The Treaty of Versailles - AnOverview

ByRobert Wilde

Summary:

Signed on June 28th 1919 as an end to the First World War, The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to ensure a lasting peace by punishing Germany and setting up a League of Nations to solve diplomatic problems. Instead it left a legacy of political and geographical difficulties which have often been blamed, sometime solely, for starting the Second World War.

Background:

The First World War has been fought for four years when, on November 11th 1918, Germany and the Allies signed an armistice. The Allies soon gathered to discuss the peace treaty they would sign, but Germany and Austria-Hungary weren't invited; instead they were only allowed to present a response to the treaty, a response which was largely ignored. Instead terms were drawn up mainly by the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Frances Clemenceau and US President Woodrow Wilson.

Selected Terms of the Treaty of Versailles:

Impositions on Germany

Legal restrictions

  • Article 227 charges former German Emperor, Wilhelm II with supreme offense against international morality. He is to be tried as a war criminal.
  • Articles 228–230 tried many other Germans as war criminals.
  • Article 231 (the "War Guilt Clause") lays sole responsibility for the war on Germany and her allies, which is to be accountable for all damage to civilian populations of the Allies.

Occupation of the Rhineland

As a guarantee of compliance by Germany, Part XIV of the Treaty provided that the Rhineland would be occupied by Allied troops for a period of 15 years.

Military restrictions

Part V of the treaty begins with the preamble, "In order to render possible the initiation of a general limitation of the armaments of all nations, Germany undertakes strictly to observe the military, naval and air clauses which follow."

  • German armed forces will number no more than 100,000 troops, and conscription will be abolished.
  • Enlisted men will be retained for at least 12 years; officers to be retained for at least 25 years.
  • German naval forces will be limited to 15,000 men, six battleships, six cruisers, 12 destroyersand 12 torpedo boats. No submarines are to be included.
  • The import and export of weapons is prohibited.
  • Poison gas, armed aircraft, tanks and armoured cars are prohibited.
  • Blockades on ships are prohibited.
  • Restrictions on the manufacture of machine guns

Territorial changes

Germany′s borders in 1919 had been established nearly 50 years earlier, at the country′s official establishment in 1871. Territory and cities in the region had changed hands repeatedly for centuries, including at various times being owned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Poland, and Kingdom of Lithuania. However, Germany laid claim to lands and cities that it viewed as historically "Germanic" centuries before Germany′s establishment as a country in 1871. Other countries disputed Germany′s claim to this territory. In the peace treaty, Germany agreed to return disputed lands and cities to various countries.

Germany was compelled to yield control of its colonies, and would also lose a number of European territories. The province of West Prussia would be ceded to the restored Poland, thereby granting it access to the Baltic Sea via the "Polish Corridor" which Prussia had annexed in the Partitions of Poland. This turned East Prussia into an exclave, separated from mainland Germany.

  • Alsace and much of Lorraine—both originally German-speaking territories—were part of France, having been annexed by France′s King Louis XIV who desired the Rhine as a "natural border". After approximately 200 years of French rule, Alsace and the German-speaking part of Lorraine were ceded to Germany in 1871 under the Treaty of Frankfurt. In 1919, both regions were returned to France.
  • The Territory of the Saar Basin was to be under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, after which a plebiscite between France and Germany, was to decide to which country it would belong. During this time, coal would be sent to France. The region was then called the Saargebiet (German: "Saar Area") and was formed from southern parts of the German Rhine Province and western parts of the BavarianPalatinate under the "Saar statute" of the Versailles Treaty of 28. 6. 1919 (Article 45–50).
  • The strategically important port of Danzig with the delta of the Vistula River on the Baltic Sea was separated from Germany as the Freie Stadt Danzig (Free City of Danzig).
  • Austriawas forbidden from integrating (anschluss) with/into Germany.
  • In article 22, German colonies were divided between Belgium, Great Britain, and certain British Dominions, France, and Japan with the determination not to see any of them returned to Germany — a guarantee secured by Article 119.
  • In Africa, Britain and France divided German Kamerun (Cameroons) and Togoland. Belgium gained Ruanda-Urundi in northwestern German East Africa, the United Kingdom obtained by far the greater landmass of this colony, thus gaining the "missing link" in the chain of British possessions stretching from South Africa to Egypt (Cape to Cairo), Portugal received the Kionga Triangle, a sliver of German East Africa. German South West Africa was mandated to the Union of South Africa.[16]
  • In the Pacific, Japan gained Germany’s islands north of the equator (the Marshall Islands, the Carolines, the Marianas, the Palau Islands) and Kiautschou in China. German Samoa was assigned to New Zealand; German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Nauru[17] to Australia as mandatory.

Reparations

Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles assigned blame for the war to Germany; much of the rest of the Treaty set out the reparations that Germany would pay to the Allies.

The total sum of war reparations demanded from Germany—around 226 billion Reichsmarks—was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission. In 1921, it was reduced to 132 billion Reichsmarks, at that time, $31.4 billion (US$ 385 billion in 2011), or £6.6 billion (UK£ 217 billion in 2011).

