Treaty of Versailles. Why was the Treaty of Versailles the main mistake of the Allies? Changing the map of the world after the Treaty of Versailles

Versailles is not peace, it is a truce for twenty years
Ferdinand Foch

The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 was signed on June 28. This document officially ended the First World War, which for 4 long years was the worst nightmare for all Europeans. This treaty got its name from the place where it was signed: in France in the Palace of Versailles. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles between the countries participating in the Entente and Germany, which officially recognized its defeat in the war. The terms of the agreement were so humiliating and cruel in relation to the losing side that they simply had no analogues in history, and all politicians of that era spoke more about a truce than about peace.

AT this material we will consider the main conditions of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, as well as those events that preceded the signing of this document. You will see on specific historical facts how tough the demands on Germany turned out to be. In fact, this document shaped relations in Europe for two decades, and also created the prerequisites for the formation of the Third Reich.

Treaty of Versailles 1919 - terms of peace

Text Treaty of Versailles quite long and covers a huge number of aspects. This is also surprising from the point of view that never before have peace agreements spelled out in such detail the points that have nothing to do with it. We will give only the most significant conditions of Versailles, which made this agreement so enslaving. We present the Versailles Peace Treaty with Germany, the text of which is presented below.

Germany recognized its responsibility for all the damage caused to all countries participating in the First World War. The losing party will have to pay for this damage.
Wilhelm 2, the emperor of the country, was recognized as an international war criminal and demanded to be brought to the tribunal (Article 227)
Clear boundaries were established between the countries of Europe.
The German state was forbidden to have a regular army (Article 173)
All fortresses and fortified areas west of the Rhine must be completely destroyed (Article 180)
Germany was obliged to pay reparations to the victorious countries, but the specific amounts are not specified in the documents, but there are rather vague wordings that allow these amounts of reparations to be assigned at the discretion of the Entente countries (Article 235)
The territories west of the Rhine would be occupied by the Allied forces in order to enforce the terms of the treaty (Article 428).

This is far from full list the basic provisions that the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 contains, but they are quite enough to assess how this document was signed and how it could be executed.

Prerequisites for signing the agreement

On October 3, 1918, Max of Baden became Chancellor of the Empire. This historical character had a tremendous impact on the outcome of the First World War. By the end of October, all participants in the war were looking for ways to get out of it. No one could continue the protracted war.

On November 1, 1918, an event took place that national history not described. Max Badensky caught a cold, took sleeping pills and fell asleep. His sleep lasted 36 hours. When the chancellor woke up on November 3, all the allies left the war, and Germany itself was engulfed in revolution. Is it possible to believe that the chancellor simply slept through such events, and no one woke him up? When he woke up, the country was almost destroyed. Meanwhile, Lloyd George, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, describes this event in some detail in his biography.

On November 3, 1918, Max Badensky woke up and first of all issued a decree prohibiting the use of weapons against revolutionaries. Germany was on the verge of collapse. Then the chancellor turned to the German Kaiser Wilhelm with a request to abdicate the throne. On November 9, he announced the abdication of the Kaiser from the throne. But there was no renunciation! Wilhelm abdicated only after 3 weeks! After the German chancellor virtually single-handedly lost the war and also lied about relinquishing Wilhelm's power, he himself resigned, leaving behind Ebert's successor, an ardent social democrat.

After the announcement of Ebert as Chancellor of Germany, miracles continued. Just one hour after his appointment, he declared Germany a Republic, although he did not have such powers. In fact, immediately after this, negotiations began on an armistice between Germany and the Entente countries.

The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 just as clearly shows us how Badensky and Ebert betrayed their homeland. Armistice negotiations began on 7 November. The agreement was signed on 11 November. To ratify this agreement, on the part of Germany, it had to be signed by the ruler, the Kaiser, who would never agree to the conditions that the signed agreement carried in itself. Now do you understand why Max of Baden on November 9 lied about the fact that Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated?

