The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, exactly five years after Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo and sparked the outbreak of war. Although the treaty contained a pact to create the League of Nations, an international organization for peacekeeping, the harsh conditions imposed on Germany contributed to the fact that peace would not last long. Keynes was only a prominent critic of the Treaty of Versailles. French military leader Ferdinand Foch refused to attend the signing ceremony, believing that the treaty did not do enough to protect against a future German threat, while the US Congress did not ratify the treaty and then concluded a separate peace with Germany; the United States would never join the League of Nations. On the 28th. The treaty was signed in June 1919 and was the product of a conflict between the Allied victors. The United States hoped to achieve a “peace without victory” in the words of Woodrow Wilson, and Britain hoped to get Germany back on its feet economically. Meanwhile, France and other allied nations wanted fair compensation for the physical, moral and economic devastation of the war. Faced with the contradictory objectives of reparations and future stability, statesmen found themselves in a terrible situation.
The Allied nations eventually rejected the idea of a peace without victory and made Germany pay for four long years to provoke war (in their minds) and to maintain and intensify the conflict. The treaty forced Germany to abandon its colonies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific; cede territories to other nations such as France and Poland; reduce the size of his army; pay war reparations to Allied countries; and accept blame for the war. Although representatives of nearly 30 nations participated, the terms of peace were essentially drafted by the leaders of the United Kingdom, France and the United States, who, together with Italy, formed the “Big Four” that dominated the process. The defeated countries – Germany and its allies Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria – were not invited to participate. The treaty also took into account the disastrous policy of appeasement – many Britons and French were unwilling to confront Germany with seemingly legitimate grievances. The Big Four themselves had competing targets in Paris: Clemenceau`s main objective was to protect the France from another German attack. He demanded harsh reparations from Germany to limit Germany`s post-war economic recovery and minimize this possibility. Lloyd George, on the other hand, saw the reconstruction of Germany as a priority in order to re-establish the nation as a strong trading partner for Britain. Orlando, for his part, wanted to expand Italy`s influence and turn it into a great power capable of standing alongside the other great nations. Wilson rejected Italian territorial claims as well as pre-existing agreements on the territory between the other Allies; Instead, he wanted to create a new world order along the lines of the Fourteen Points. Other leaders viewed Wilson as too naïve and idealistic, and his principles were difficult to translate into politics.
Reactions to the treaty in Germany have been very negative. There were demonstrations in the German Reichstag and in the streets. It is not difficult to understand why the Germans were outraged. Germany has lost 10% of its country, all its overseas colonies, 12.5% of its population, 16% of its coal and 48% of its steel industry. There were also the humiliating conditions that led Germany to take responsibility for the war, limit its armed forces and pay reparations. The Paris Peace Conference opened on January 18, 1919, a significant date in that it marked the anniversary of the coronation of German Emperor Wilhelm I, which took place at the Palace of Versailles at the end of the German-French War in 1871. The Prussian victory in this conflict had led to the unification of Germany and the conquest of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from the France. In 1919, the France and its Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau had not forgotten the humiliating loss and intended to avenge it in the new peace agreement. Equally controversial were perhaps the territorial adjustments dictated by the Treaty of Versailles and other post-war treaties. These adjustments led to the resettlement of the population, and in Central and Eastern Europe, new nations were cut off from the old empires. New nations were created, but they were unstable and vulnerable because they had little support or funding from more established nations. Articles 164 to 172 disarmed the German army and limited the number of weapons and even the amount of ammunition it could possess.
Smaller artillery guns, for example, received 1,500 shells, while larger guns received only 500 shells. .