treaty of versailles

• Treaty of Versailles


  Dictated peace
• Diktat, not allowed in peace talks
• Wilson's 14 Points


  Points set out in January 1918 disregarded
• Big 3 saw Wilson's 14 Points
• Germany forced to take responsibility
• Territorial clauses


  • New state of Poland given access to sea, putting millions of Germans under Polish rule
  • Germany lost Silesia and Danzig (free city under League of Nations control)
  • Germany lost all of its overseas empires, colonies placed under Allied mandates
  • Germany lost 12% of its population (6.5 million people), half of them ethnic Germans
• War guilt and reparations

  Article 231 held Germany responsible for the war, reparations set at 132 billion marks in 1921
• Disarmament clauses


  Germany's armed forces reduced to 100,000 soldiers, 15,000 sailors, no conscription, no tanks
• Impact on democracy in Germany
• Politicians looked weak and naive, condemned Weimar borders, believed they shouldn't take responsibility for Germany's defeat as in their minds it wasn't lost
• Treaty of Versailles was humiliating for Germany