Results of the Treaty of Versailles

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was obliged to transfer to the Entente countries: the entire fleet, all airships, as well as almost all locomotives, wagons and trucks. In addition, Germany was forbidden to have a regular army, to engage in the production of weapons and military equipment. It was forbidden to have a fleet and aviation. In fact, Ebert signed not a truce, but an unconditional surrender. Moreover, Germany had no grounds for this. Allies didn't bomb German cities and not a single enemy soldier was in German territory. The Kaiser's army successfully conducted military operations. Ebert was well aware that the German people would not approve of such a peace treaty and would want to continue the war. Therefore, another trick was invented. The treaty was called a truce (this a priori told the Germans that the war was simply ending without any concessions), but it was signed only after Ebert and his government laid down their arms. Germany, even before the signing of the "truce", transferred the fleet, aviation and all weapons to the Entente countries. After that, the resistance of the German people to the Treaty of Versailles was impossible. In addition to the loss of the army and navy, Germany was forced to cede a significant part of its territory.

The Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 was humiliating for Germany. Most politicians later said that it was not peace, but simply a truce before a new war. And so it happened.

Treaty of Versailles 1919

Treaty officially ending World War I. Signed June 28, 1919 at Versailles (France) by the United States of America, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, as well as Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hijaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru , Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Serbo-Croat-Slovenian state, Siam, Czechoslovakia and Uruguay, on the one hand, and capitulated Germany, on the other. The terms of the treaty were worked out after lengthy secret meetings at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920. The treaty entered into force on January 10, 1920, after it was ratified by Germany and the four main allied powers - Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan. The US Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles due to the unwillingness of the United States to commit itself to participation in the League of Nations. Instead, in August 1921, the United States concluded a special treaty with Germany, almost identical to that of Versailles, but containing no articles on the League of Nations. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany returned Alsace-Lorraine (within the borders of 1870) to France; Belgium - Malmedy and Eupen districts, as well as the so-called. neutral and Prussian parts of Morena; Poland Poznan, parts of Pomerania and other territories of the West. Prussia; the city of Danzig and its district was declared a "free city"; the city of Memel (Klaipeda) was transferred to the jurisdiction of the victorious powers (in February 1923 it was annexed to Lithuania). As a result of the plebiscite, part of Schleswig in 1920 passed to Denmark, part of the Upper. Silesia in 1921 - a small section of Silesian territory went to Czechoslovakia and Poland. Saar passed for 15 years under the control of the League of Nations. The coal mines of the Saar were transferred to French ownership. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany recognized and pledged to strictly observe the independence of Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia. The German part of the left bank of the Rhine and a strip of the right bank 50 km wide were subject to demilitarization. Germany was deprived of all its colonies, which were later divided among the main powers by the victors.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces were limited to 100,000 land army; obligatory military service was canceled, the main part of the surviving navy to be given to the winners. Germany undertook to compensate in the form of reparations the losses incurred by the governments and individual citizens of the Entente countries as a result of hostilities.

According to Art. 116 Germany recognized "... the independence of all territories that were part of the former Russian Empire by August 1, 1914", as well as the abolition of the Brest Peace of 1918 and all other agreements concluded by it with the Soviet government.

The size and conditions of reparation payments were repeatedly reviewed. The USA provided huge loans to the German monopolies (see Dawes plan; Young plan). In 1931, a moratorium was granted to Germany, after which the payment of reparation payments was stopped.

The dissatisfaction of the German population with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles was used by Hitler and the Nazis in order to create a mass base for their party. In March 1935, Hitler introduced universal military service, which violated the military articles of the treaty. In June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 was concluded, which was a bilateral violation of the Treaty of Versailles.

The capture by Germany of Austria (1938), Czechoslovakia (1938-39), Klaipeda (1939) and its attack on Poland (September 1, 1939) actually meant the final liquidation of the Treaty of Versailles.

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In 1918, Germany realized that the war had been lost. All efforts were aimed at making peace, not capitulation. In October, a truce is signed for 36 days: the development of peace conditions, but they were tough. They were dictated by the French. Peace was not signed. The truce was extended 5 times. There was no unity in the Allied camp. France held the first position. She was greatly weakened by the war, both economically and financially. She came out with demands for the payment of colossal reparations, as she sought to crush the German economy. She demanded the division of Germany, but England opposed this.

