By Paul Jouvenet, legal expert, essayist and consultant in international affairs. Eurasia Business News, June 28, 2024. Article n°1058.
Picture: Detail of a painting by William Orpen showing the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
This June 28, 2024 marks the 105th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919 between Germany and the Allies, which officially ended the First World War. The signing took place on 28 June 1919 to commemorate the attack on Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, an event that was the pretext for the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum addressed to Serbia and which resulted in a crisis that would lead to the military mobilisation of the European powers and their entry into the war.
This Treaty of Versailles aimed to establish a lasting peace and in January 1920 created the League of Nations, an international organization with a universal vocation, whose main innovation was the guarantee of “collective security”.
On November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., the armistice ending the First World War came into effect. The shooting stops and it is now a question of building peace. After four years of very hard fighting, Germany and its Austrian, Turkish and Bulgarian allies were defeated. Tens of millions of people have been killed or injured. Two months later, delegates from the Western Allies met in Paris to determine the terms of peace, which culminated in the Treaty of Versailles.
While the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary were at the origin of the war in 1914, the victorious Allies decided to break them up in order to give the different peoples of which they were composed their own nation-state. After the war, new states appeared in Central and Eastern Europe.
On June 28, 1919, a Louis XV desk has been set up in the centre under the emblematic painting of Louis XIV The King Governs by Himself. The signing session has lasted fifty minutes.
The peace treaty was accepted by the Weimar Assembly on 9 July 1919. In France, it was the subject of the ratification law of 12 October 1919. It formally entered into force on 10 January 1920.
The symbol of the Hall of Mirrors
The Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles was chosen as the place to sign the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 for a symbolic revenge of France. It was the site of the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871, after the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By signing the treaty here, French Prime Minister Clemenceau was seeking justice and repairing France’s earlier humiliation. In 1871, the Prussians had chosen the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles because the city was the site of the last victory of the soldiers of Napoleon’s army on July 1, 1815 (Battle of Rocquencourt, spilling over into Le Chesnay and the streets of Versailles), after the defeat at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Versailles was also the creation and the heart of the political power of Louis XIV, the great king of France who humiliated the German principalities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
In addition, the Hall of Mirrors had a long history of hosting important diplomatic events, including receptions for foreign ambassadors by kings Louis XIV and Louis XV.
Finally, the opulent setting of the Hall of Mirrors, with its 357 mirrors and lavish decorations, provided an impressive backdrop for such an important international agreement.
Establishing a lasting peace
The Treaty of Versailles was criticized for imposing harsh conditions on Germany, including the payment of reparations indemnities, which reportedly contributed to the resentment of German nationalists and military personnel, leading to the rise of Nazism in the 1920s and 1930s and the outbreak of World War II in September 1939. Some have since argued that a lasting peace must be based on justice and equity, and avoid the humiliation and excessive punishment that can sow the seeds of future conflict.
However, it was then a question of avoiding a third conflict between France and Germany in a century (the war of 1870 between the French Empire and Germany, the First World War from July 1914 to November 1918).
In 1919, with Germany designated as the main responsible for the outbreak of hostilities, the aim of France, whose eastern border was exposed, was to weaken the country in order to avoid a possible third conflict. This took several forms, such as military occupation, which damaged the German economy, or the seizure of part of the military equipment to slow down the development of the army. On the ground, this occupation took the form of a protective glacis and a demilitarized zone, as shown below by this French project before the signing of the treaty.
The North-East Regions of New France and the Rhine Provinces: Territorial Conditions of the Armistice, 1915. (Source: Gallica BNF, France)
Drawing new boundaries
The Treaty of Versailles marked the end of the German Hohenzollern Empire and redrew its borders. In total, the new republic of Germany lost a tenth of its population and a seventh of its former territory. The reconquest of Alsace and Lorraine, France’s main war goal since its departure in 1870, pushed about 300,000 Germans into exile.
To the west, the German territories of Eupen and Malmedy were ceded to Belgium in reparation for the atrocities committed by the Germans against Belgian civilians.
Germany lost all of its overseas colonies. These overseas German colonies were redistributed among the Allied powers as “mandates” under the League of Nations. Some territories in East Germany were ceded to the newly recognized Poland, creating the “Polish Corridor” which gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea (the Danzig Corridor).
Military restrictions
Germany’s military power was severely reduced. The German army was limited to 100,000 men, conscription was banned, and restrictions were placed on weapons and naval forces. Military equipment was seized by France. The Rhineland, an industrial and mining region, was designated as a demilitarized zone to create a buffer zone between Germany and France.
War guilt and reparations
The treaty’s “war guilt clause” forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the war. As a result, Germany had to pay substantial reparations to the Allied powers, initially set at 20 billion gold marks, barely covering the damage caused by the German army on French territory.
Creation of new states
The Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919 played a crucial role in redefining European borders, contributing to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. This geopolitical reconfiguration has led to the emergence of several new nation-states in Central and Eastern Europe. Among these new states were Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Yugoslavia.
Czechoslovakia: Created from the territories of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, once under Austro-Hungarian rule, Czechoslovakia became a multi-ethnic nation-state with a diversity of Czech, Slovak, German, Hungarian, and Ruthenian populations.
