The Treaty of Versailles

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Slide 10

Territorial Losses

Germany lost ALL of her overseas colonies

Alsace-Lorraine was given to France

Slide 11

Eupen and Malmedy were given to Belgium

North-Schleswig was given to Denmark

Slide 12

Posen was given to Poland so that she would have access to the Baltic Sea. This area became known as the Polish Corridor. It meant that East Prussia was cut off from the rest of Germany.

Slide 13

The Rhineland was to be de-militarized

Slide 14

The Saar coalfields were given to France for fifteen years

The port of Danzig was made a Free City under the control of the League of Nations

Slide 15

Slide 16

The War Guilt Clause

"The Allied and Associated Governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associate Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of a war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her Allies."

Article 231

GERMANY ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY FOR STARTING THE WAR

Slide 17

REPARATIONS

Germany agreed to pay for the damage caused by her armies during the war. The sum she had to pay was later fixed at £6,600 million

Slide 18

Germany was forbidden to unite with Austria

Slide 19

How did Germans React to the Treaty?

Germans thought the Treaty was a “diktat” : a dictated peace. They had not been invited to the peace conference at Versailles and when the Treaty was presented to them they were threatened with war if they did not sign it.

The Treaty was NOT based on Wilson’s Fourteen Points as the Germans had been promised it would.

Most Germans believed that the War Guilt Clause was unjustified. The French and British had done just as much to start the war

The loss of territory and population angered most Germans who believed that the losses were too severe.

Many Germans believed the German economy would be crippled by having to pay reparations.

Slide 20