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https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/treaty_of_versailles-112018.pdf

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Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points | The 20th century | World history | Khan Academy

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Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles | The 20th century | World history | Khan Academy

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More detail on the Treaty of Versailles and Germany | World history | Khan Academy

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The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919 at the Palace of Versailles in Paris at the end of World War I, codified peace terms between the victorious Allies and Germany. The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments and demilitarization. Far from the "peace without victory" that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had outlined in his famous Fourteen Points in early 1918, the Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany while failing to resolve the underlying issues that had led to war in the first place. Economic distress and resentment of the treaty within Germany helped fuel the ultra-nationalist sentiment that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, as well as the coming of a World War II just two decades later.

The Fourteen Points

In a speech to Congress in January 1918, Wilson laid out his idealistic vision for the post-war world. In addition to specific territorial settlements based on an Entente victory, Wilson's so-called Fourteen Points emphasized the need for national self-determination for Europe's different ethnic populations. Wilson also proposed the founding of a "general association of nations" that would mediate international disputes and foster cooperation between different nations in the hopes of preventing war on such a large scale in the future. This organization eventually became known as the League of Nations.

Wilson's Fourteen Points are summarized below:

1. Diplomacy should be public, with no secret treaties.

2. All nations should enjoy free navigation of the seas.

3. Free trade should exist among all nations, putting an end to economic barriers between countries.

4. All countries should reduce arms in the name of public safety.

5. Fair and impartial rulings in colonial claims.

6. Restore Russian territories and freedom.

7. Belgium should be restored to independence.

8. Alsace-Lorraine should be returned to France and France should be fully liberated.

9. Italy's frontiers should be drawn along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.

10. People living in Austria-Hungary should be granted self-determination.

11. The Balkan states should also be guaranteed self-determination and independence.

12. Turks and those under Turkish rule should be granted self-determination.

13. An independent Poland should be created.

14. A general association of nations must be formed to mediate international disputes.

When German leaders signed the armistice ending hostilities in World War I on November 11, 1918, they believed this vision articulated by Wilson would form the basis for any future peace treaty. This would not prove to be the case.

The Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, a date that was significant in that it marked the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I, which took place in the Palace of Versailles at the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Prussian victory in that conflict had resulted in Germany's unification and its seizure of Alsace and Lorraine provinces from France. In 1919, France and its prime minister, Georges Clemenceau, had not forgotten the humiliating loss, and intended to avenge it in the new peace agreement.

The Terms of the Versailles Treaty

The " Big Four" leaders of the victorious Western nations-Wilson of the United States, David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and, to a lesser extent, Vittorio Orlando of Italy-dominated the peace negotiations in Paris. Germany and the other defeated powers, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, were not represented at the conference; nor was Russia, which had fought as one of the Allied powers until 1917, when the country's new Bolshevik government concluded a separate peace with Germany and withdrew from the conflict.

The Big Four themselves had competing objectives in Paris: Clemenceau's main goal was to protect France from yet another attack by Germany. He sought heavy reparations from Germany as a way of limiting German economic recovery after the war and minimizing this possibility. Lloyd George, on the other hand, saw the rebuilding of Germany as a priority in order to reestablish the nation as a strong trading partner for Great Britain. For his part, Orlando wanted to expand Italy's influence and shape it into a major power that could hold its own alongside the other great nations. Wilson opposed Italian territorial demands, as well as previously existing arrangements regarding territory between the other Allies; instead, he wanted to create a new world order along the lines of the Fourteen Points. The other leaders saw Wilson as too naive and idealistic, and his principles were difficult to translate into policy.

In the end, the European Allies imposed harsh peace terms on Germany, forcing the nation to surrender around 10 percent of its territory and all of its overseas possessions. Other key provisions of the Treaty of Versailles called for the demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, limited Germany's army and navy, forbade it to maintain an air force, and required it to conduct war crimes trials against Kaiser Wilhelm II and other leaders for their aggression. Most importantly, Article 231 of the treaty, better known as the " war guilt clause," forced Germany to accept full responsibility for starting World War I and pay enormous reparations for Allied war losses.

Criticism of Versailles Treaty

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of the war. Though the treaty included a covenant creating the League of Nations, an international organization aimed at preserving peace, the harsh terms imposed on Germany helped ensure that peace would not last for long.

Germans were furious about the treaty, seeing it as a diktat, or dictated peace; they bitterly resented the sole blame of war being placed at their feet. The nation's burden of reparations eventually topped 132 billion gold Reichsmarks, the equivalent of some $33 billion, a sum so great that no one expected Germany to be able to pay in full; in fact, economists like John Maynard Keynes predicted the European economy would collapse if it did.

Keynes was only one prominent critic of the Treaty of Versailles. The French military leader Ferdinand Foch refused to attend the signing ceremony, as he thought the treaty didn't do enough to secure against a future German threat, while the U.S. Congress failed to ratify the treaty, and later concluded a separate peace with Germany; the United States would never join the League of Nations.

In the years following the Treaty of Versailles, many ordinary Germans believed they had been betrayed by the "November Criminals," those leaders who signed the treaty and formed the post-war government. Radical right-wing political forces-especially the National Socialist Workers' Party, or the Nazis-would gain support in the 1920s and '30s by promising to reverse the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty. With the onset of the Great Depression after 1929, economic unrest destabilized the already vulnerable Weimar government, setting the stage for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler 's fateful rise to power in 1933.

