To the Last Man - Jeff Shaara [390]
The war ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month of 1918. It had meant nothing,
solved nothing and proved nothing.
—LEON WOLFF, historian
The wars are not over. . . . There will be the Devil
to pay all around the world.
—GENERAL TASKER BLISS, 1919
THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
The negotiations begin in January 1919, in Paris. Almost immediately, the contest becomes not so must a test of wills between the Allies and the Germans, but between the Allies themselves. The meetings are chaired by Clemenceau, who presses hard for reparations and a more punitive treaty, and Woodrow Wilson comes to understand for the first time the political motivation that drives the Allies. Though Wilson insists that the first clause of the treaty should outline the foundation of his cherished “League of Nations,” Clemenceau and David Lloyd George are far less interested in the future of the world at large than they are of the future of Germany’s ability to ever make war. But Clemenceau and Lloyd George have very different views of how punishing the treaty should be, and there are long weeks of rancorous debates. While Clemenceau pushes for a far more punitive treaty than the British, Lloyd George expresses fear that the more brutal the terms, the more that German resentment might be fueled, resulting in some possible difficulty in the future.
The final draft of the treaty, consisting of more than four hundred specific clauses, is completed in April 1919, at which time it is simply handed to the Germans for signature. The German delegates, who have expected to be directly involved in the point-by-point negotiation of the treaty are shocked to learn that the Allies will entertain no discussion with them at all. The German government protests the severity of the terms, claiming the terms are “intolerable for any nation.” But the protests are largely ignored. Faced with no power base from which to enforce their concerns, the Germans have no choice but to accept the treaty virtually as written. On June 28, the new German chancellor, Friedrich Ebert, authorizes his delegation to sign the treaty.
Germany loses nearly fifteen percent of its land mass, much of which is granted to Poland, including the valuable seaport of Danzig (now Gdansk). The long disputed lands of Alsace and Lorraine are returned to French control, and additional territory is ceded to Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Denmark, and Lithuania. In addition, the critical mining regions of the Saar Valley are to be occupied by Allied armies until 1935, with the raw materials produced there being given to France as part of Germany’s reparations.
The German military virtually ceases to exist. The army is reduced to no more than one hundred thousand men, who are allowed no heavy artillery, aircraft, or tanks, and very few machine guns. Poison gas is outlawed as well. The German navy is gutted the same way, including the complete elimination of submarines.
The issue of reparations continues to be controversial even after the treaty is signed. Forced to agree to a blanket admission of guilt for causing the war, the Germans are therefore obliged to pay out funds for the entire estimated cost of the war, based on each injured nation’s claims, a figure that eventually exceeds thirty billion dollars. More than any other clause of the treaty, the issue of reparations ensures that the Germany economy cannot recover, and that Germany will not enjoy economic prosperity for decades to come.
Woodrow Wilson reluctantly accepts the treaty as a necessary evil, believing the harshest terms might be amended later by the League of Nations. But the treaty is never ratified by the United States Congress. The refusal is a hard blow to Wilson’s prestige, and is a testament not only to Wilson’s diminishing political power, but to the surge in isolationist sentiment that begins to sweep across