PERJANJIAN VERSAILLES

Perjanjian Versailles

Perjanjian Versailles ditandatangani oleh German Reich yang diwakili oleh Hermann Müller and Johannes Bell, dan Allies (British Empire, France, Japan, Italy, US, dll) di mana Woodrow Wilson mewakili US, Loyd George mewakili Inggris, Clementeau mewakili Perancis, dan Orlando mewakili Italia.

Isi dari perjanjian Versailles, antara lain :

                 

   1: Jerman menyerahkan daerag elzas dan lotharingen pada perancis

   2: Jerman mengganti kerugian perang

   3: Jerman melepasakan daerah jajahan pada sekutu

   4: Kapal kapal dagang jerman diserahkan kepada inggris

   5: Angkatan perang Jerman diperkecil

Versailles’s Treaty Content :

Legal restrictions

* Article 227 charges former German Emperor, Wilhelm II with supreme offense against international morality. He is to be tried as a war criminal.
* Articles 228–230 tried many other Germans as war criminals.
* Article 231 (the “War Guilt Clause”) lays sole responsibility for the war on Germany, which is to be accountable for all damage to civilian populations of the Allies.

Military restrictions

Part V of the treaty begins with the preamble, “In order to render possible the initiation of a general limitation of the armaments of all nations, Germany undertakes strictly to observe the military, naval and air clauses which follow.” Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to form a larger Nation to make up for the lost land

* The Rhineland will become a demilitarized zone administered by Great Britain and France jointly.
* German armed forces will number no more than 100,000 troops, and conscription will be abolished.
* Enlisted men will be retained for at least 12 years; officers to be retained for at least 25 years.
* German naval forces will be limited to 15,000 men, 6 battleships (no more than 10,000 tons displacement each), 6 cruisers (no more than 6,000 tons displacement each), 6 destroyers (no more than 800 tons displacement each) and 12 torpedo boats (no more than 200 tons displacement each). No submarines are to be included.
* The manufacture, import, and export of weapons and poison gas is prohibited.
* Armed aircraft, tanks and armoured cars are prohibited.
* Blockades on ships are prohibited.
* Restrictions on the manufacture of machine guns (e.g. the Maxim machine gun) and rifles (e.g. Gewehr 98 rifles).

Territorial changes

Germany’s borders in 1919 had been established nearly a half-century earlier, at the country’s official establishment in 1871. Territory and cities in the region had changed hands repeatedly for centuries, including at various times being owned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Poland, and Kingdom of Lithuania. However, Germany laid claim to lands and cities that it viewed as historically “Germanic” centuries before Germany’s establishment as a country in 1871. Other countries disputed Germany’s claim to this territory. In the peace treaty, Germany agreed to return disputed lands and cities to various countries.

Germany was compelled to yield control of its colonies, and would also lose a number of European territories. The province of West Prussia would be ceded to the restored Poland, thereby granting it access to the Baltic Sea via the “Polish Corridor” which Prussia had annexed in the Partitions of Poland. This turned East Prussia into an exclave, separated from mainland Germany.

In Africa, Britain and France divided German Kamerun (Cameroons) and Togoland. Belgium gained Ruanda-Urundi in northwestern German East Africa, Great Britain obtained by far the greater landmass of this colony, thus gaining the ‘missing link’ in the chain of British possessions stretching from South Africa to Egypt (Cape to Cairo), Portugal received the Kionga Triangle, a sliver of German East Africa. German South West Africa was mandated to the Union of South Africa.

In the Pacific, Japan gained Germany’s islands north of the equator (the Marshall Islands, the Carolines, the Marianas, the Palau Islands) and Kiautschou in China. German Samoa was assigned to New Zealand; German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Nauru to Australia as mandatory.

Reparations

Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles assigned blame for the war to Germany; much of the rest of the Treaty set out the reparations that Germany would pay to the Allies.

The total sum of war reparations demanded from Germany—around 226 billion Reichsmarks—was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission. In 1921, it was reduced to 132 billion Reichsmarks (then $31.4 billion, or £6.6 billion).

It could be seen that the Versailles reparation impositions were partly a reply to the reparations placed upon France by Germany through the 1871 Treaty of Frankfurt signed after the Franco-Prussian War; critics of the Treaty argued that France had been able to pay the reparations (5,000,000,000 francs) within 3 years while the Young Plan of 1929 estimated that German reparations would be paid for a further 59 years, until 1988. Indemnities of the Treaty of Frankfurt were in turn calculated, on the basis of population, as the precise equivalent of the indemnities imposed by Napoleon I on Prussia in 1807.

The Versailles Reparations came in a variety of forms, including coal, steel, intellectual property (eg. the trademark for Aspirin) and agricultural products, in no small part because currency reparations of that order of magnitude would lead to hyperinflation, as actually occurred in post-war Germany (see 1920s German inflation), thus decreasing the benefits to France and the United Kingdom.

The reparations in the form of coal played a big part in punishing Germany. The Treaty of Versailles declared that Germany was responsible for the destruction of coal mines in Northern France, parts of Belgium, and parts of Italy. Therefore, France was awarded full possession of Germany’s coal-bearing Saar basin for a period. Also, Germany was forced to provide France, Belgium, and Italy with millions of tons of coal for ten years. However, under the control of Adolf Hitler Germany stopped outstanding deliveries of coal within a few years, thus violating the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

A German author has expressed the view that Germany would not finish paying off its World War I reparations until 2020.

The creation of international organizations

Part I of the treaty was the Covenant of the League of Nations which provided for the creation of the League of Nations, an organization intended to arbitrate international disputes and thereby avoid future wars. Part XIII organized the establishment of the International Labour Organization, to promote “the regulation of the hours of work, including the establishment of a maximum working day and week; the regulation of the labour supply; the prevention of unemployment; the provision of an adequate living wage; the protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment; the protection of children, young persons and women; provision for old age and injury; protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own; recognition of the principle of freedom of association; the organization of vocational and technical education and other measures”[20] Further international commissions were to be set up, according to Part XII, to administer control over the Elbe, the Oder, the Niemen (Russstrom-Memel-Niemen) and the Danube rivers.

            

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