The final act of the long-drawn-out negotiations took place at Versailles on Saturday afternoon, and to-day Germany and the Allies - always with the exception of America - are at peace. Peace is a blessed word, and both the word and the fact are welcome to-day. So far as Germany is concerned there is for the present an end of strife, and at least a formal return to the decent relations of civilised states.

Editorial: Peace in force (12 January 1920)

The Guardian

(i) Mention any three causes of the World War which ended with the signing of the treaty being discussed in the passage above.

(ii) Name the organization which was established in 1920 to maintain peace after this war. Mention any two of its objectives.

(iii) Mention any four clauses of the Treaty which affected Germany.

(i) Three causes that led to the World War I were as follows-

1. Race for Armaments — Germany had acquired colonies in Africa and a few islands in the Pacific. In order to protect her colonies Germany began to build a powerful navy. The Germans dug the Kiel Canal deeper so that battle ships could find shelter in its waters. There was an arms race and the peculiar feature of such a race is that if one country increases its armaments, other countries are compelled to do the same. Such a race for armaments could end only in a war.
2. Division of Europe into two armed camps — In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary had signed a Treaty to help each other in case of enemy attack. Three years later Italy joined the Pact, which came to be known as the Triple Alliance. As opposed to the Triple Alliance emerged the Triple Entente comprising Britain, France and Russia in 1907 to control German expansionism. Thus, Europe was divided into two major camps. The suspicions, fears, rivalry and enmity between the two camps was a major step towards World War I.
3. Sarajevo Crisis — The immediate cause of the war was the murder of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, on June 28, 1914 by a Serbian at Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia. The assassination was organised by a secret society called 'Black Hand' or 'Union of Death' formed by extremist Serbian nationalists.

(ii) The League of Nations was created as a world organisation of all independent States in 1920, to maintain peace after World War I.

Two objectives of the League of Nations:

1. The member-States were not supposed to maintain huge armies, warships and destructive armaments.
2. All States were to refer their mutual disputes, if any, to the League of Nations for a peaceful settlement.

(iii) The Treaty of Versailles was signed to prevent Germant from going to war again. So, its terms were extremely harsh and humiliating towards Germany.

1. The Treaty declared Germany guilty of aggression.

2. Germany was required to pay for the loss and damages suffered by the Allies during the war. The amount of reparations was fixed at 33 billion dollars. Germany had to cede her merchant ships to the Allies as compensation and had to supply huge quantities of coal to France, Italy and Belgium for ten years.

3. The coal mines in the German area called Saar were ceded to France for 15 years and the area was to be governed by the League of Nations.

4. The German Army was restricted to a force of 1,00,000 soldiers and the Navy was limited to 15,000 men and 24 ships. The Air Force and submarines were banned.