In October 1918, the German government approached US President Woodrow Wilson with a proposal to conclude a truce on all fronts. This move was an indication that Germany had agreed to Wilson's Fourteen Points, the document that served as the basis for a just world. Nevertheless, the countries of Atlanta demanded from Germany full compensation for the damage caused to the civilian population and the economy of these countries. In addition to demands for restitution, negotiations were complicated by territorial claims and secret agreements made by England, France and Italy with each other and with Greece and Romania in the last year of the war.

June 28, 1919 - Signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which put an end to World War I. The peace treaty between Germany and the countries of the Entente was signed in the Mirror Hall of the Palace of Versailles in the suburbs of Paris. The date of its signing went down in history as the day the World War I ended, despite the fact that the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles came into force only on January 10, 1920.

27 countries participated in it. It was an agreement between the winners and Germany. Germany's allies did not take part in the conference. The text of the peace treaty was created during the Paris Peace Conference in the spring of 1919. In fact, the conditions were dictated by the leaders of the Big Four represented by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French President Georges Clemenceau, American President Woodrow Wilson and Italian leader Vittorio Orlando. The German delegation was shocked by the harsh terms of the treaty and the apparent contradictions between the armistice agreements and the future peace provisions. The vanquished were especially indignant at the wording of German war crimes and the incredible amount of her reparations.

The legal basis for Germany's reparations was accusations of her war crimes. It was unrealistic to calculate the real damage caused by the war to Europe (especially France and Belgium), but the approximate amount was $ 33,000,000,000. Despite the statements of world experts that Germany would never be able to pay such reparations without pressure from the Entente countries, the text The peace treaty contained provisions that allowed for certain measures of influence on Germany. Among the opponents of the recovery of reparations was John Maynard Keynes, who on the day of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles said that Germany's huge debt would lead to a world economic crisis in the future. His prediction, unfortunately, came true: in 1929, the United States and other countries suffered the Great Depression. By the way, it was Keynes who stood at the origins of the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The leaders of the Entente, in particular, Georges Clemenceau, were interested in excluding any possibility of Germany starting a new world war. To this end, the treaty included provisions according to which the German army was to be reduced to 100,000 personnel, military and chemical production in Germany was prohibited. The entire territory of the country east of the Rhine and 50 km to the west was declared a demilitarized zone.

From the very signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans declared that "the Entente imposed a peace treaty on them." In the future, the rigid provisions of the treaty were relaxed in favor of Germany. However, the shock that the German people experienced after the signing of this shameful peace remained in memory for a long time, and Germany harbored hatred for the rest of the states of Europe. In the early 1930s, in the wake of revanchist ideas, Adolf Hitler managed to come to power in an absolutely legal way.

Germany's capitulation allowed Soviet Russia to denounce the provisions of the Separate Brest-Litovsk Treaty, concluded between Germany and Russia in March 1918, and return their western territories.

Germany has lost a lot. Alsace and Lorraine went to France, and northern Schleswick to Denmark. Germany lost more territories that were given to Holland. But France failed to achieve a border along the Rhine. Germany was forced to recognize the independence of Austria. Unification with Austria was forbidden. In general, a colossal number of different prohibitions were imposed on Germany: a ban on creating a large army and having many types of weapons. Germany was forced to pay reparations. But the issue of quantity has not been resolved. A special commission was created, which practically dealt only with the fact that appointed the amount of reparations for the next year. Germany was deprived of all her colonies.

Austria-Hungary split into Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. From Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Southern Hungary, at the end of the war, the Serbo-Croatian-Slovenian state was formed, which later became known as Yugoslavia. They looked like Versailles. Austria lost a number of its territories and army. Italy received South Tyrol, Trieste, Istria with adjacent areas. The Slavic lands of Czech Republic and Moravia, which for a long time were part of Austria-Hungary, became the basis of the Czechoslovak Republic that was formed. Part of Silesia also passed to her. The Austro-Hungarian naval and Danube fleets were placed at the disposal of the victorious countries. Austria had the right to keep an army of 30 thousand people on its territory. Slovakia and Transcarpathian Ukraine were transferred to Czechoslovakia, Croatia and Slovenia were included in Yugoslavia, Transylvania, Bukovina and most of Banat-Romania. The number of Vegerian army was determined at 35 thousand people.

