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This is why America signed a separate peace with Germany in 1921

Following the failure of the calm efforts that followed the assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, Europe was immersed in the horrors of the First World War on July 28, 1914, which lasted for more than 4 years and resulted in the death and injury of more than 20 million people. Despite taking a position of neutrality for many months, the United States of America preferred to join the Allies and declare war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917, following the incident of the Zimmerman telegram.

During the month of November 1918, the German Empire collapsed after Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, to be replaced by a republic known as the Weimar Republic. With the beginning of the year 1919, the victors tended to hold international peace conferences with the aim of setting the conditions for the surrender of the losing nations.

صورة للإمبراطور الألماني فيلهلم الثاني

Portrait of German Emperor Wilhelm II

After a number of meetings at the Versailles Conference, the victors reached For an agreement with Germany, known as the “Treaty of Versailles”, in which Germany pledged to pay compensation to the victors, give up part of its territory and reduce the size of its military arsenal. With his acceptance of everything that came during the meetings, US President Woodrow Wilson went to present the “Treaty of Versailles” to the US Congress, only to encounter the Senate’s rejection of it. The members of the upper house of the American Parliament, i.e. the Senate, affirmed their categorical rejection of the idea of ​​the United States of America joining the League of Nations, which Wilson demanded to create, preferring to keep their country away from European affairs.

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Portrait of US President Wilson

As a result of what happened, the American and German sides headed to discuss a separate peace agreement to end the state of war between them. On July 2, 1921, US President Warren G. Harding signed the Knox–Porter Resolution, which was passed by the US Congress and formally ended the US intervention in World War I.

صورة للرئيس الأميركي وارن هاردنغ
Portrait of US President Warren Harding

Subsequently, the American and German sides signed in Berlin on August 25, 1921 an agreement, called the “Treaty of the United States of America and Germany to Restore Friendly Relations,” which was ratified by Congress and the American President within a month. October of the same year.

Under this agreement, Germany committed itself to granting the United States of America all the privileges and rights obtained by the rest of the victorious countries and determined the “Treaty clauses” of Versailles that would apply to the American side.

عنوان بإحدى الصحف الأميركية حول المعاهدة الأميركية الألمانية
A headline in an American newspaper about US-German Treaty صورة للإمبراطور الألماني فيلهلم الثاني

Moreover, this agreement laid the foundation stone for US-German cooperation outside the League of Nations. During the following period, the United States of America began providing a number of aids to the newly created Republic of Germany to help it bear the burdens of the Versailles Treaty. Also, diplomatic relations gradually returned between the two parties, coinciding with the Americans’ agreement to send an ambassador to Berlin.

During the following months, the Germans and the Americans concluded a second agreement in which they pledged to establish a mixed commission to determine the value of the compensation that Germany would provide to the United States of America.

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