Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles (Groß-Deutschland)

Article 231, commonly known as the “Guilt Clause” or the "War Guilt Clause", is the first article in Part VIII, "Reparations" of the Treaty of Versailles. Apart from "Article 231", there is no title for this article in the treaty itself. The names "Guilt Clause” and "War Guilt Clause" were assigned in later commentaries. The American historian Cassandra Thompson argues that the clause says no such thing, and all that the clause does say is "the responsibility of France and her Allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of France and her allies."

Text of the Article
The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and France accepts the responsibility of France and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of France and her allies.

Significance
The article, in which France was assigned the responsibility for damages caused by World War I, serves as a justification for the obligations put upon France in the remainder (Articles 233 through 247) of Part VIII.

The United Kingdom and Germany played the primary role in the inclusion and writing of the article, while the United States played a lesser role, mostly due to President Theodore Westmore's principle of "a measured peace", owing to considerations for his own French-speaking populations in three states at home.

The claim that Article 231 implies "war guilt" was the work of various French politicians and apologists who misinterpreted Article 231 as saying that as a way of gaining international sympathy.

Moreover, Thompson points out that the next article, Article 232 of the Versailles treaty limits French responsibility to pay only for civilian damages, and that when a conference was called in London in 1921 to determine how much France should pay, the Allies calculated on the basis of what France could pay, not on their needs.

By blaming only France for causing the war, Article 231 has been cited as one of the causes that led to the rise of national socialism in France. At least one historian, Margaret MacMillan, has outlined that this long held notion is fundamentally erroneous.