Poland: Reappearing on the map of Europe after more than a century of partitions between Prussia, Austria and Russia, Poland was restored as an independent republic with access to the Baltic Sea, through the “Danzig Corridor”.
Hungary and Austria: The dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire led to the creation of separate states. Hungary and Austria became independent republics, although greatly reduced in territory and influence.
Yugoslavia: Formed primarily from the territories of the southern Slavs of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as some Ottoman territories, Yugoslavia included Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnians, and other ethnic groups.
Consequences of the new borders:
The creation of these new states has been accompanied by significant challenges. Borders, often drawn without full consideration of ethnic and historical realities, have led to internal tensions and conflicts. The new, often large, ethnic minorities found themselves in states where they did not always enjoy equal rights, generating political and social tensions.
Role of international institutions
The Treaty of Versailles also led to the creation of the League of Nations (League), the first attempt to establish an international organization aimed at keeping the peace and preventing future conflicts. However, the League of Nations proved ineffective for several reasons.
But the League of Nations, from its creation, had several weaknesses, which would deprive it of the possibility of blocking the rise to the Second World War (1939-1945).
Unanimity Decisions: The functioning of the League of Nations was hampered by the need for unanimity for important decisions, making it difficult to take quick and effective action.
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Absence of the Great Powers: The United States, whose President Woodrow Wilson had been a staunch defender of the League, never joined the organization, weakening its authority and ability to act. In addition, major powers such as Germany and Soviet Russia were not included from the outset, which limited the representativeness and effectiveness of the organization.
Lack of coercive mechanisms: The League of Nations lacked its own armed forces or effective means of enforcement of its decisions, which made its resolutions often ineffective in the face of military aggression, such as those of Japan in Manchuria, Italy in Ethiopia, and Nazi Germany in Europe.
Birth of international criminal law?
Articles 227, 228 and 229 of the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919 provided for the establishment of a tribunal to try the former German Kaiser Wilhelm II for “supreme offence against international morality and the sacred authority of the Treaties” for having unleashed the hostilities leading to the First World War from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. These provisions were to be in vain because of the impunity provided to Wilhelm II by the Netherlands. But these three articles set a precedent and brought about the emergence of the regime of international criminal law. The Nuremberg tribunals in 1945 cited the Treaty of Versailles in their legal reasoning to establish the international criminal responsibility of the leaders of Nazi Germany.
The geopolitical consequences of the Treaty of Versailles were considerable.
German resentment
The harsh conditions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles engendered deep and lasting resentment among the German population. The treaty forced Germany to accept responsibility for the war (War Guilt Clause, Article 231), to pay massive reparations, and to cede significant territory. This led to severe economic instability, exacerbated by the hyperinflation of the 1920s. The sense of injustice and national humiliation was exploited by extremist political movements, including the Nazi Party, which promised to overturn the conditions imposed by Versailles and restore German pride.
Weakened European stability
The Treaty of Versailles attempted to establish a new international order to guarantee peace in Europe, but it failed to balance punitive measures against Germany with policies of reconciliation and cooperation. The creation of the League of Nations was intended to prevent future conflicts, but without the participation of the United States and with weak sanctions mechanisms, this institution was unable to maintain lasting stability. Tensions between European nations remained high, and unresolved rivalries continued to undermine peace efforts.
Global Power Shift
The Treaty of Versailles marked a significant shift in global power dynamics. The European powers, economically and demographically exhausted by the First World War, saw their influence diminish. In contrast, the United States, which had played a crucial role in the Allied victory and whose economy had prospered during the war, emerged as a global superpower. This transition marked the beginning of the predominant American influence in international affairs throughout the twentieth century.
Seeds of future conflict
Many historians consider that the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles directly contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War. The heavy economic reparations imposed on Germany destabilized its economy, leading to internal social and political crises. Nationalist resentment and the desire for revenge were powerful catalysts for the rise of Nazism, which promised to undo the humiliations of Versailles and restore German greatness. Thus, instead of guaranteeing a lasting peace, the treaty created the conditions for a new global conflict.
Strengthening nationalist movements
The Treaty of Versailles redrew Europe’s borders, creating new nation-states based on the principle of self-determination, promoted by US President Woodrow Wilson in his “Fourteen Points”. This geopolitical reconfiguration encouraged nationalist movements not only in Europe, but also in other parts of the world under colonial rule. In Eastern Europe, countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia emerged, often with significant ethnic minorities within their new borders, which engendered internal and interstate tensions. Globally, the principle of self-determination subsequently inspired decolonization movements in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, redefining international relations in the decades that followed.
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The Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919 had profound and lasting geopolitical repercussions. It not only shaped the immediate world order after World War I (1914-1918), but also influenced the political and social dynamics leading up to World War II (1939-1945) and beyond. The lessons learned from this treaty underscore the importance of justice, equity and cooperation in building lasting peace, but also in the balance of power. In 2024, current states can learn from these historical mistakes to avoid repeating the same patterns and to work together for a more stable and peaceful world order, as full-scale war has returned to Europe since February 2022.
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