It came to Turkey. Under the Treaty of Sèvres, she lost about 80% of her former lands. England received Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. France - Syria and Lebanon. Smyrna and the surrounding areas, as well as the islands in the Aegean Sea, were to pass to Greece. In addition, Masuk went to England, Alexandretta, Killikia and a strip of territories along the Syrian border to France. The creation of independent states - Armenia and Kurdistan - in the east of Anatolia was envisaged. The British wanted to turn these countries into a springboard for the fight against the Bolshevik threat. Turkey was limited to the territory of Asia Minor and Constantinople with a narrow strip of European land. The straits were entirely in the hands of the victorious countries. Turkey officially renounced its previously lost rights to Egypt, Sudan and Cyprus in favor of England, Morocco and Tunisia - in favor of France, Libya - in favor of Italy. The army was reduced to 35 thousand people, but it could be increased to suppress anti-government protests. In Turkey, the colonial regime of the victorious countries was established. But because of the beginning of the national liberation movement in Turkey, this treaty was not ratified and then annulled.

The United States left the Versailles conference dissatisfied. It has not been ratified by the US Congress. It was her diplomatic defeat. Italy was also not happy: it did not get what it wanted. England was forced to reduce the fleet. It's expensive to maintain. She had a difficult financial situation, a large debt to the United States, and they put pressure on her. In February 1922, the 9-Power Treaty on China was signed in Washington. He did not sign the Treaty of Versailles, as it was planned to give some territory of German China to Japan. The division into spheres of influence in China was eliminated, there were no colonies left there. This treaty gave rise to another discontent in Japan. This is how the Versailles-Washington system was formed, which lasted until the mid-1930s.

Completed the First World War, was signed on June 28, 1919 in the suburbs of Paris, in the former royal residence.

The truce, which actually put an end to the bloody war, was concluded on November 11, 1918, but it took the heads of the warring states about another six months to work out the main provisions of the peace treaty together.

The Treaty of Versailles was concluded between the victorious countries (USA, France, Great Britain) and defeated Germany. Russia, which was also a member of the coalition of anti-German powers, earlier, in 1918, concluded with Germany (according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk), therefore, it did not participate either in the Paris Peace Conference or in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. It is for this reason that Russia, which suffered huge human losses, not only did not receive any compensation (indemnity), but also lost part of its original territory (some regions of Ukraine and Belarus).

Terms of the Treaty of Versailles

The main provision of the Treaty of Versailles is an unconditional recognition of "causing war." In other words, the full responsibility for inciting a global European conflict fell on Germany. This resulted in unprecedented severity of sanctions. The sum of the total indemnities paid by the German side to the victorious powers amounted to 132 million gold marks (in 1919 prices).

The last payments were made in 2010, thus, Germany was able to fully pay off the "debts" of the First World War only after 92 years.

Germany suffered very painful territorial losses. All were divided among the countries of the Entente (anti-German coalition). Part of the original continental German lands was also lost: Lorraine and Alsace went to France, East Prussia - to Poland, Gdansk (Danzig) was recognized as a free city.

The Treaty of Versailles contained detailed requirements aimed at the demilitarization of Germany, preventing the re-ignition of a military conflict. german army decreased significantly (to 100,000 people). german military industry actually should have ceased to exist. In addition, the requirement for the demilitarization of the Rhine zone was spelled out separately - Germany was forbidden to concentrate troops there and military equipment. The Treaty of Versailles included a clause on the creation of the League of Nations - international organization, similar in function to the modern UN.

Impact of the Treaty of Versailles on the German economy and society

The terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty were unjustifiably harsh and harsh, she could not withstand them. A direct consequence of the fulfillment of the draconian requirements of the treaty was the complete destruction of the total impoverishment of the population and monstrous hyperinflation.

In addition, the insulting peace agreement touched upon such a sensitive, albeit intangible, substance as national identity. The Germans felt not only ruined and robbed, but also wounded, unfairly punished and offended. German society readily embraced the most extreme nationalist and revanchist ideas; this is one of the reasons why a country that just 20 years ago ended one global military conflict with grief in half, easily got involved in the next one. But the Versailles Treaty of 1919, which was supposed to prevent potential conflicts, not only failed to fulfill its purpose, but also to some extent contributed to the incitement of the Second World War.

