The peace settlement left a sad weight on Europe. The war ended
formally with a series of peace treaties among the victorious Allies and
Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Of these agreements, the most
significant and the most controversial was the Treaty of Versailles, which
German representatives signed on June 28, 1919. The terms of the treaty
came as a harsh shock to many Germans who had hoped the influence of
President Woodrow Wilson would help bring about a lenient settlement.
Among a host of onerous provisions, Germany had to limit its army to
100,000 men, give up its colonial possessions, permit the Rhineland to be
occupied for fifteen years, and accept the obligation to pay reparations to
countries on the winning side. The exact sum due for reparations debt was
to be settled only in the future, but it was certain to be a heavy burden on
the prospects for Germany's economic recovery. Moreover, Article 231 of
the treaty compelled Germany and its allies to accept full responsibility for
the outbreak of the war. The German government, led by Prime Minister
Pliilipp Scheidemann, indicated at first that it would not sign the treaty, but
signing was unavoidable if Germany was to survive as a unified country.
By the close of 1919, the English economist John Maynard Keynes
prophesied in The Economic Consequences of the Peace that placing of
heavy reparations on Germany would block the entire continent from
enjoying a prosperous future. And Adolf Hitler, the most talented demagogue
of the nationalist right in Germany, would soon rail against the treaty
as a horror perpetrated by vicious foreigners against the German people and
accepted by German leaders who were nothing more than traitors and
criminals.
The peace settlement produced a permanent international organization,
the League of Nations. Woodrow Wilson enthusiastically promoted the idea
of such a body at the peace conference, and the Covenant of the League was
inserted into the Treaty of Versailles. The organization's membership consisted
of the victorious nations who signed the treaty and neutral countries
whom the victors invited to join. But the League of Nations lacked world
wide scope due to the refusal of the U.S. Congress to accept the treaty and
the accompanying obligation for its signatories to participate in the international
body. Initially, Germany and the Soviet Union were also absent
from the League, since powerful members like Great Britain and France
blocked their admission.
World History
