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Essay The Treaty Of Versailles

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The Treaty Of Versailles

On June 28th, 1919, Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles in the hall of mirrors, within the palace of Versailles, practically against her will. The Treaty, having been made up by the Triple Entente leaders Lloyd George and George Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson of the USA, was unfair to Germany, but she had no choice. Germany's options were to sign the treaty within 48 hours or be invaded, but years of war had taken a toll on Germany and it could not afford to defend itself. It was Germany who called for an armistice on the day we know as Rememberance day and yet it was Germany who took all of the blame for the first world war, and would end up starting …show more content…

Approximately 13% of Germany's land was lost, exceeding 28,000 sqaure miles of land in total. Along with that land, six million German speaking people were forced to be governed by foreign countries as a result. Many people living in the lands taken away, such as North Schleswig, actually wanted to be part of Germany. Even missionaries living in German colonies were not allowed to practice their profession any more. Some of the land lost included Belgium taking Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnet, Denmark taking Northern Schleswig, Czechoslovakia taking Troppau, and Poland gained West Prussia and Posen. Germany lost all of her African territory as well as land in the Pacific. Alsace-lorraine was returned to France and Upper Silesia went to Poland. As well, the League of Nations took the liberty of controlling certain areas of the land that Germany had left. Until 1935, The League of Nations had control of the industrial area of Saar, the port Memel, and Danzig was made a free city under the League of Nations as well. In total 48% of Germany's iron production and 16% of her coal production was lost because of her loss of land. The union of Austria and Germany,"Anschluss," was also outlawed and had to be approved by the League of Nations. Not only that, Germany was forced to resign the right of self- determination in domestic affairs. This meant that

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