The Treaty of Versailles and how it led to World war II

For the most part, Britain’s Lloyd George, American Wilson, Italy’s Orlando and Frenchman Clemenceau are leading the debates, the turn of which shows that the winners now have different, if not opposing, aims. Clemenceau wants to inflict severe treatment on Germany by means of the annexation of the left bank of the Rhine, but also by the payment of reparations of a vertiginous amount, a policy which can only lead to a hegemony of the France in continental Europe. Lloyd George and Wilson, for their part, are opposed to this peace which would humiliate Germany and bring it to ruin, which would have disastrous political and commercial consequences. The negotiations are bitter and become even more so with the demands of other allies, including Japan which wishes to annex the German possessions in the Pacific, as well as its concessions in China - which causes the departure of the Chinese delegation in May 1919.

Italy, for its part, is disgusted at being refused the annexation of Dalmatia and Fiume, which had yet been promised to it in 1915 in order to persuade it to join the Allied camp. On June 17, 1919, the victors therefore proposed to Germany a very harsh treaty which succeeded in the exploit of annoying everyone. On the territorial level, Germany, cut by an eighth of its territory, is cut in two in the east and loses its colonies. Its army is reduced to 100,000 men (and 16,000 sailors) and can no longer own airplanes, heavy artillery, tanks, submarines or battleships. Economically, it was condemned to pay war reparations, the amount of which must be fixed by 1921 at the latest, but it must, in the meantime, pay the Allies 20 billion marks as a provision, as well as a quantity of ships. of trade, machine tools and railway equipment, not to mention its production of coal or steel. Finally, it must recognize its moral responsibility in triggering the conflict. The terms of the treaty were so harsh that the German government for a time considered a military uprising. He finally agreed to sign it on June 28, 1919.

This "Diktat" only exacerbates nationalist sentiment in Germany, which will be largely exploited by the Nazis. In Italy, the most significant feeling is that of treason, which will produce the same effects and facilitate the accession to power of fascism in 1922. In Asia, Japan has a curtain of archipelagos which will serve it in its future war of conquest. The French believe Germany is getting away with it, the British feel they have not been heard and the US Senate refuses to ratify the deal. In the end, the Treaty of Versailles carries within it the seeds of an even more violent conflagration...