Clemenceau, Woodrow Wilson and David Lloyd George

The Treaty of Versailles is the peace treaty that ended the First World War. It was concluded by the Entente countries (France, England ...) on the one hand and their opponents - the countries of the Central European bloc led by Germany on the other

World War I

Started in August 1914. Coalitions of states fought: the British Empire, France, Russian empire(until 1918). USA (since 1917), its allies and dominions and Germany, the Habsburg Empire, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire. fighting were conducted mainly in Europe, partly in the Middle East, after Japan entered the war on the side of Britain - in Oceania. During the four years of the war, about 70 million people took part in it, about 10 million died, more than 50 million were injured and maimed. Having exhausted all the resources to continue the struggle, with the acute dissatisfaction of the people with the disasters that had befallen them as a result of hostilities, Germany admitted defeat. On November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed in the Compiegne Forest near Paris, after which the fighting did not resume. The allies of the German Empire capitulated even earlier: Austria-Hungary on November 3, Bulgaria on September 29, Turkey on October 30. With the Armistice of Compiègne, the preparation of the text and terms of the peace treaty began.

The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were worked out at the Paris Peace Conference.

Paris Peace Conference

Germany, as the loser of the war and, in the opinion of France and Great Britain, its main culprit, was not invited to participate in the negotiations, Soviet Russia, concluded with Germany - too. Only the victors had a voice in working out the terms of the Versailles Peace. They were divided into four categories.
— The first included the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy and Japan, whose representatives had the right to take part in all meetings and commissions.
— In the second - Belgium, Romania, Serbia, Portugal, China, Nicaragua, Liberia, Haiti. They were invited to participate only in those meetings that directly concerned them.
— The third category included countries that were in a state of severing diplomatic relations with the bloc of Central Powers: Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay and Ecuador. The delegates of these countries could also take part in the meetings if they discussed issues directly related to them.
— The fourth group consisted of neutral states or countries that were in the process of formation. Their delegates could speak only after being invited to do so by one of the five major powers, and only on matters specifically concerning those countries.

Preparing the draft peace treaty, the conference participants sought to maximize the benefits for their countries at the expense of the losers. For example, the division of the colonies of Germany:
“Everyone agreed that the colonies should not be returned to Germany ... But what to do with them? This issue has caused controversy. Each of the major countries immediately presented its long-considered claims. France demanded the division of Togo and Cameroon. Japan hoped to secure the Shandong Peninsula and the German Isles in pacific ocean. Italy also spoke about its colonial interests” (“History of Diplomacy” Volume 3)

The smoothing of contradictions, the search for compromises, the establishment, at the initiative of the United States, of the League of Nations, an international organization designed to influence world politics so that there would be no more wars between states, took six months

The main participants in the development of the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles

USA: President Wilson, Secretary of State Lansing
France: Prime Minister Clemenceau, Foreign Minister Pichon
England: Prime Minister Lloyd George, Foreign Secretary Balfour
Italy: Prime Minister Orlando, Foreign Minister Sonnino
Japan: Baron Makino, Viscount Shinda

Course of the Paris Peace Conference. Briefly

January 12 - the first business meeting of prime ministers, foreign ministers and plenipotentiary delegates of the five major powers, at which the language of negotiations was discussed. They recognized English and French
January 18 - official opening of the conference in the mirror hall of Versailles
January 25 - on plenary session the conference accepted Wilson's proposal that the League of Nations should be an integral part of the entire peace treaty
January 30 - Differences of the parties on issues of press coverage of the negotiations came to light: “It seemed,” House wrote in his diary on January 30, 1919, “that everything went to dust ... The President was angry, Lloyd George was angry, and Clemenceau was angry. For the first time, the president lost his composure when negotiating with them ... ”(Diary of a negotiator from the United States, Colonel House)
February 3-13 - ten meetings of the Commission for the development of the charter of the League of Nations
February 14 - a new truce was concluded with Germany to replace the Compiègne one: for a short period and with a 3-day warning in case of a break
February 14 - Wilson solemnly reported to the peace conference the statute of the League of Nations: "The veil of mistrust and intrigue has fallen, people look each other in the face and say: we are brothers, and we have a common goal .... From our agreement of brotherhood and friendship" - finished President's speech
March 17 - note to Clemenceau Wilson and Lloyd George with a proposal to separate the left bank of the Rhine from Germany and establish the occupation of the left bank provinces by the inter-allied armed forces for 30 years, demilitarize the left bank and a fifty-kilometer zone on the right bank of the Rhine

