What were the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles?

Germany had to:

• Pay reparations of £6,600 million
• Give up 13% of their land
• Reduce their army to 100,000 men

Notable clauses in the Treaty of Versailles that affected Germany were:

• The War Guilt clause- (highly controversial), which claimed Germany was behind the aggression of WWI and was solely to blame for the horrors seen in WWI - to be fair, they escalated the war but one could argue all European leaders bore some guilt in contributing to WWI.

• War Reparations- Germany was set to pay an undisclosed amount of "war reparations" to pay for the damage done during WWI - (later this figure was set, and it was pretty high-France was very keen on this, as they wanted to see Germany weakened so that they could never attack again- But Britain and the US were still hesitant about punishing Germany too harshly when it came to their economy.)

The reparation clause is also the focal point for many debates- was it harsh? Was it not? Did it contribute to Hitler? Very difficult to say, but some Historians, notably Margaret MacMillan in her book Paris 1919 claims that the treaty was not that harsh as one might think, and she also points out the fact that the treaty was the product of many clashing interests. It was the best it could become given the circumstances. It tried to please as many as possible but in the end, it did not really satisfy anybody.

• Restriction in the Army- as some people pointed out, Germany army was limited to 100,000 men and they were not allowed an air force, no heavy guns etc.

• Germany had to give up territory- like the Saar region, which was given to France for 15 years (returned to Germany 1935)

• Other than that, we have the covenant of the League of Nations, which if signatories signed Versailles they would later Join the League. Although Germany was more or less forced to sign they were only allowed to join later on.

• Germany lost all of her colonies to other nations.

Hopefully, this gave an overview!