Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/874

 654 General History of Europe 1178. Germany forced to sign the Treaty, June 28, 1919. When the Germans learned the terms of the treaty they denounced it as vindictive, and ruinous to their country. They were helpless, however, and their representatives reluctantly signed it on June 28, 1919, in the very palace at Versailles where William I and Bismarck had proclaimed the German Empire in 1871. Just five years to a day had elapsed since the murder of the archduke had given the immediate excuse for a war, which the Germans had so confidently entered, to come out humiliated beyond belief. 1179. Reduction of Germany's Power. Germany gave up Alsace-Lorraine to France ; she ceded a great part of her provinces of Posen and West Prussia to the restored Polish Republic and agreed that some of her other eastern possessions might join Poland if the people so desired. She granted a similar privilege to the inhabitants of Schleswig, should they wish to join Denmark. She surrendered all her colonies in Africa and the Pacific, to be turned over to the British Empire, France, and Japan. 1180. The End of German Militarism. The German army was never to exceed one hundred thousand men, and compulsory military service was to be abolished. Germany's fighting vessels were reduced to twelve, and she was not to use submarines. The forts on the eastern bank of the Rhine and the great fortress of Heligoland were to be destroyed. The Allies were to continue to occupy the west bank of the river Rhine until the terms of the treaty should be carried out. Germany was neither to im- port nor export munitions of war and was to produce them only in a limited amount. 1181. The German Indemnity. Germany was made to assume responsibility for the infinite damage she had done to the Allied nations during the war. She was to replace all the merchant ships she had destroyed, by turning over most of her own fleet and by constructing new vessels. She was required to pay an indefinite but huge indemnity some five billions of dollars at the start and such additions as the International Reparations Commissions should deem necessary to make up for the devastation wrought by her armies. The coal deposits of the Saar basin were given to