The Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles was a treaty signed shortly after the armistice date of 11th November 1918, in Versailles. It was a post-war treaty, largely drafted by the western nations of USA, Britain and France, which ended the war with Germany.

Lasting peace, must surely have been the ultimate objective of the treaty and to uphold the 14 points laid down by President Wilson. However, how exactly this should be sought was something that the Entente (western countries) were not entirely in agreement upon, with competing interests at stake. So, with that, the Versailles treaty was more of a compromise, which the Entente felt would ensure peace in Europe.

That it did not might have something to do with the terms delivered with regard to Germany, and other treaty inconsistencies. Briefly, the main points can be highlighted as follows:

1. German Empire, loses colonies, Germany becomes Republic (not explicit term of treaty).
2. Austria not allowed union with Germany.
3. Reparations expected from Germany to Entente amounting to multiple millions of marks. Demands later lessened.
4. German land army and navy reduced to minimal size.
5. Alsace-Lorraine returned to France.
6. Rhineland becomes de-militarised zone.
7. Danzig becomes League of Nations protectorate, and is also separated from Germany via Polish corridor (Polish access to coast).
8. Saarland becomes French territory, with a pending plebiscite in 1935.
9. League of Nations founded.

There are perhaps a few other minor territory and land issues not covered here, but these are some of the main results of the treaty. Overall, self-determination ensured independent Eastern European states like Poland, and Hungary, and the decline of certain empires but Austria was not to be unified with Germany.

In relation to Germany, certainly the terms delivered were not well received by them. Reparation demands would be difficult to meet, and cities like Danzig were largely Germanic. The military demands also required a wholesale reduction to a land army of approximately 100,000 personnel, and a paltry naval fleet.

And then, the League of Nations was founded. This was a little like the United Nations, a predecessor that did not include states like America, Germany or USSR to begin with. Germany and USSR would later join, but America would not.

At any rate, although the treaty did not deliver an entirely lasting peace, it actually had the bigger impact on Eastern-Europe and the new states there. Ultimately, however Germany would overturn the treaty in the 1930s, and the League of Nations would be disbanded.