Treaty Of Versailles Flashcards
What did G people expect from the treaty and why?
Expected to be treated leniently because of the Fourteen Points.
When did Allied leaders assemble and where?
Paris Jan 1919
Terms of German participation
Germans from across the political spectrum hated the Treaty of Versailles. Most had expected a negotiated peace settlement based on President Wilson’s Fourteen Points, but instead were presented with what they saw as an unjust and ‘dictated peace’:
• The German delegation to the Peace Conference was not allowed to participate in the discussions about the terms of the Treaty.
• Once the Allies had agreed on the terms of the Treaty, the German government was allowed to suggest only minor changes.
• The German government was given seven days to accept or reject the Treaty. Rejection would have led to a resumption of the fighting. The German army High Command advised that military resistance would be futile.
• Divisions in Germany over whether to sign the Treaty led to a political crisis and the fall of the Scheidemann government.
Details of signing
. The peace treaty to end the war between Germany and the Allies was signed on 28 June 1919 in the Palace of Versailles outside Paris. It punished Germany for its role in starting World War One and for the damage to life and property caused by the war. The Treaty had a profound impact on German politics throughout the lifetime of the Weimar Republic.
What were the Fourteen Points
Put forward by Wilson in Jan 18 as basic for Versailles peace talks. Included idea of self-determination and establishment of League of Nations which would guarantee freedom and preserve future peace.
Territorial losses (geographical)
• Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, Memel to Lithuania, Eupen and Malmedy to Belgium, and West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia to Poland.
• Danzig was to be under League of Nations control.
• Germany lost North Schleswig to Denmark.
• The Rhineland was to be occupied by the Allies for 15 years.
• The Saar was placed under League of Nations control, its coalfields controlled by France.
• German union with Austria was forbidden.
• Germany lost all its colonies.
Territorial losses (proportions)
13.5 per cent of its territory and 10 percent of population - 6 million
Military terms
6 battleships
No airforce
No tanks
No submarines
German army limited to 100,000 men
Reparations and war guilt terms
Germany ha dot accept full responsibility for causing the war, providing mora baes for reparations demands.
League of Nations
Set up and G excluded.
Terms list areas of Treaty
Territorial
Military
Reparations
War guilt clause
League of Nations
United German attitudes to the treaty
• The Treaty was a ‘dictated peace’ ‘ diktat’ which had humiliated a proud and powerful country.
• The ‘war guilt clause’ was unfair because Germans had believed that they were fighting a just war.
• The reparations were too harsh and would cause severe economic problems.
•They had been denied their right to national self-determination, while that of smaller nations such as the Poles and the Czechs had been respected.
- Unfair as viewed war has having been fought in self-defence
Foreign attitudes to treaty
-In the USA there was a widespread feeling that
Germany had been unfairly treated and that the USA should not continue to be involved in Europe’s squabbles
- In France there was a widespread feeling that
Germany had been treated too leniently and a determination to strictly enforce the
Treaty - In Britain there was general satisfaction that Germany had been weakened as a great power, but reservations about the fairness and wisdom of the Treaty
Arguments that German not treated over-harshly
• Most of the German territory lost was justified on the grounds of nationality. More Poles were left under German rule than Germans under Polish rule.
• The only outright violation of the principle of self-determination was the Allied refusal to permit the union of Austria and Germany.
What was the Stab in the Back myth
In November 1919 Field Marshal Hindenburg declared that the ‘shameful’ Versailles Treaty was signed because of the anti-patriotic sentiments of left-wing politicians. The same men were responsibl for the ‘stab in the back’ of the army that led to Germany’s defeat in 1918. The war, Hindenburg claimed, had been lost not because of military defeat but as a result of the betrayal of unpatriotic forces - pacifists, socialists and Jews - the so-called
‘November criminals. This distorted interpretation of events, universally accepted by right-wing parties, acted as a powerful stick with which to beat Germany’s new leaders.
