Reparations

The treaty required Germany to pay reparations to the Allies. The eventual total was 132 billion gold marks, equivalent to about £6.6 billion. These payments added to the debts and economic damage left by the war.

Reparations were another source of tension. Stalin wanted large payments from Germany, whereas Roosevelt and Churchill were concerned about punishing Germany too harshly. Yalta was still a conference of substantial cooperation, but the peace settlement contained problems that could divide the Allies once their common enemy disappeared.

After defeat in the First Punic War, Carthage had to pay reparations to Rome. Expansion in Iberia, the peninsula containing modern Spain and Portugal, offered a way to rebuild its wealth and military strength. Its significance was therefore not simply that Carthage acquired more land: it gained resources and soldiers that could help it recover from defeat.

Clemenceau therefore wanted Germany weakened militarily and made to pay substantial reparations. He also wanted Alsace-Lorraine, which Germany had taken from France, returned. For him, lasting peace required protection against Germany, not simply promises of cooperation.