nations back. These European nations then used this money to pay the U.S. back, so essentially the U.S. was paying its own loans. The detriment that this debt caused Germany to become, some have argued (including myself), susceptible to a leader like Hitler and the Nazi party. This of course led directly to the second World War.
In the World War II peace treaties, despite protests from countries like France who wanted to reap the benefits of victory (although they fell to Germany within a matter of a few weeks), the decision was made to not hold Germany financially responsible. Instead, Germany was divided into four parts, with the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union each receiving leadership of one part. This will eventually lead to the creation of West Germany and East Germany.
After World War I, Wilson persuaded the leaders to create the League of Nations. This group of counties (the U.S. excluded, as Congress did not ratify its entry) was supposed to link the world together and prevent future world wars. However, it lacked any real power, as was seen in the 1930s with respect to Germany and Japan’s actions. The Big Three (U.S., Great Britain, & U.S.S.R) at the WWII conferences also recognized this problem. They instead created the United Nations and included a Security Council that could actual enforce its rules. Unlike the the League of Nations, the U.N. retains its power (though limited at times) until this day.
This was not the end of the second World War, Japan would not surrender until August 1945, after the dropping of two atomic bombs. But this day marked the beginning of our modern global community.