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United States President Woodrow Wilson declared the U.S. would be absolutely neutral when in 1917 when Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare seriously threatened the U.S. commercial shipping forced the U.S. to enter the war on 6 April 1917.

Japan had a military agreement with Britain and therefore declared war against Germany on 23 August 1914. Two days later Austria-Hungary responded by declaring war on Japan.

Italy was allied with both Germany and Austria-Hungary and was able was to initially avoid war citing it‘s alliance with both countries. In May 1915, Italy finally by siding with the Allies against her two former allies.

One of the most important outcomes of the war was the Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919. The following are terms of the treaty:

The treaty can be divided into a number of sections; territorial, military, financial and general.

Territorial

The following land was taken away from Germany :

Alsace-Lorraine (given to France)

Eupen and Malmedy (given to Belgium)

Northern Schleswig (given to Denmark)

Hultschin (given to Czechoslovakia)

West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia (given to Poland). The Saar, Danzig and Memel were put under the control of the League of Nations and the people of these regions would be allowed to vote to stay in Germany or not in a future referendum.

The League of Nations also took control of Germany's overseas colonies. Germany had to return to Russia land taken in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Some of this land was made into new states : Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. An enlarged Poland also received some of this land.

Military

Germany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men; the army was not allowed tanks and not allowed an airforce. They were also allowed only 6 naval ships and no submarines

The west of the Rhineland and 50 kms east of the River Rhine was made into a demilitarised zone. No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone. The Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years.

Financial

The loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe blow to any attempts by Germany to rebuild her economy. Coal from the Saar and Upper Silesia in particular was a vital economic loss. Combined with the financial penalties linked to reparations, it seemed clear to Germany that the Allies wanted nothing else but to bankrupt her. Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to form one superstate, in an attempt to keep her economic potential to a minimum.

General

There are three vital clauses here:

1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war. This was Clause 231 the "War Guilt Clause".

2. Germany was therefore responsible for all the war damage caused by the World War 1. Therefore, she had to pay reparations, the bulk of which would go to France and Belgium to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. Quite literally, reparations would be used to pay for the damage to be repaired. Payment could be in kind or cash. The figure was not set at Versailles it was to be determined later. The Germans were told to write a blank cheque which the Allies would cash when it suited them. The figure was set at 6,600 million well beyond Germany’s ability to pay.

3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace.

The Novel of A Farewell to Arms touched on one mans experience during World War 1. There seemed to be a wonderful blend of the aspects of love and relationships and the cost of war both physically and mentally on ones phsyc.

Скачали данный реферат: Pogodov, Финагин, Яговенко, Димитрий, Zhilin, Shumov, Чмыхов, Saluhov.
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