2. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
INTRODUCTION
• Wilson’s 14 Points would have been pretty good for the Germans –
but things didn’t work out that way.
• After a lot of negotiating, the reality was the Treaty of Versailles.
3. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
SIGNED IN JUNE 1919
• This treaty (agreement) dealt with Germany, but the other defeated
countries made separate treaties.
• Alsace-Lorraine went back to France.
• The Rhineland was demilitarised and Germany was not allowed to
have troops there as it was to close to France and Belgium.
• New countries were set up such as Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. They were potentially unstable.
4. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – DEPTH STUDY: GERMANY – MR. D
THE RESULTS OF VERSAILLES WERE SEVERE
• It was not just land that Germany lost. Article 231 of the treaty said
Germany had to take the blame for the war – the War-Guilt Clause.
• Germany’s armed forces were reduced to 100,000 men, only
volunteers, without armoured vehicles, aircraft or submarines, and
only 6 warships.
• Germany was forced to pay 6.6bn. pounds in reparations –
payments for the damaged caused. The amount was decided in
1921 but was changed later. It would have taken Germany until the
1980’s to pay.
• Germany lost its empire – areas around the world that used to
belong to Germany were now called mandates, and they were
going to be run by the League of Nations. This was set up to keep
world peace.