The Treaty of Versailles

Paris Peace Conference 1919

This was a meeting held between the Big Four: Lloyd George (Great Britain), Clemenceau (France), Orlando (Italy) and Wilson (USA).

There were five treaties in all.

Neuilly 1919

This was made with Bulgaria. The terms were comparatively not as harsh as the other but nevertheless bred bitterness in Bulgaria. They lost a little bit of territory, had to make reparation repayments and reduce the size of their army. They were to join Germany again in World War II.

Trianon 1920

This was a treaty with Hungary. They lost three quarters of their territory and two thirds of their population. They resented their reduction to a very minor power status and again, joined Germany in World War II.

St. Germain 1919

This was made with Austria, who lost territory to new states. There was a major provision, that future unions with Germany were banned. Nonetheless, they too joined Germany in World War II.

Sevres 1920

This treaty was made with Turkey. This was a very harsh treaty in which the Allies took the Ottoman empire, including such places as Iraq and Lebanon and attempted to reduce Turkey to a colonial status. The resistance was led by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), who went to war with the Allies, forcing Italy and France to leave quickly and although the British encouraged the Greeks to fight Turkey, they were defeated which forced a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, 1923. This established the modern borders of Turkey and restored it to independent status. It was the birth of modern, democratic Turkey, and they were neutral in World War II.

Versailles 28 June 1919

This was the treaty with Germany. In it, it provided that the Germans accept the war guilt, they lost lots of territory and overseas colonies, the Kaiser and hundreds of generals were charged with war crimes and they had to pay reparations to cover all costs incurred by the Allies during the war, something like $31.5 billion, to be paid in installments of $500 million a year. There were also limits placed on the size of the German Army.

Woodrow Wilson got a League of Nations, but the US never joined because it was defeated in the US senate.