With the armistice that ended the fierce battles of World War I between the Allies and the Central Powers on November 11, 1918, the Allies entered negotiations that lasted six months at the Paris Peace Conference to draft a peace treaty. On June 28, 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles with the Allied Powers at the Palace of Versailles in France. This treaty is considered one of the most important peace treaties following the Great War. Meanwhile, the other Central Powers allied with Germany signed separate treaties. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles included harsh conditions deemed by the Germans to be very severe. These terms included ceding parts of their territory to other countries, a ban on manufacturing weapons, and the payment of enormous reparations. Some historians believe that the Treaty of Versailles significantly contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, whose policies led the world into a new tragic era and the outbreak of World War II.
The Paris Peace Conference
After four years of conflict during World War I, the German government requested U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to arrange a general armistice in October 1918. They declared their acceptance of the Fourteen Points he formulated and presented to the U.S. Congress in January 1918 as a basis for a just peace. In return, the Allies demanded compensation from Germany for all damages inflicted upon civilian populations and their property due to German aggression by land, sea, and air. Additionally, there were some complexities among the Allies in reaching specific peace terms due to secret treaties made by the United Kingdom, France, and Italy with Greece and Romania, some of which were signed during the final years of the war. However, the treaty was eventually drafted in the spring of 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, held at a time when the world was facing the Spanish flu pandemic. The conference was dominated by leaders known as the “Big Four”: David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Georges Clemenceau, the Prime Minister of France; Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States; and Vittorio Orlando, the Prime Minister of Italy. The decisions at the conference were primarily made by the first three leaders. None of the defeated nations had any say in shaping the treaty, and the German delegates had to accept the harsh conditions as a fait accompli. They were shocked by the severity of the terms and protested the contradictions between the guarantees they were given when negotiating the armistice and the actual treaty they were presented with. This included clauses such as accepting war guilt and being held responsible for sparking the conflict and the reparations terms.
Among the harsh conditions of the treaty were the reduction of Germany’s population and territory by about 10% in the west, with Alsace and Lorraine being returned to France and the Saarland placed under the supervision of the League of Nations until 1935. In the north, three small German regions were to be given to Belgium, and North Schleswig to Denmark. In the east, Poland was revived with territories previously belonging to Prussia and Poznań, providing it with a corridor to the Baltic Sea. Poland also received part of Upper Silesia after a plebiscite on its annexation. Danzig (Gdańsk) was declared a free city. Furthermore, Britain, France, Japan, and other Allied countries seized all of Germany’s overseas colonies in China, the Pacific, and Africa.
German Reparations and Military Restrictions
The war guilt clause of the Treaty of Versailles declared that Germany was the aggressor and thus responsible for paying reparations to the Allied countries for the losses and damages they suffered during the war. At that time, it was impossible to calculate the specific amount that should be paid as reparations for the damages caused by the Germans, particularly in France and Belgium. However, a committee formed during the drafting of the treaty assessed the losses suffered by civilian populations at $33 billion in 1921. Although economists of the time stated that such a huge sum could not be collected without disturbing international finances, the Allies insisted that Germany pay it, and the treaty allowed them to take punitive measures if payments were not made on time.
Additionally, the Big Four, particularly Clemenceau, wanted to ensure that Germany would never again pose a military threat to the rest of Europe. Thus, the treaty contained several provisions to ensure this goal: the German army was limited to 100,000 men, the General Staff was dissolved, and the production of armored vehicles, tanks, submarines, airplanes, and poison gases was banned. Only a few factories were permitted to produce weapons or ammunition. All of Germany west of the Rhine River and up to 50 kilometers east of it was to be a demilitarized zone. It was hoped that the forced disarmament of Germany would be accompanied by voluntary disarmament in other countries.
Covenant of the League of Nations
The Treaty of Versailles also included the Covenant of the League of Nations, in which members guaranteed each other’s independence and territorial integrity. Wilson was convinced that lasting peace could not be achieved unless an international organization emerged. Thus, he chaired the committee that drafted the Covenant, a short and concise document of 26 articles, which was unanimously adopted at the conference on April 28, 1919. Under its provisions, economic sanctions would be imposed on any member that resorted to war. The League was also tasked with overseeing mandated territories, drafting disarmament plans, and establishing the Permanent Court of International Justice and the International Labour Organization.
German Resentment
After much negotiation, the final version of the Treaty of Versailles was presented to the German delegation on May 7, 1919. Despite their protests, it was signed on June 28. Subsequently, the Treaties of Saint-Germain and Neuilly were concluded, setting out the Allied terms of peace with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, respectively. Returning to the Treaty of Versailles, it was severely criticized by the Germans, who complained that it had been dictated to them and violated the spirit of the Fourteen Points. They considered the sacrifices it imposed intolerable and claimed they would destroy their economy. Therefore, in the years following its ratification, some revisions and amendments were made to the Treaty of Versailles in favor of Germany by granting them various concessions before Adolf Hitler came to power. By 1938, only the territorial settlement clauses remained.
Many historians argue that the combination of a harsh treaty and subsequent lax enforcement of its provisions paved the way for the resurgence of German militarism in the 1930s. Additionally, the massive German reparations and the war guilt clause caused deep resentment within the country, leading to a desire for revenge among its citizens. When Hitler re-militarized the Rhineland in 1936, which was a violation of the treaty, the Allies did nothing to stop him, encouraging him to push even further in the future, ultimately leading to the outbreak of World War II.
