Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 peace treaty between Germany and the Allied powers that ended the state of war and imposed territorial, military, and financial terms on Germany.

War Guilt Clause: Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which assigned Germany and its allies responsibility for wartime losses and damages. It supplied the treaty’s legal basis for demanding reparations from Germany.
Paris Peace Conference: The 1919–1920 conference at which the Allied powers negotiated peace settlements after World War I. The treaty was negotiated and signed within this wider conference.
Weimar Republic: The German republic that existed from 1918 until Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Its leaders signed and administered the treaty amid intense domestic opposition.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye: The 1919 peace treaty between the Allied powers and Austria after World War I. It imposed a related but distinct settlement on Austria.
Stab-in-the-back myth: The false claim that Germany’s civilian leaders and internal enemies betrayed an undefeated army in World War I. Nationalists used this myth to condemn the treaty and undermine the republic.
German reparations: Payments and other transfers demanded from Germany after World War I under the postwar settlement. The treaty established Germany’s obligation to compensate the Allied powers.
Fourteen Points: Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 statement of principles for ending World War I and shaping the peace. Wilson’s program offered a contrasting framework for the settlement.
Occupation of the Ruhr: The 1923 occupation of Germany’s Ruhr industrial region by French and Belgian forces over reparations disputes. It followed Germany’s failure to meet reparations obligations under the settlement.
Treaty of Trianon: The 1920 peace treaty between the Allied powers and Hungary after World War I. It shows how the postwar settlement treated another defeated Central Power.
Diktat: A settlement imposed by one side without meaningful negotiation by the other. German opponents described Versailles as a diktat because Germany had little role in drafting it.

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