![]() Aware that Germany would probably not be able to pay such a towering debt, Clemenceau and the French nevertheless greatly feared rapid German recovery and a new war against France. France's premier Georges Clemenceau particularly insisted on imposing enormous reparation payments. As such Germany was liable for all material damages. Perhaps the most humiliating portion of the treaty for the defeated Germany was Article 231, commonly known as the "War Guilt Clause." This clause forced Germany to accept complete responsibility for initiating World War I. Plebiscites were to determine the future of areas in northern Schleswig on the Danish-German frontier and parts of Upper Silesia. The treaty demanded demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, and special status for the Saarland under French control. All German overseas colonies became League of Nation Mandates, and the city of Danzig, with its large ethnically German population, became a Free City. Alsace and Lorraine, annexed in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, returned to France. The Treaty of Versailles, presented for German leaders to sign on May 7, 1919, forced Germany to concede territories to Belgium (Eupen-Malmédy), Czechoslovakia (Hultschin district), and Poland (Poznan, West Prussia, and Upper Silesia). Viewing Germany as the chief instigator of the conflict, the European Allied Powers ultimately imposed particularly stringent treaty obligations upon the defeated Germany. ![]() When German leaders signed the armistice, many of them believed that the Fourteen Points would form the basis of the future peace treaty, but when the heads of the governments of the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy met in Paris to discuss treaty terms, the European contingent of the "Big Four" had another plan altogether. Wilson hoped his proposal would bring about a just and lasting peace, a "peace without victory" to end the "war to end all wars." Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles The remainder of the principles focused on preventing war in the future, the last proposing a League of Nations to arbitrate further international disputes. In January 1918, some ten months before the end of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson had written a list of proposed war aims which he called the "Fourteen Points." Eight of these points dealt specifically with territorial and political settlements associated with the victory of the Entente Powers, including the idea of national self-determination for ethnic populations in Europe. The new Republic of Turkey, established in its aftermath, signed a superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, effectively partitioning the old Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920, ending hostilities with the Allied Powers but shortly thereafter a Turkish War of Independence began. The other portion of the Dual Monarchy, Hungary also became an independent state: under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon (November 1920) Hungary ceded Transylvania to Romania Slovakia and Transcarpathian Rus to the newly formed Czechoslovakia and other Hungarian crown lands to the future Yugoslavia. Treaties of Trianon, Sèvres, and Lausanne This restriction effectively barred it from unification with Germany, a goal long desired by "Pan-Germanists" and an active aim of Austrian-born Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party. An important tenet of the treaty barred Austria from compromising its newly formed independence. It also relinquished the South Tyrol, Trieste, Trentino, and Istria to Italy, and Bukovina to Romania. The Austrian Empire ceded crown lands to newly established successor states like Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. ![]() This republic consisted of most of the truncated German-speaking regions of the Habsburg state. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye of September 10, 1919, established the Republic of Austria. ![]() As a direct result of war, the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman Empires ceased to exist. ![]() Seldom before had the face of Europe been so fundamentally altered. These treaties stripped the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary, joined by Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria) of substantial territories and imposed significant reparation payments. After the devastation of World War I, the victorious western powers imposed a series of harsh treaties upon the defeated nations. ![]()
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