(at the same time) Clemenceau demanded the transfer of the Saar basin to France. If this did not happen, he argued, Germany, owning coal, would actually control all of French metallurgy. In response to Clemenceau's new demand, Wilson stated that he had never heard of the Saar until now. In his temper, Clemenceau called Wilson a Germanophile. He bluntly declared that no French prime minister would sign a treaty that would not condition the return of the Saar to France.
“So if France doesn’t get what she wants,” the president said icily, “she will refuse to act together with us. In that case, would you like me to come home?
“I don’t want you to go home,” Clemenceau replied, “I intend to do it myself.” With these words, Clemenceau quickly left the president's office.

March 20 - a meeting of prime ministers and foreign ministers of France, England, the United States and Italy on the division of spheres of influence in Asian Turkey. Wilson summed up the meeting: “Brilliant - we parted ways on all issues”
March 23 - Disputes between Britain and France over Syria are leaked to the press. Lloyd George demanded an end to newspaper blackmail. “If this continues, I will leave. Under such conditions, I cannot work,” he threatened. At the urging of Lloyd George, all further negotiations took place in the Council of Four. From that moment on, the Council of Ten (leaders and foreign ministers of the United States, France, England, Italy and Japan) gave way to the so-called "Big Four", consisting of Lloyd George, Wilson, Clemenceau, Orlando
March 25 - Lloyd George's memorandum, the so-called "Document from Fontainebleau", outraged Clemenceau. In it, Lloyd George opposed the dismemberment of Germany, against the transfer of 2,100 thousand Germans to Poland, proposed that the Rhineland be left to Germany, but demilitarize it, return Alsace-Lorraine to France, grant it the right to exploit the coal mines of the Saar basin for ten years, give Belgium Malmedy and Moreno, Denmark - certain parts of the territory of Schleswig, force Germany to give up all rights to the colony

“You can deprive Germany of her colonies, bring her army to the size of a police force and her fleet to the level of the fleet of a power of the fifth rank. Ultimately, it doesn't matter: if she finds the 1919 peace treaty unfair, "

April 14 - Clemenceau informed Wilson of his consent to the inclusion of the Monroe Doctrine * in the charter of the League of Nations. In response, Wilson revised his categorical "no" on the Saar and Rhine issues.
April 22 - Lloyd George announced that he joins the President's position on the Rhine and Saar issues.
April 24 - in protest against the unwillingness Council of Four to annex the city of Fiume (today the Croatian port of Rijeka) to Italy, the Italian Prime Minister Orlando left the conference
April 24 - Japan demanded that the Shandong Peninsula, which belongs to China (in eastern China), be handed over to it.
April 25 — German delegation invited to Versailles
April 30 - German delegation arrived in Versailles
May 7 - A draft peace treaty is presented to Germany. Clemenceau: “The hour of reckoning has come. You asked us for peace. We agree to provide it to you. We give you the book of the world"
May 12 - At a meeting of many thousands in Berlin, President Ebert and Minister Scheidemann said: "Let their hands wither before (the German representatives in Vnrsala) sign such a peace treaty"
May 29 - German Foreign Minister von Brockdorff-Rantzau presented Clemenceau with a reply note to Germany. Germany protested against all points of the peace conditions and put forward its own counterproposals. All of them were rejected
June 16 - Brockdorf was handed a new copy of the peace treaty with minimal changes
June 21 - The German government announced that it was ready to sign a peace treaty, without recognizing, however, that German people is responsible for the war
June 22 - Clemenceau replied that the allied countries would not agree to any changes in the treaty and to any reservations and demanded either to sign peace or refuse to sign
June 23 - The German National Assembly decides to sign peace without any reservations.
June 28 - New German Foreign Minister Hermann Müller and Minister of Justice Bell sign the Treaty of Versailles.

Terms of the Treaty of Versailles

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Results of the Versailles Peace

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Military establishment

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