Indeed, the Treaty terms were harsh: all overseas possessions of the German government and its citizens were either to be ceded to regional powers or appropriated by the Allies; all treaties, agreements, arrangements, and contracts between Germany and her former colonies were annulled; Germany was to pay the total cost of all Allied occupation armies since November 11, 1918; the constitution and equipment of her armed forces were severely limited; she was barred from representation or participation in any international organization or convention; Allied countries enjoyed statuses as “most favored nation”⁶; from 1919 to April of 1921, Germany was to pay 20 billion gold marks; she was also to relinquish all property not unambiguously German; the final sum to be exacted from Germany would include damage to dead, maimed, and injured persons and their dependents, the cost of assistance and subsistence by Allied powers to its soldiers and their dependents, and damage to property owned by Allied governments and their citizens; Germany was obligated to construct up to 200,000 tons of ships and reconstruction materials annually for her victors; she was to deliver to France and Belgium a total of 370,900 units of livestock and 15 million tons of coal annually, and to France exclusively, 35,000 tons of benzol, 50,000 tons of coal tar, and 30,000 tons of ammonia sulphate; and she was to renounce all rights to her submarine cables. In effect, Germany lost 13% of her territory, 45% of population, 15% of arable land, 12% of livestock, 10% of factories, 72% of zinc resources, 65% of iron ore, 38% of steel, 57% of lead, and 45% of coal. Most ignominious of all was the infamous war guilt clause, which reads:

The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage ... as a consequence of ... the aggression of Germany and her allies.⁷

Furthermore, Germany undertook to

devote her economic resources directly to the physical restoration of the invaded areas of the Allied and Associated Powers.⁸

Footnotes
6     http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/versa9.html, “Peace Treaty of Versaille”, Part X, Section 1, Chapter II, Article 271.
7     http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/versa7.html, “Peace Treaty of Versaille”, Part VIII, Section 1, Article 231.
8     Ibid., Annex IV.

       

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