Germanys role in World War I was to defeat the alliance of French and Russia. This plan was known as the Schlieffen plan. After they had defeated France, they had enemies on both east (Russia) and the west (USA). Eventually being pinned, they signed an armistice in 1918 ending the fight. The country was deeply hurt economically after the loss due to the amount of money they were forced to spend because of the loss.

The country was in a critical depression with inflation skyrocketing.

After the treaty of Versailles, Germany’s military was restricted of having only one hundred thousand men in the Army, and fifteen thousand in the Navy. Along with other restrictions on amount of ships, and cruisers.

The vulnerable state the country was in led to the rise of Adolf Hitler, starting the second World War. Germany’s high point was in 1941/1942 having covered France to Russia, and from Norway to parts of Egypt. Much of this was due to the tactic of “blitzkrieg” which was fast and straight forward.

Germany had eventually lost after much bombing in 1945. The country was split East and West under control of the Soviet Union, and USA.