What were three things Germany was required to do as a result of the treaty that ended ww1?
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Published May 31, 2019 Show 4 min read On June 28, 1919, on the outskirts of Paris, European dignitaries crowded into the Palace of Versailles to sign one of history’s most hated treaties. Known as the Treaty of Versailles, it formally ended World War I—and at the same time laid the foundation for the Second World War. Though it was preceded by a peace conference that lasted over a year, the treaty was disliked by every nation that signed it. Over 65 million people had fought in World War I, and more than 8.5 million military members and at least 6.6 million civilians died. The war decimated farmland, towns, and battlefields around Europe. And according to many, Germany was to blame. Though contemporary historians are still split on who should be held responsible for World War I, the treaty blamed and punished Germany. From idealism to punishmentDuring World War I, President Woodrow Wilson had proposed the Fourteen Points, a blueprint for world peace that included establishing an association of nations to ensure European security and prevent nations’ abilities to enter into secretive mutual protection treaties. Much of that idealistic plan was scuttled during negotiations when the other Allied nations shifted their priorities toward reparations. The treaty itself was predicated on Germany’s guilt for the war. The document stripped Germany of 13 percent of its territory and one tenth of its population. The Rhineland was occupied and demilitarized, and German colonies were taken over by the new League of Nations. The German army was diminished to 100,000 men and the country was forbidden to draft soldiers. Its weapons were largely confiscated, and its navy stripped of large vessels. Germany was forced to put Wilhelm II, its emperor, on trial for war crimes. And the treaty required Germany to pay 269 billion gold marks—the equivalent of $37 billion. European leaders signed the treaty in the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors—the very place where the German Empire had been created, and Wilhelm II’s father made emperor, in 1871. It was a slap in the face to Germany, whose residents saw the famous “war guilt” clause as a humiliation. (The United States did not ratify the treaty due to political division between Democrats and Republicans.) The treaty’s aftermathThough there was a real desire for peace in the wake of the disastrous war, the treaty did not achieve its intended effects. Furious at what they saw as a harsh “diktat” (a dictated peace), right-wing German politicians used the treaty as a nationalist rallying point. The staggering reparations payments reduced the country’s industrial output, and other forces thrust Germany into hyperinflation in the 1920s, which played into the economic instability of the Great Depression. European leaders were dissatisfied with the redrawn map of Europe and the concessions they each had made in the name of an uneasy peace, with some disappointed that Germany hadn’t been treated even more harshly. In 2010, ninety years after the Treaty of Versailles went into force, Germany finally paid off the last installment of its war debt. By then, another world war was behind it. Today, the Treaty of Versailles lingers as a study in how, when it comes to war, unintended consequences can negate even the best intentions. On Jan. 10, 1920, the controversial Treaty of Versailles — which established the terms for peace at the end of World War I — went into effect. In Carol Helstosky’s class on the War to End All Wars, typically offered during spring quarter, the treaty provides students a lot to ponder and debate. Via an email exchange, Helstosky, who serves as chair of the University of Denver’s Department of History, offered the DU Newsroom a crash course in the treaty’s provisions and far-reaching ramifications. The Treaty of Versailles is famous for both solving and creating problems. What were the treaty’s major accomplishments? The treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, was the product of conflict between the Allied victors. The United States hoped to achieve, in Woodrow Wilson’s words, “peace without victory,” and Britain hoped to put Germany back on its economic feet. Meanwhile, France and other Allied nations wanted just compensation for the physical, moral and economic devastation of the war. Given the contradictory aims of reparations and future stability, statesmen found themselves in a terrible bind. The Allied nations ultimately rejected the idea of peace without victory in favor of making Germany pay for causing the war (in their minds) and for perpetuating and escalating the conflict for four long years. The treaty forced Germany to surrender colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific; cede territory to other nations like France and Poland; reduce the size of its military; pay war reparations to the Allied countries; and accept guilt for the war. What were the treaty’s most controversial provisions? We tend to think the reparations payments were controversial, but these provisions must be viewed in proper historical context. Reparations and harsh peace settlements were not unusual. For example, when Russia surrendered to Germany in 1917, Germany issued extraordinarily harsh peace terms under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (these terms were invalidated by the Paris peace settlements). While there were a few vocal critics of the Versailles Treaty’s economic provisions, many citizens of the nations that fought for four years felt the settlement did not go far enough. Indeed, one could ask what was the economic value of 10 million soldiers’ lives lost on all sides of the conflict? Equally controversial, perhaps, were the territorial adjustments dictated by the Versailles Treaty as well