Treaty Of Versailles

B-Blame

• Germany was accused of starting the war

R-Reparations

• Germany were forced to pay £6,600 million in compensation to the allies for the damage caused.

A-Army

• The german Army were not allowed to have tanks and were cut to 100,000 men(Clause 160).
• The navy were not allowed submarines and only 6 battleships (Clause 181)
• The air force was stopped all together.

The Treaty of Versailles was a settlement made in 1919 to prevent Germany from starting another war. The three main politicians involved were David Lloyd George (Britain), Georges Clemenceau (France) and Woodrow Wilson (America). Friedrich Ebert was the leader of Germany At the Time.

Wilson believed that a very harsh treaty would lead to further conflict, so he came up with 14 points to create fair peace.

Clemenceau wanted to keep Germany weak by taking away all armed forces and make them pay reparations for all the damage they'd caused, as Europe had suffered awful devastation.

Lloyd George wanted to punish Germany but not as harshly as the French. They just wanted them to lose their Navy and overseas empire.

So they compromised the views of each three politicians to highlight four main points! (Clauses)

German people did not agree with the treaty terms, as they didn't think the war was their fault. They thought they went to war in self-defence against the allies. So they didn't want Ebert to sign the treaty, but Ebert knew that if they didn't, then there would be another war and Germany couldn't afford that!

The German's knew the treaty as a "Diktat" (Dictatorship) As it was forced upon them and they had no choice in the matter.

T-Territory

•Germany were forced to give up thousands of sq km of land as compensation to the allies. Eg Clause 45

•German armies were not allowed to occupy the 50km of German Rhineland (Near the border). (Clause 43)

•This allowed Poland and Czechoslovakia to become independant.