Versailles Treaty

Wilson’s Secretary of State and the Versailles Treaty (Current Opinion, 1922)

Attached is the 1922 book review of Robert Lansing’s (1864 – 1928) book, Big Four, and Others of the Peace Conferencestyle=border:none. In this, Lansing’s follow-up to his earlier book, The Peace Negotiations: A Personal Narrativestyle=border:none, the author

shows us Clemenceau dominating the conference by sheer force of mind; Wilson outmaneuvered; Lloyd George clever, alert, but not very deep; and Orlando precise and lawyer like. This book confirms the popular belief that the general scheme of the treaty was worked out by the British and French delegations without material aid from the Americans. As a consequence, the American delegation lost prestige.

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Wilson’s Fourteen Points (Literary Digest, 1919)

Here is a very simple list of President Wilson’s Fourteen Points can be printed off of a PDF by clicking the title above.

Wilson’s Fourteen Points were ignored at Versailles and the United States withdrew it’s support for the historical conference in favor of two separate peace agreements made with Germany and Austria at a later date.


Click here to read more magazine articles about President Woodrow Wilson.

Read a 1936 article concerning Hitler’s Versailles Treaty violations.


The historian Henry Steele Commager ranked Woodrow Wilson at number 18 insofar as his impact on the American mind is concerned – click here to understand his reasoning…

Wilson’s Fourteen Points (Literary Digest, 1919) Read More »

‘Why Germany Must Pay” (The Literary Digest, 1921)

The war that Germany began and lost cost the Allies, according to a recent estimate, the stupendous total of $177,000,000,000. The Reparations Commission has named a principal sum of about $32,000,000,000 as the damages for which reparations by Germany is due under the Treaty of Versailles. The Supreme Council of the Allies, sitting at Paris in January, placed the amount to be paid by Germany at a present value of $21,000,000,000, which when paid with interest and in installments covering forty-two years, would amount to about $55,000,000,000.

‘Why Germany Must Pay” (The Literary Digest, 1921) Read More »

Fears of German Treaty Violations (Punch, 1922 and Time, 1923)

These articles makes it clear that Clemanceau and Churchill were not the only ones who feared German duplicty in regards to the rearmament clause. Written a year apart are these two columns from Time and Punch insisting that the German Reichswehr had numerous weapons that were banned under the Versailles Treaty:

My attention had often been called to persistent rumors regarding Germany’s secret army. Whispers had reached me from quite reliable sources of over a million Teuton soldiers, well-officered and disciplined…


Click here if you would like to read about the 1936 Versailles Treaty violations.

Fears of German Treaty Violations (Punch, 1922 and Time, 1923) Read More »

The Political Climate in Germany (New Outlook Magazine, 1932

By the early Thirties the anointed of Europe realized that there would be no economic recovery for the continent if Germany was not a part of it. With this in mind, a delegation convened in Lausanne, Switzerland where it was decided by representatives from France, Britain and Germany that the reparation payments imposed upon the defeated countries by the Treaty of Versailles would be suspended. Hitler’s followers were of the mind that Germany should not have signed the agreement unless the war-guilt clause was removed from the Versailles Treaty. This article addresses the general political climate in Germany as 1932 came to a close.

The Political Climate in Germany (New Outlook Magazine, 1932 Read More »

The French Army Moves into the Ruhr Valley (Literary Digest, 1923)

When Germany’s post-war government failed to remit a portion of the 33 billion dollars it owed under it’s obligations agreed to in the Versailles Treaty, France lost little time deploying her army into the coal rich regions of the Ruhr Valley. This article, illustrated with cartoons and maps, offers a collection of assorted observations and editorial opinions gathered from from across Europe concerning the event:

Premiere Poincare remarked, ‘the French troops will remain in the Ruhr as long as may be necessary to assure the payment of reparations, but not a single day longer.’

The French Army Moves into the Ruhr Valley (Literary Digest, 1923) Read More »

Allied Occupation of Germany Ends (The Pathfinder, 1930)

The foreign correspondent for Pathfinder Magazine filed this brief report about the goings-on in Germany on June 30, 1930, when the last Allied regiments had completed their occupation duties mandated under the Treaty of Versailles and withdrew to their own borders:

For the most part the German population waited patiently until the last uniformed Frenchman had entrained and then they raised the German flags, [and] began to sing ‘Deutschland Ueber Alles’…

President Hindenburg issued a proclamation saying in part:


‘After long years of hardships and waiting, the demand of all Germans was today fulfilled. Loyalty to her fatherland, patient perseverance and common sacrifices have restored to the occupied territory the highest possession of every people – freedom.’

Allied Occupation of Germany Ends (The Pathfinder, 1930) Read More »

The Versailles Treaty and the German Colonies (Leslie’s Weekly, 1919)

Half way through the year of 1919, editorials like this one began to appear in many places which served to inform the English-speaking world that the Germans were peacefully handing over their African colonies (as they were obliged to do in article 119 of the Versailles Treaty):

Germany renounces in favor of the principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions.

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John Maynard Keynes on the Versailles Treaty (Current Opinion, 1922)

A magazine review of John Maynard Keynes book, A Revision of the Treaty (1922). The reviewer wrote that it lacks the prophetic fire of it’s author’s earlier book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, but continues the argument of that book:

Mr. Keynes claims that almost everyone now has come around to his point of view. We practically all recognize, he says, the over-severity of the reparation clauses written into the Versailles Treaty.

John Maynard Keynes on the Versailles Treaty (Current Opinion, 1922) Read More »