The Treaty of Versailles: territorial and military clauses

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles — the very room where the German Empire had been proclaimed in 1871. Alsace-Lorraine, annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, was returned to France immediately and without a plebiscite, fulfilling one of France's oldest demands. The coal-rich Saar region came under League of Nations administration for fifteen years, with its output ceded to France, pending a future plebiscite on its final status. Germany ceded substantial territory to the restored Poland, including most of the province of Posen, giving Poland access to the Baltic Sea through the so-called "Polish Corridor," a strip of land that physically separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Danzig, with a predominantly German population but crucial for Polish maritime access, became a "free city" under League protection.