Sources

The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles, U.S. Department of State: Office of the Historian.

"The Treaty of Versailles: An Uneasy Peace," WBUR.org (excerpt from Michael Neiberg, The Treaty of Versailles: A Concise History), August 13, 2017.

Treaty of Versailles, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919 at the Palace of Versailles in Paris at the end of World War I, codified peace terms between the victorious Allies and Germany. The Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war and imposed harsh penalties in terms of loss of territory, massive reparations payments and demilitarization.

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On Nov. 11, 1918, after more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. Although fighting continued elsewhere, the armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending World War I. The global reaction was one of mixed emotions: relief, celebration, disbelief and a profound sense of loss.

"And this is the end of it. In three hours the war will be over. It seems incredible even as I write it. I suppose I ought to be thrilled and cheering. Instead I am merely apathetic and incredulous ... There is some cheering across the river-occasional bursts of it as the news is carried to the advanced lines. For the most part, though, we are in silence ... With all is a feeling that it can't be true. For months we have slept under the guns ... We cannot comprehend the stillness."
- Robert Casey, Battery C, 124th Field Artillery Regiment, 33rd Division, November 11, 1918.

When World War I began in August 1914, few expected the conflict to last beyond Christmas. Over the course of the next few months, however, it was clear this would not come to pass. The conflict, already expanded beyond Europe, included great movements of imperial colonies in Africa and Asia. As it progressed, further independent nations like Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, China and Japan joined the fighting. Not until 1918 would the war's end be in sight. In October of that year, an armistice between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies ended fighting in the Middle East. Only days later, the disintegrating Austro-Hungarian Empire signed an armistice with Italy.

"You bet we were happy yesterday morning to be awoken at 3 o'clock by whistles blowing, guns firing and every kind of noise you could think of announcing the surrender of Germany. It was sure a happy day here because we thought you were happy. I suspect you will not come right home but whenever you come back to the States come to see Ida Clara and myself. Now I want you to be sure to do that for we will just have a great time rejoicing together."
- Nannie (Nancy) Howard of Kansas City to her brother, November 12, 1918.

In the west, the German Army's imminent collapse led Germany to pursue an armistice. The Allied delegation, led by Supreme Allied Commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch, largely ignored United States President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace and left no room for negotiation. The German delegation was given 72 hours to accept the terms, which were purposefully severe to prevent Germany from resuming fighting. These included complete demilitarization, the evacuation of France, Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine (a territory that had been annexed by Germany in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War), and the immediate release of Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians.

"Dearest Mother and Dad: If only you all could see how glad everyone in this place is! Never in my life have I ever seen such happy people, for the eleventh of November meant the biggest thing possible to them all. Fighting stopped; at last the German people have awakened from their horrible dream. It's taken a long time, four years and half of the sort of thing that France has been through is tremendous, and now that it is all over, why it is almost too much for them to believe. The good folk are so happy the tears stand in their eyes, and they make no efforts to hide them. Even those who have lost their dear ones.

"I was talking last night with a mother who gave her two boys and her husband and now is all alone who told me 'Why should not I be glad? My two boys and my good man are gone it is true, but there are so many others. The war, it is finished, thanks to the good God.' The whole town is decorated with flags and paper banners and streamers, quite gayly, and at night, lanterns shine at every window and door."
- James E. (Ned) Henschel, November 11, 1918.

On Nov. 10, the Germans received word that Kaiser Wilhelm II had abdicated and instructions from the new government that they should sign the armistice. At 5 a.m. on Nov. 11, the armistice was agreed upon. Marshal Foch sent word to Allied commanders that "Hostilities will be stopped on the entire front beginning at 11 o'clock, November 11th (French hour). The Allied troops will not go beyond the line reached at that hour on that date until further orders." The war on the Western Front had finally come to an end. Though one of several armistices signed in 1918, it is the armistice of Nov. 11 that left a lasting global legacy.

Photograph of General Maxime Weygand of France, Admiral Wemyss of Great Britain and Marshal Foch of France, along with others involved with the Armistice, in the Forest of Compiegne on November 11, 1918, outside the railcar where the Armistice was negotiated.

Learn more about the Enduring Impact of the Armistice

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Nov. 11, 1918 | National WWI Museum and Memorial

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On Nov. 11, 1918, after more than four years of horrific fighting and the loss of millions of lives, the guns on the Western Front fell silent. Although fighting continued elsewhere, the armistice between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending WWI.

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https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/treaty-of-versailles-100-years

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Margaret MacMillan is a Professor of History at the University of Toronto and the former Warden of St. Antony's College. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Senior Fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, University of Toronto and of St Hilda's College, University of Oxford. She sits on the boards of the Mosaic Institute and the editorial boards of International History and First World War Studies. She is also a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust.

Her books include Women of the Raj (1988, 2007); Paris 1919: Six Months that Changed the World (2001) for which she was the first woman to win the Samuel Johnson Prize; Nixon in China: Six Days that Changed the World; The Uses and Abuses of History (2008); and Extraordinary Canadians: Stephen Leacock (2009). Her most recent book is The War that Ended Peace.

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The Treaty of Versailles: A Hundred Years Later

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Professor MacMillan, a specialist in British imperial history and the international history of the 19th and 20th centuries, will consider if the treaty led to the outbreak of the Second World War and whether the attempt to create a new world order was a failure.