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The Treaty of Versailles placed several restrictions on German ownership of munitions and other arms and limited the army to just 100,000 men. Under the terms of the treaty, poison gas, tanks, submarines, and heavy artillery were prohibited to German forces, and Germany could not import or export "war material" (a vague term that was not clearly defined). [1]
Foodstuffs imports into Germany were controlled by the Allies after the Armistice with Germany until Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919. [22] In March 1919, Churchill informed the House of Commons, that the ongoing blockade was a success and "Germany is very near starvation."
Following the drafting of the treaty, on 7 May the German and Allied delegations met and the Treaty of Versailles was handed off to be translated and for a response to be issued. At this meeting Brockdorff-Rantzau stated that "We know the intensity of the hatred which meets us, and we have heard the victors' passionate demand that as the ...
In the London ultimatum of 5 May, Germany was given six days to recognize the Schedule of Payments and to comply with the Treaty of Versailles' demands for disarmament and the extradition of German "war criminals". If it did not, the Allies threatened to occupy the Ruhr. [53]
Dawes, who was the U.S. vice president at the time, received the Nobel Peace Prize of 1925 for "his crucial role in bringing about the Dawes Plan", specifically for the way it reduced the state of tension between France and Germany resulting from Germany's missed reparations payments and France's occupation of the Ruhr.
The military superiority of Germany was a defining element of Hitler's ideology and foreign policy, which made the idea of disarmament unacceptable. [17] As soon as Hitler rose to power, he began the process of rearming Germany , clearly defying both the Treaty of Versailles and the objective of the Disarmament Conference. [ 17 ]
The treaty also recognized Wilhelm I as the emperor of the newly united German Empire. Preliminary discussion began on the cession of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine to Germany. Despite Bismarck's objections, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder and the German General Staff insisted that the territory was necessary as a defensive barrier.
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated the withdrawal five years after the signing of the treaty if Germany had faithfully fulfilled its terms. [10] An Allied inspection of Germany's military installations had found significant violations of Versailles' disarmament provisions, most notably its failure to adhere to the 100,000-man limit on its army.