Editing World War I reparations (section)

==Background==
[[File:A view of the ruins of Avocourt, situated just behind the American trenches before the Allied drive of September 26... - NARA - 530763.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A view of a ruined town.|[[Avocourt]], 1918, one of the many destroyed French villages where reconstruction would be funded by reparations]]

===Course of the war===
In 1914, following the [[Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand|assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand]] by a Serb nationalist, the [[World War I|First World War]] broke out, with Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia, and Germany declaring war on and invading France and Belgium. For the next four years fighting raged across [[European theatre of World War I|Europe]], the [[Middle Eastern theatre of World War I|Middle East]], [[African theatre of World War I|Africa]], and [[Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I|Asia]].{{sfn|Simkins|Jukes|Hickey|2003|p=9}} On 8 January 1918, United States President [[Woodrow Wilson]] issued a statement that became known as the [[Fourteen Points]]. In part, this speech called for Germany to withdraw from the territory it had occupied and for the formation of a [[League of Nations]].{{sfn|Tucker|Roberts|2005|p=429}}<ref>[[s:Fourteen Points Speech|Fourteen Points Speech]]</ref> During the fourth quarter of 1918, the [[Central Powers]] began to collapse.{{sfn|Beller|2007|pp=182–195}} In particular, Austria-Hungary collapsed putting southern Germany at risk of invasion, Turkey surrendered freeing up Allied troops for action elsewhere, the German military was decisively defeated on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], and the German navy [[Kiel mutiny|mutinied]], all of which prompted domestic uprisings that became known as the [[German Revolution of 1918–19|German Revolution]].{{sfn|Simkins|2002|p=71}}{{sfn|Tucker|Roberts|2005|p=638}}{{sfn|Schmitt|1960|p=101}}

Germany signed an armistice with the allies on 11 November 1918. The armistice agreement included an agreement to pay "reparation for damage done" to the Allied countries.<ref name="Martin 273-274" />

===Allied damages===
Most of the war's major battles occurred in France and Belgium, with both the [[Zone rouge|French countryside]] and Belgian countryside being heavily scarred in the fighting. Furthermore, in 1918 during the German retreat, German troops devastated France's most industrialized region in the north-east ([[Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin]]) as well as Belgium. Extensive looting took place as German forces removed whatever material they could use and destroyed the rest. Hundreds of mines were destroyed along with railways, bridges, and entire villages. [[Prime Minister of France]] [[Georges Clemenceau]] was determined, for these reasons, that any just peace required Germany to pay reparations for the damage it had caused. Clemenceau viewed reparations as a way of weakening Germany to ensure it could never threaten France again.{{sfn|Slavicek|2010|pp=41–43, 58}}{{sfn|MacMillan|2003|p=202}} His position was shared by the French electorate.{{sfn|Brezina|2006|p=20}} Reparations would also go towards the reconstruction costs in other countries, including Belgium, which were also directly affected by the war.{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|p=14}} Despite domestic pressure for a harsh settlement, British [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]] [[David Lloyd George]] opposed overbearing reparations. He argued for a smaller sum, which would be less damaging to the German economy with a long-term goal of ensuring Germany would remain a viable economic power and trading partner. He also argued that reparations should include war pensions for disabled veterans and allowances for war widows, which would reserve a larger share of the reparations for the [[British Empire]].{{sfn|Slavicek|2010|p=44}}{{sfn|Brezina|2006|p=21}}{{sfn|Yearwood|2009|p=127}} Wilson opposed these positions and was adamant that no indemnity should be imposed upon Germany.{{sfn|Martel|2010|p=272}}

Damages in France and Belgium included the complete demolition of more than 300,000 houses in German-occupied France, the stripping of more than 6,000 factories of their machinery and the smashing of textile industry in Lille and Sedan, the destruction of nearly 2,000 breweries, the blowing up of 112 mineshafts in [[Roubaix]] and [[Tourcoing]], the flooding or blocking-off of more 1,000 miles of mine galleries, the ripping up of more than 1,000 miles of railway, the dropping of more than 1,000 bridges, as well as the looting of churches. German wartime requisitions of farm animals imposed on the civilian population within occupied France and Belgium included roughly 500,000 head of cattle, approximately 500,000 head of sheep, and more than 300,000 head of horses and donkeys. In cleaning up after the war, the French authorities had to remove over 3 hundred million metres of barbed wire and fill in more than a quarter of a billion cubic metres of trenches, with much farmland rendered essentially useless for years after the war due to [[Unexploded ordnance|unexploded ordinance]] and contamination by poison gas that continued to leak from buried gas-cylinders which had to be removed.<ref name="Martin 273-274">{{cite book |last1=Gilbert |first1=Martin |author1-link=Martin Gilbert |editor1-last=Taylor |editor1-first=AJP |editor1-link=AJP Taylor |title=History of World War 1 |date=1974 |publisher=Octopus Books |isbn=0706403983 |pages=273–274}}</ref>

Allied losses of civilian shipping at sea due to the primarily-German U-boat campaign had also been severe, particularly for Britain. Nearly 8 million tons of British civilian shipping had been sunk by German U-boats, with many civilian crew killed. France, Italy, and the United States of America had lost another 2 million tons of merchant shipping, again with heavy losses amongst crew. Another 1.2 million tons of neutral Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish shipping had also been sunk. The sinking of five British hospital ships also caused considerable bitterness.<ref name="Martin 273-274" />

===Versailles===
The [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] opened on 18 January 1919, aiming to establish a lasting peace between the Allied and Central Powers.{{sfn|Slavicek|2010|p=37}} Demanding compensation from the defeated party was a common feature of peace treaties, including the [[Treaty of Versailles (1871)|Treaty of Versailles]] that Germany had imposed on France in 1871.{{sfn|Bell|1997|p=22}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=A.J.P.|title=Bismarck: The Man and the Statesman|publisher=Hamish Hamilton|year=1988|page=133|isbn=0-241-11565-5}}</ref> However, the financial terms of treaties signed during the peace conference were labelled reparations to distinguish them from [[Punitive damages|punitive settlements]] usually known as [[Indemnity|indemnities]]. Reparations were intended for reconstruction and compensating families who had been bereaved by the war.{{sfn|Weinberg|1994|p=14}} The opening article of the reparation section of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], [[Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles|Article 231]], served as a legal basis for the following articles, which obliged Germany to pay compensation{{sfn|Marks|1978|p=231}} and limited German responsibility to civilian damages. The same article, with the signatory's name changed, was also included in the treaties signed by Germany's allies.{{sfn|Marks|1978|pp=231–232}}