The Versailles Reparations came in a variety of forms, including coal, steel, intellectual property (e.g. the trademark for Aspirin) and agricultural products, in no small part because currency reparations of that order of magnitude would lead to hyperinflation, as actually occurred in post-war Germany thus decreasing the benefits to France and Britain.

Reparations due in the form of coal played a big part in punishing Germany. The Treaty of Versailles declared that Germany was responsible for the destruction of coal mines in Northern France, parts of Belgium, and parts of Italy. Therefore, France was awarded full possession of Germany′s coal-bearing Saar basin for a period. Also, Germany was forced to provide France, Belgium, and Italy with millions of tons of coal for 10 years. However, under the control of Adolf Hitler, Germany stopped outstanding deliveries of coal within a few years, thus violating the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

Germany finally finished paying its reparations in 2010.

The creation of international organizations

Part I of the treaty was the Covenant of the League of Nations which provided for the creation of the League of Nations, an organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and thereby avoid future wars. Part XIII organized the establishment of the International Labour Organization, to promote "the regulation of the hours of work, including the establishment of a maximum working day and week; the regulation of the labour supply; the prevention of unemployment; the provision of an adequate living wage; the protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment; the protection of children, young persons and women; provision for old age and injury; protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own; recognition of the principle of freedom of association; the organization of vocational and technical education and other measures"Further international commissions were to be set up, according to Part XII, to administer control over the Elbe, the Oder, the Niemen (Russstrom-Memel-Niemen) and the Danube rivers.

Reactions:

Germany lost 13% of its land, 12% of its people, 48% of its iron resources, 15% of it agricultural production and 10% of it coal. Perhaps understandably, German public opinion soon swung against this 'Diktat', while the Germans who signed it were called the 'November Criminals'. Britain and France felt the treaty was fair – they actually wanted harsher terms imposed on the Germans – but the United States refused to ratify it because they didn't want to be part of the League of Nations.

Results:

  • The map of Europe was redrawn with consequences which, especially in the Balkans, remain to the modern day.
  • Numerous countries were left with large minorities groups: there were three and a half million Germans in Czechoslovakia alone.
  • The League of Nations was fatally weakened without the United States and its army to enforce decisions.
  • Many Germans felt unfairly treated, after all they had just signed an armistice, not a unilateral surrender, and the allies hasn't occupied deep into Germany.

Treaty of St. Germain

  • Officially signed on September 10, 1919 and came into force on July 16, 1920.
  • The treaty officially registered the breakup of the Habsburg Empire, recognizing the independence of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia) and ceding eastern Galicia, Trento, southern Tirol, Trieste, and Istria.
  • Reduced Austria to a small state of 8 million people and allocated former non-German speaking territories to the new states of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
  • The union of Austria with Germany was expressly forbidden without the consent of the Council of the League Of Nations. Because the allied powers wanted Germany to remain weak. Refrain from entering into political or commercial union with Germany.
  • The Austrian Army was reduced to 30 000 men and broke up Austro-Hungarian navy, distributing it among the Allied powers.
  • Pay reparations for 30 years.
  • The Austria created by the treaty was financially and militarily weak and therefore a chronic force of instability in Europe between the two World Wars.

The treaty was violated in 1936 when Austria began to build up its army. It was rendered worthless after Germany seized Austria in 1938.

Treaty of Sevres

Peace treaty concluded in 10th of August 1920 after World War I at Sevres, France, between the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), on the one hand, and the Allies (excluding Russia and the United States) on the other. The treaty, which liquidated the Ottoman Empire and virtually abolished Turkish sovereignty, followed in the main the decisions reached at San Remo.

In Asia, Turkey renounced sovereignty over Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine (including Trans - Jordan), which became British mandates; Syria (including Lebanon), which became a French mandate; and the kingdom of Hejaz. Turkey retained Anatolia but was to grant autonomy to Kurdistan. Armenia became a separate republic under international guarantees, and Smyrna (modern Izmir) and its environs was placed under Greek administration pending a plebiscite to determine its permanent status.

In Europe, Turkey ceded parts of Eastern Thrace and certain Aegean islands to Greece, and the Dodecanese and Rhodes to Italy, retaining only Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and its environs, including the Zone of the Straits (Dardanelles and Bosphorus), which was neutralized and internationalized. The Allies further obtained virtual control over the Turkish economy with the capitulation rights.

The treaty was accepted by the government of Sultan Mehmed Vahdettin VI at Istanbul but was rejected by the rival nationalist government of Kemal Atatürk at Ankara. Atatürk's separate treaty with the USSR and his subsequent victories against the Greeks during the War of Independence forced the Allies to negotiate a new treaty in 1923 (Treaty of Lausanne).

