The Treaty of Versailles

Aims of the ‘Big Three’

• The ‘Big Three’ were:

  • Woodrow Wilson (USA)

    • to reduce armaments

    • apply the principle of self-determination

    • to create a League of Nations to maintain international peace

  • Georges Clemenceau (France)

    • annex the Rhineland and create a ‘buffer state’

    • impose a major disarmament on Germany

    • impose heavy reparations on Germany to weaken it + compensate for the damage of the war physically + financially

  • David Lloyd George (UK)

    • guarantee British military security

      • especially naval supremacy

    • keep communism at bay

    • limit French demands as a weak Germany could have serious economic effects on the European Economy

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles

• Territorial Arrangements:

  • Germany lost: Eupen-Malmedy, Alsace-Lorraine, North Schleswig, West Prussia + Posen, Upper Silesia, Danzig + Memel.

  • The Anschluss (Germany + Austria union) was forbidden.

  • Kiel Canal + rivers open for all nations to be run by an international commission.

  • Saar area placed under League of Nations for 15 years but voted to return to Germany in 1935

  • The Rhineland was demilitarised from 50km the French frontier

  • All German colonies distributed as mandates under LoN countries

    • e.g. German East Africa —> British control.

• War Guilt:

  • Germany was forced to sign the War Guilt clause (Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles 1919): ‘ Germany accepts the responsibility… for causing the loss and damage to which the Allied governments and their peoples have been subjected’

• Reparations