Treaty of Versailles

After the German Empire signed an armistice with the Allied powers on November 11th, 1918, ending World War I,^{(Spencer, 2016, p. 68)} the German Empire signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 441)} The treaty’s goal was to prevent the German Empire from ever being a threat to peace ever again by doing the following:^{(Overy, 2022, p. 6)}

• The German Empire had to admit that the brunt of the war was their fault.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 203) (Overy, 2022, p. 6)}
• The German Empire would “abrogate” the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and all other treaties they signed during the war.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 135)}
• The German Empire would suffer economic punishments and create a Reparation Commission.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 61) (Overy, 2022, p. 6, 108)} They had to pay in reparations the equivalent to 20,000,000,000 gold marks in the first fourth months of 1921.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 207)}
• The German Empire would be forbidden from building or maintaining fortifications or assembling armed forces on either the east or west side of the Rhine or the Saar Basin.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 53, 71) (Overy, 2022, p. 6)}
• The German Empire would only be allowed to have at a maximum of 100,000 military officers by March 31, 1920,^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 155, 159)} along with dissolving the Great German General Staff.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 157)}
• The German Empire had to give up the following territory:
  • Belgium
    • Kreis of Eupen.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 39)}
    • Kreis of Malmédy.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 39)}
  • Luxembourg
    • The frontier of August 3, 1914, to its junction with the frontier of France of July 18, 1870.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 39)}
  • France
    • Alsace-Lorraine.
    • Control over the Saar coal mines for fifteen years.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 53) (Spencer, 2016, p. 35)}
  • Poland
    • Most of Posen and West Prussia.^{(Treaty of Versailles, 1919, p. 41-43) (Spencer, 2016, p. 35)}
  • Colonies
    • Loses all oversea possessions.
• The German Empire would abolish the monarchy and become a democratic republic, commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic.^{source needed}
• ^{(David Rumsey Map Collection, Radó, 1923)}
• ^{(Allen, 1921, p. 432-433)}