Treaty of Sevres

  • Its Middle Eastern Territories were handed to British and the French as League of Nations mandate. Britain gained mandate of Iraq and Palestine. France gained mandate of Lebanon and Syria.
  • Created a new nation called Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.
  • The Ottoman Army was to be restricted to 50,000 men; the Ottoman navy could only preserve seven sloops and six torpedo boats; and the Ottoman state was prohibited from obtaining an air force.
  • Led to treaty of Lausanne in 1923.

Treaty of Lausanne

This treaty was signed on 24th of July 1923. The Sevres peace treaty imposed by the Allies on the Ottoman Empire after World War I had virtually destroyed Turkey as a national state. The treaty was not recognized by the nationalist government under Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later known as Atatürk). After the nationalist victory over the Greeks and the overthrow of the sultan during the War of Independence, Atatürk's government was in a position to request a new peace treaty. Accordingly, the signatories of the Treaty of Sevres and delegates of the USSR (excluded from the previous treaty) met at Lausanne, Switzerland. After lengthy negotiations a peace treaty was signed in 1923.

Turkey recovered Eastern Thrace, several Aegean islands, a strip along the Syrian border, the Smyrna (modern Izmir) district, and the internationalized Zone of the Straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles), which, however, was to remain demilitarized and remain subject to an international convention. Turkey recovered full sovereign rights over all its territory, and foreign zones of influence and capitulations were abolished. Outside the Zone of the Straits, no limitation was imposed on the Turkish military establishment. No reparations were exacted.

In return, Turkey renounced all claims on former Turkish territories outside its new boundaries and undertook to guarantee the rights of its minorities. A separate agreement between Greece and Turkey provided for the compulsory exchange of minorities.

Germany and the Treaty

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May the hand wither that signs this treaty.
Frederick Scheidemann, the German Chancellor (June 1919)
then he resigned rather than agree to the Treaty
Source A

This cartoon appeared in the German satirical magazine Simplissimus, 3 June 1919.
Click here for the interpretation
German outrage
When the Germans heard about the Treaty of Versailles, they felt ‘pain and anger’. They felt it was unfair. It was a 'Diktat' – an IMPOSED settlement. They had not been allowed to take part in the talks – they had just been told to sign.
The German reaction
On 7 May, the victors presented their Treaty to the small German delegation. Count Brockdorff-Rantzau angered the Big Three by giving a long speech criticising the Treaty; then the delegation left and set about countering it. A little later, they sent their counter-proposal based on the Fourteen Points) to the Big Three -- their reply was so good that one of the British delegation said it was much better than the Allies' suggestions, and even Lloyd George wondered for a time if they ought to rethink the treaty . Then the delegation went home. Many Germans wanted to refuse to sign the treaty; some even suggested that they start the war again. So it was with great difficulty that the President got the Reichstag to agree to sign the treaty, and the imperious way the two German representatives were treated when they were forced to sign made things worse.
The Germans HATED the Treaty of Versailles
The Germans hated Clause 231; they said they were not to blame for the war. The soldier sent to sign the Treaty refused to sign it – ‘To say such a thing would be a lie,’ he said. Clause 231 did not physically harm Germany, but it hurt Germany's pride - and it was this, as much as anything else, that made them want to overturn the treaty.
The Germans hated reparations; they said France and Britain were trying to starve their children to death. At first they refused to pay, and only started paying after France and Britain invaded Germany (January 1921).
The Germans hated their tiny army. They said they were helpless against other countries. At first they refused to reduce the army, and the sailors sank the fleet, rather than hand it over.
The Germans also hated the loss of territory. Germany lost a tenth of its land - they claimed that the treaty was simply an attempt to destroy their economy. Other nations were given self-determination – but the Treaty forced Germans to live in other countries. Germans were also angry that they could not unite with the Austrian Germans. / New Words
Clause 231: the paragraph blaming Germany for the war.
reparations: the money Germany had to pay for damage done during the war.
Did You Know?
Fritz Haber (the German-Jewish scientist who had invented the use of chlorine gas as a weapon during the First World War) spent many years after the war trying to find a way to extract the gold dissolved in seawater.
He hoped it would prove to be a cheap way for Germany to pay off reparations.
Source B
The disgraceful Treaty is being signed today.
Don’t forget it!
We will never stop until we win back what we deserve.
From Deutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, 28 June 1919.
Source C
Those who sign this treaty, will sign the death sentence of many millions of German men, women and children.
Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, leader of the German delegation to Versailles (15 May 1919).
Did You Know?
The Germans - and many British people - railed against the reparations sum of £6.6_billion as if it were a death-blow to the German nation.
But the First World War had cost Britain £6.2 billion, and by the end of the war Britain's national debt stood at £7 billion, of which £1 billion was owed to the USA and had to be repaid.
Yet nobody suggested that Britain's people were going to starve to death.
Did You Know?
Germany did not pay off the reparations bill until 2010. Repayment was interrupted by Hitler during his time in power, which delayed the final pay off to 1996.
However, a clause in the agreement said that Germany would have to pay interest on the bill if Germany were ever to reunite, which of course it did in 1990. So the final historic payment of £59m was made on Sunday, 3rd October 2010, ninety-two years after the war ended.

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