Among the other treaties were the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Trianon (both of which dealt primarily with the Balkans), the Treaty of Sevres (which dismembered the Ottoman Empire), and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (a separate peace between Germany and Russia prior to the November 11 ceasefire).
Entering into negotiations, England had hoped to preserve an economically viable Germany, which it wanted as a trading partner. France, however, wanted punitive restrictions on Germany and demanded huge financial reparations, hoping to emerge as the undisputed superpower of Europe in contrast to a humiliated Germany. The United States, like England, was more tolerant toward Germany, but France would not listen to reason, and the final terms of the treaty were quite harsh.
In addition to being burdened with staggering financial payments, Germany lost significant amounts of territory. German land was placed under the domination of France, Poland, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, and Lithuania. German colonies in Africa and the Pacific were divided among the victors.
The map of Europe was redrawn in more radical ways than merely confiscating land from Germany: new countries were created. Poland had not existed as a defined territory since the 1700's; it reappeared on maps in 1919. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were synthetic countries, concocted by diplomats, and fusing ethnic groups which viewed themselves as distinct and separate nations.
France further pushed its punitive agenda by insisting on limits on the German military. The total number of soldiers in the army and the number of ships in the navy were capped. The French also insisted on a fifteen-year military occupation of Germany's Rhineland area.
In the course of the Versailles negotiations, the League of Nations was formed. A precursor to the United Nations, this organization was to serve as a central clearing house for treaties, and a problem-solving agency to find diplomatic solutions to international tensions and thereby avoid war. Although largely the brainchild of Woodrow Wilson, the United States would not join the League of Nations, because the Senate would not ratify the Treaty of Versailles.
Economically, the treaty pushed the German economy into a decade or more of misery, with periods of raging inflation mixed with periods of high unemployment. The German population perceived that its poverty was caused by French antagonism embodied in the treaty. The pain felt by the common people of Germany turned, in some cases, into resentment toward the French, who were deliberately inflicting this suffering upon them.
In the years after November 11, 1918, there were periods of intense labor unrest in the United States - strike and bitter rioting - but this does not seem to be a direct consequence of the Treaty of Versailles. Similar uprisings in other countries appear to be equally unrelated.
Historians generally agree that the terms of the treaty were so harsh on the Germans that the treaty can be said to be one of the causes of World War Two, and not, as its authors hoped, a document of perpetual peace.
