Title: ToV & Germany
Headings: Describe how the Treaty of Versailles weakened Germany:
Describe how the Treaty of Versailles weakened Germany:
a. Germany lost territory
b. Armed forces
c. Economy

Content: The idea was to reduce Germany’s armed forces to a size where they could never endanger the countries round about. German cartoons of the time show the German army too tiny to defend them even against small ‘ dungervolk’ like Czechoslovakia. And Germany was at the mercy of France, which invaded again in 1923 to take in kind the reparation payments that Germany's aid it could not pay. Yet the Treaty excluded Germany from the League of Nations – Germany could not defend itself by force, or through the League! c. Economy
The Treaty’s territorial decisions affected Germany’s economy. The loss of the Saar reduced Germany’s industrial strength. The loss of West Prussia took away Germany’s richest farming land. But reparations did the greatest economic damage to Germany. Germany had to pay for all the damage of the war – a sum eventually set at £6,600 million – in instalments, until 1984. This ruined Germany’s economy, damaged by the war, and led to the hyperinflation of 1923.