as other postwar treaties. These adjustments led to resettlement of populations, and in central and eastern Europe, new nations were carved out of old empires. New nations were created, but they were unstable and vulnerable, given that they had little support or funding from more established nations. What was the treaty’s impact on everyday German citizens? No one in Germany was happy with the settlement, and the Allies threatened Germans with military invasion to get them to sign the treaty. After four years of war and sacrifice, German citizens felt humiliated to accept blame for the war and territorial loss. Equally important, the economic provisions of the treaty slowed the nation’s postwar recovery. Slow economic growth and popular dissatisfaction were difficult to manage, especially for the new Weimar Republic, and political leaders struggled to manage the growing volume of complaints. When the government defaulted on payments in 1923, France and Belgium lost patience and occupied the Ruhr mining region. In response, the German government printed more currency to pay the French, sending German citizens into hyperinflation, which wiped out the savings of the middle class. By the mid-1920s, the German economy recovered, and the United States helped Germany renegotiate reparations payments with the Dawes Plan. Germany managed to rebuild and recover after the war, but not at a pace that satisfied everyone. Many historians have assigned the treaty some responsibility for the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. How so? It is certainly true that far right parties in Germany used the Versailles Treaty to resist and reject German democracy and the Weimar Republic, probably because the treaty was so unpopular among German citizens. It is also true that Adolf Hitler frequently railed against the Versailles Treaty in his speeches and promised to reverse the treaty’s provisions if elected leader of Germany. The Versailles Treaty was one of many factors that led to the rise of radical political parties, but it is important to remember that across Europe, citizens were looking for radical solutions to their problems. When I talk about the aftermath of World War I in my classes, for example, I emphasize that the peace settlement created political upheaval in victorious nations as well as in Germany. Italy was on the Allied side and fought for the promise of land after signing the Treaty of London in 1915. After the war, however, Italian politicians returned from Paris empty-handed because secret treaties were invalidated by statesmen during the peace negotiations. Furious Italian nationalists launched protests and occupied the city of Fiume (now Rijeka), thumbing their noses at the peace settlement and defying the government’s authority. The Nazis, Italian Fascists and other radical politicians attempted to rally people against democratic governments by using the Treaty of Versailles as a vehicle of discontent. A hundred years later, what does the treaty have to teach us about the aftermath of war? The First World War had complex origins, and the war was fought over the course of four years, wiping out an entire generation of young men and creating massive social, political and cultural upheavals. In my class on World War I, we spend 10 weeks closely studying the war, and we still have many questions and concerns at the end of the quarter. When we discuss the Versailles Treaty, my students conclude that it was an impossible task for any one treaty, conference or settlement to put European nations back on track after such a grueling and complicated war. They also conclude that it seems unfair to blame the Treaty of Versailles for the Second World War. How could individual actors be able to see or understand what was going to happen? I agree with my students on both counts. For those who want to learn more about the treaty, what suggestions do you have for additional reading? This list of books should get you started: • David Andelman’s “A Shattered Peace. Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today” (2008) • Robert Gerwarth’s “The Vanquished. Why the First World War Failed to End” (2016) • Erik Goldstein’s “The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919–1925” (2013) • Margaret MacMillan’s “Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World”(2002) • Alan Sharp’s “The Versailles Settlement: Peacemaking after the First World War, 1919–1923” (2018) What are 3 things that Germany did that broke their peace treaty?The treaty gave some German territories to neighbouring countries and placed other German territories under international supervision. In addition, Germany was stripped of its overseas colonies, its military capabilities were severely restricted, and it was required to pay war reparations to the Allied countries.
What did the treaty forced Germany to do 3 things?The Treaty of Versailles is one of the most controversial armistice treaties in history. The treaty's so-called “war guilt” clause forced Germany and other Central Powers to take all the blame for World War I. This meant a loss of territories, reduction in military forces, and reparation payments to Allied powers.
What were 3 major impacts of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany?The treaty forced Germany to surrender colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific; cede territory to other nations like France and Poland; reduce the size of its military; pay war reparations to the Allied countries; and accept guilt for the war.
What were the 3 main points of the Treaty of Versailles?The Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany and the Allied Nations on June 28, 1919, formally ending World War One. The terms of the treaty required that Germany pay financial reparations, disarm, lose territory, and give up all of its overseas colonies.
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