After four years of global conflict, 16 million people had died and centuries-old empires and dynasties had collapsed. In January 1919, the victors of World War I met to discuss the terms of peace. US President Woodrow Wilson had devised a plan that he believed would bring a new order to Europe based on democracy. Wilson pushed for a League of Nations to act as arbiter and peacemaker in national disputes. Britain and France wanted to ensure that Germany would never again be able to threaten European peace. The German Army was to be reduced and the Rhineland demilitarized. Germany was also asked to give up lands to France on its west and to Poland on its east and north. In addition, the Austro-Hungarian empires were to be split into new nations such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia; and the Ottoman Empire was also to be carved up, to the advantage of the British and French.

"You have asked for peace. We are ready to give you peace."

-Georges Clemenceau Prime Minister of France

War-guilt clause

Crucially, in a “war-guilt clause,” the Germans had to admit to starting the war and also pay £6.6 billion in reparations. They signed the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919 but stalled in paying compensation, so in 1923 France occupied Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley. However, in the interwar years, neither of those nations did anything to deter aggression by Nazi Germany.

When Adolf Hitler took France in 1940, he ordered the master copy of the treaty to be burned.