This meant that Germany lost vast amounts of land in Africa (over 4.5 million square kilometers also linking several of Britain's colonies, which now stretched continuously from Egypt to South Africa), as well as all Asian and Pacific colonies (over 250,000 square kilometers), bringing an end to Germany's overseas empire. The end of the Second Reich Part IV of the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of all overseas possessions, and distributed them primarily between Britain and France as League of Nations mandates (along with all former Ottoman territories). In addition to changing borders, five of Germany's major rivers were made international, and were regulated by international committees, of which German representatives never made a majority. Smaller areas were also ceded to other neighboring nations, which meant that millions of ethnic Germans became minorities overnight. We are still finding unexploded ordinance from the battle in some communities. Gun shells, chemicals, and more made some of the farmland unusable for decades. These treaties stripped the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary, joined by Ottoman Turkey and Bulgaria) of substantial territories and imposed significant reparation payments. The fighting entirely destroyed some areas of Belgium and France. After the devastation of World War I, the victorious western powers imposed a series of harsh treaties upon the defeated nations. The area of Alsace-Lorraine was annexed by France, who Germany had taken it from in 1870, and the coal-rich area of the Saar (Saarland) was under a French-led League of Nations control. Over 9 million people died, with Germany and Russia suffering the most losses. Poland was given a "route to the sea" that separated Eastern Prussia from the rest of Germany, and this "route" also included Danzig (GdaĆsk), which was made a "free city" under the League of Nations' administration. The First World War and Its Aftermath WHEN THE WAR broke out in 1914, Italy was, and since 1882 had been, an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary. In Europe, Germany seceded territory to seven countries in total, including Czechoslovakia, Lithuania and Poland, none of which existed as independent states before the First World War. In mainland Europe, Germany's borders shrank, reducing the country's size by approximately 65,000 square kilometers, and roughly 7 million people (13 and 12 percent of their respective totals).The loss of all of this territory also meant that Germany's industrial and agricultural output was drastically affected, particularly iron output, of which Germany lost 48%. Parts II and III of the Treaty of Versailles dealt with Germany's territorial losses as a result of the First World War.
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