Elsewhere in the room, the Russian delegates have similar incentives to make sure Germany and its allies (who have already been dealt with in separate treaties) are unable to arm themselves in the future. Having entered the war as the Russian Empire, that country has since undergone internal upheaval two years prior to this meeting and the delegates now represent the newly formed Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, soon to be re-named the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The British and French delegates want blood, figuratively speaking. Though Britain never suffered an invasion during the war, they have sustained heavy casualties. Loss of life can be measured in terms of percentages in even the least populated counties of the British Empire, including territorial and colonial holdings such as India, Canada, and South Africa. Reparations, particularly from Germany, are first on their list of demands.
France wants much more than reparations. The delegates from the country where the armistice is currently being negotiated intend to cripple Germany, particularly in the realm of economics. France is the only country represented at the conference table that shares a border with Germany, and the citizens along that border have made it known they will not soon forget the atrocities committed by the Kaiser’s troops. France has also sustained the heaviest casualties of any of the allies. When the demand of a creation of a neutral state in the Rhineland (to act as a buffer between France and Germany) is not met, the French then produce a lengthy list of demands that include reparations that everyone in the room knows with certainty Germany will never be able to repay. But as far as the French are concerned, that is the point.
The German delegates, those three who least want to be in the room at the time, offer up token protests regarding some of the demands, then refuse to sign the treaty upon instruction from the head of the newly formed Weimar Republic (even the name ‘Germany’ is prohibited from being in the title of the conquered country), Phillip Scheidemann. Under pressure from his own citizens, Scheidemann prefers to resign rather than sign the treaty.
The allies are incensed. In a telegram to Berlin, the United States, The United Kingdom and France threaten to invade across the Rhine, while the Russians promise to attack from the east if the treaty is not signed within 24 hours. The Weimar Republic hastily appoints a new Prime Minister and rushes off a telegram assuring those at Versailles that it will be signed upon his arrival.
The following day, the 28th of June, 1919, the end of the Great War is officially announced when the treaty is signed. The Weimar Republic immediately plunges into a severe economic depression. Soviet Russia and the United States ascend to the same level of socio-political power as the major heads of Europe, and though they are not directly at odds with each other, the time when they will come into mutual conflict is inevitable. Both France and Britain begin to collect reparations. If they are not paid, then assets are seized or frozen. The French will take some territory along its border with Germany.
And though seemingly no one knows it (some scholars warn that the impositions on Germany are too harsh and could spark another conflict), the seeds have been planted that will eventually blossom into the Second World War.