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The Treaty of Versailles of 1919 is the peace treaty created as a result of the six-month-long Paris Peace Conference of 1919 which put an official end to World War I. The ceremonial signing of the treaty with Germany occurred June 28, 1919. The treaty was ratified on January 10, 1920 and required that Germany and its allies accept responsibility for causing the war and pay large amounts of compensation (known as war reparations). Like many other treaties, it is named for the place of its signing: the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, the very place where the German Empire had been proclaimed, January 18, 1871 (below left). The choice of venue was not coincidental.1 Conditions
The treaty provided for the creation of the League of Nations, a major goal of US president Woodrow Wilson. The purpose of the organization was to arbitrate conflicts between nations before they lead to war.
Other provisions included the loss of German colonies and loss of German territories.
The list of the former German provinces that changed their affiliation:
- Alsace-Lorraine (French from the beginning of 18th century17th century 18th century 19th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701- 1800; however, historians will sometimes specifically refer to the 18th Century as 1715- 89, to 1871Events January January 18 The member-states of the North German Confederation unite into a single nation-state known as the German Empire. The King of Prussia is declared the first German Emperor as Wilhelm I of Germany. January 28 France surrenders to en) back to FranceThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. (area 14,522 kmē, 1,815,000 inhabitants (1905)),
- Northern SchleswigThis article is about the region of Schleswig on the German/Danish border. There is also Schleswig, Iowa in the United States of America. The region of Schleswig Slesvig in Danish) covers the area about 30 km north and 40 km south of the border between Ge at Tondern in Schleswig-HolsteinFlag Statistics Capital: Kiel Area:ca 15,776 kmē Inhabitants:2,777,000 1999 pop. density:176 inh. kmē Homepage: ISO 3166-2:DE-SH Politics Minister-President: Heide Simonis ( SPD) Ruling party: SPD/ Green coalition Map Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmos, after plebiscite, to Denmark (3,228 kmē or 3,938kmē),
- most of Greater PolandGreater Poland (sometimes Great Poland Polish: Wielkopolska German: Grosspolen Latin: Polonia Maior is one of the historical regions of Poland. It is located in western-central Poland, encompassing much of the area drained by the Warta River) and its trib (" Provinz Posen") and Eastern PomeraniaPomerania ( Polish: Pomorze German: Pommern and Pommerellen Pomeranian (Kashubian): Pomorze and Pomorsk Latin: Pomerania Pomorania is a geographical and historical region in northern Poland and Germany on the south coasts of the Baltic Sea between and on ( West Prussia) to Poland after Great Poland Uprising (area 53,800 kmē 4,224,000 inhabitants (1931) including 510 kmē and 26,000 inhabitants from Upper Silesia),
- Hulczyn area of Upper Silesia to Czechoslovakia (316 or 333 kmē and 49,000 people),
- East part of Upper Silesia, after plebiscite, to Poland,
- the area of German cities Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium (area 3,214 kmē , 965,000 inhabitants),
- the area of Soldau in East Prussia (railway station on the Warsaw- Gdansk route) to Poland (area 492 kmē),
- Northern part of East Prussia as Memelland under control of France, later transferred to Lithuania,
- plebsicite in Eastern part of West Prussia and in Southern part of East Prussia Warmia and Masuria, few villages to Poland,
- the province Saarland under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years, after that a plebiscite between France and Germany,
- the city of Danzig with the delta of Vistula river at the Baltic Sea was made the Freie Stadt Danzig (Free City of Danzig) under the League of Nations and partial Polish authority (area 1893 kmē, 408,000 inhabitants 1929).
Article 156 of the treaty transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China. Chinese outrage over this provision led to demonstrations and the cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement.
The Military conditions of the Treaty of Versailles were harsh and were put in action to prevent Germany from starting another World War. The German army was to be restricted to 100,000 men, there was to be no conscription, no tanks or heavy artillery and no general staff. The German navy was restricted to 15,000 men and no submarines while the fleet was limited to six battleships (of less than 100,000 tonnes), six cruisers and 12 destroyers. Germany was not permitted an air force. Finally, Germany was explicitly required to retain all enlisted men for 12 years and all officers for 25 years, so that only a limited number of men would have military training.
Article 231 of the Treaty (the 'war guilt' clause) held Germany solely responsible for all 'loss and damage' suffered by the Allies during the war and provided the basis for reparations. The total sum due was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission. In January 1921, this number was officially put at 269 billion gold marks, a sum that many economists deemed to be excessive. Later that year, the amount was reduced to 132 billion marks, which still seemed astronomical to most German observers. The economic problems that the payments brought, and German resentment at their imposition, are cited by some as one of the causes of the end of the Weimar Republic and the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, which eventually led to the outbreak of World War II.
The United States never ratified the treaty. The elections of 1918 had seen the Republicans gain control of the United States Senate, and they blocked ratification twice (the second time on March 19, 1920), some favoring isolationism and opposing the League of Nations, others lamenting the excessive reparations. As a result, the US never joined the League of Nations and later negotiated a separate peace treaty with Germany: the Treaty of Berlin of 1921 which confirmed the reparation payments and other provisions of the Treaty of Versailles but explicitly excluded all articles related to the League of Nations.
