Treaty of Versailles

by YuBBoi1we

I have a few questions about the Treaty of Versailles. Everyone knows what happened to Germany but I'm wondering what some of the other powers were thinking, specifically Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire like did Austria have to pay war debt to the allies and have a reduced military same with the Ottoman Empire and did they have to deal with any war guilt or was it all on Germany.

etan-tan

The Treaty of Versailles (1919) only applied to the German side. Austria, Hungary, and the Ottomans all had their own treaties. There were many similarities between all these treaties.

The Austrians signed Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919), Bulgaria signed Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (1919), the Hungarians signed Treaty of Trianon (1920), and Ottomans signed Treaty of Sèvres (1920). The terms of all these treaties varied however they all required these similar conditions;

1. the loser had to accept war guilt and take full responsibility for starting a war of aggression

(it was NOT just Germany that had to admit to starting the war, so did Austria and the Ottomans and Hungary and Bulgaria, so that is a major misconception many people have)

2. the loser had to concede territory (the Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Ottomans also lost land to new nation-states)

3. the loser had a limit on active soldiers in the standing army

(depended on the country, Germany had a max. restriction of 100,000, Ottomans had 50,000, while Austria had a restriction of 20,000, as did Bulgaria, whereas Hungary had 25,000), conscription was abolished, and the navy was limited, submarines were banned, heavy tanks and airforce were banned as well

4. the loser had to pay reparations

(again, this depended on the country. Germany had to pay the most at 132 billion gold marks while for example Bulgaria had to pay 2.250 billion gold francs. This was because Germany had caused more damage and they had a larger economy than Bulgaria so the Entente allowed Bulgaria to pay less reparations and allowed them to pay in cattle and grain and coal. Ultimately these numbers were never paid in full and compromise deals were made and debt was forgiven. As for Austria, Hungary and the Ottomans, their economies crashed because of the massive loss of territory that they paid barely any reparations beyond raw resources and their debt was forgiven)

5. the loser had railway restrictions

(In Hungary no railway was allowed to be built with more than one track to prevent full utilization of the rail-network for military purposes. Similar restrictions existed in the other countries)