German officials have systematically conspired to circumvent the treaty`s terms by failing to meet disarmament deadlines, denying Allied officials access to military facilities, and maintaining and hiding weapons production. [133] Since the treaty does not prohibit German companies from producing war material outside Germany, the companies set up in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. Bofors was bought by Krupp, and in 1921 German troops were sent to Sweden to test weapons. [134] The establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union through the Genoa Conference and the Treaty of Rapallo was also used to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles. Publicly, this diplomatic exchange was largely about trade and future economic cooperation. However, secret military clauses were included that allowed Germany to develop weapons within the Soviet Union. In addition, it allowed Germany to establish three training zones for aviation, chemistry and tank warfare. [135] [incomplete short citation] [136] [incomplete short citation] [137] [138] In 1923, the British newspaper The Times made several claims about the state of the German Wehrmacht: it had equipment for 800,000 men, transferred army personnel to civilian posts to conceal their actual tasks, and warned against the militarization of the German police through the exploitation of the Krümper system. [139] [vi] When German leaders signed the armistice on November 11, 1918 to end world War I hostilities, they believed that this vision articulated by Wilson would form the basis of any future peace treaty. That would not prove to be the case.
The Frenchman tried to limit Germany`s potential to regain its economic superiority and also for rearmament. The German army was to be limited to 100,000 men. Conscription was prohibited. The contract limited the navy to ships under 10,000 tons, with a ban on acquiring or maintaining a fleet of submarines. Germany was forbidden to maintain an air force. Other historians note that the Treaty of Versailles was in fact very restricted – Germany and other central powers were not occupied by Allied forces after the war. However, it would take several decades for Germany to pay for its reparations. The treaty was also much softer than the armistice treaty (the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk) that Germany imposed on Russia when that nation negotiated a way out of the war a year earlier. Commonwealth and British government delegates had mixed thoughts about the treaty, with some seeing French politics as greedy and vindictive. [69] [70] Lloyd George and his private secretary Philip Kerr believed in the treaty, although they also believed that the Frenchman would keep Europe in a state of constant turmoil by trying to implement the treaty. [69] Delegate Harold Nicolson wrote, “Are we making a good peace?” while General Jan Smuts (a member of the South African delegation) wrote to Lloyd-George before signing that the treaty was unstable, stating, “Are we in our sober senses or are we suffering from earthquakes? What happened to Wilson`s 14 points? He wanted the Germans not to be forced to sign at the “bayonet summit.” [71] [72] Smuts issued a statement condemning the treaty and regretting that the promises of a “new international order and a more just and better world” are not enshrined in the treaty. Lord Robert Cecil said many in the Foreign Office were disappointed with the treaty.
[71] The treaty received broad public support. Bernadotte Schmitt wrote that “the average Englishman. thought that Germany had only got what it deserved” as a result of the treaty. [73] However, public opinion changed as German complaints piled up. [74] Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald said after the German remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 that he was “happy” that the treaty “disappeared” and expressed hope that the Frenchman had received a “strict lesson.” [70] When the treaty was drafted, the British wanted Germany to abolish conscription but maintain a volunteer army. The French wanted Germany to maintain a conscription army of up to 200,000 men to justify its own maintenance of a similar force. Thus, the allocation of the contract of 100,000 volunteers was a compromise between the British and the French posts. Germany, on the other hand, regarded the conditions as defenseless against any potential enemy. [173] Bernadotte Everly Schmitt wrote that “there is no reason to believe that Allied governments were dishonest when they declared at the beginning of Part V of the Treaty. Russia had fought as one of the Allies until December 1917, when its new Bolshevik government withdrew from the war. The Bolshevik decision to reject Russia`s unpaid financial debts to the Allies and to publish the texts of secret agreements between the Allies in the post-war period angered the Allies.
The Allied Powers refused to recognize the new Bolshevik government and therefore did not invite their representatives to the peace conference. The Allies also excluded the defeated Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria). Historians are divided on the effects of the treaty. Some saw it as a good solution in difficult times, others saw it as a catastrophic measure that would anger the Germans to take revenge. The actual effects of the treaty are also controversial. [153] The Treaty of Versailles was signed by Germany and allied nations on June 28, 1919, officially ending World War I. The terms of the treaty required Germany to pay financial reparations, disarm, lose territory and abandon all its overseas colonies. He also called for the creation of the League of Nations, an institution that President Woodrow Wilson strongly supported and that he had initially described in his fourteen-point speech. Despite Wilson`s efforts, including a national tour of speakers, the Treaty of Versailles was rejected twice by the United States Senate, in 1919 and 1920. The United States eventually signed a separate peace treaty with Germany in 1921, although it never joined the League of Nations.
The result of these competing and sometimes contradictory goals between the victors was a compromise that satisfied no one, and in particular, Germany was neither pacified nor reconciled, nor permanently weakened. The problems arising from the treaty led to the Locarno Treaties, which improved relations between Germany and the other European powers, and to the renegotiation of the reparations system, which led to the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan and the indefinite postponement of reparations to the Lausanne Conference of 1932. The treaty has sometimes been cited as the cause of World War II: although its actual effects were not as severe as expected, its conditions led to great resentment in Germany that fueled the rise of the Nazi Party. .
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