Treaty of Versailles 1919

Aims of Versailles • Broadly, it was to sort out the chaos caused by the war.• Everyone had their own agenda.• What were their individual aims?

– France • Punish Germany as much as possible.• Crush her and make her weak so that she could never again threaten France.

– UK• Wary of punishing Germany too much (like in the C of V).• Imperial ambition still strong. They wanted the German colonies they had captured.• Agreed that their military should be weakened.

– USA• League of Nations to settle international disputes. • Reduce armaments (weapons)• Believed strongly in self-determination.• Wanted a strong Europe that would be able to trade with the USA.

What was agreed?• Creation of the League of Nations.• Germany accepts responsibility for the war with

the other defeated countries.• Germany must pay reparations, mainly to France

and Belgium. Blank cheque > £6,600 million > impossible to pay.

• German Military reduced to 100,000 men, 6 naval ships, no air force, no submarines, no tanks.

• Colonies went under the control of the League of Nations.

German military was banned from the Rhineland. Occupied and controlled by French troops until 1925.

Alsace-Lorraine went to France.

Saarland - Given to France for 15 years. The French need the coal mines to re build after war. Following

this time the people of Saar vote to see if they want to be French or German.

• Poland becomes independent.• Danzig became a free city under the protection of

Poland. • Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia became

independent countries.

• The Germans had been convinced that they would be consulted by the Allies on the

contents of the Treaty.

• This did not happen and the Germans were in no position to continue the war as her army had all but disintegrated.

• Germany was given two choices: 1) Sign the Treaty 2) Be invaded by the Allies.

• When the ceremony was over, Clemenceau went out into the gardens of Versailles and said "It is a beautiful day".

How do you think this made the Germans feel?

• Created deep resentment and anger. • In addition they felt that the Treaty was unfair.

– German people felt they were being punished for the mistakes of their Government and leaders in 1914.

– Reparations crippled them financially. Very difficult to rebuild.

Was the Treaty of Versailles just/fair?

• Discuss in groups.• What do you think? Why? Justify your answer.• Think about the unit question.

How does our conscience validate, and justify, our actions and judgments in times of conflict?