Treaty of Paris (See Paris and Die)

The Treaty of Paris was between Germany and Great Britain. Italy and France were also signatories but they had much weaker negotiating power. When the treaty was made, Germany was past its zenith on the Eastern front but had experienced no setbacks in Western Europe of North Africa. German leadership realized that the war was not sustainable and the territorial gains could not be maintained.

North Africa:

At this time Germany controlled all of North Africa including Egypt. It gave Egypt back to Great Britain and pulled its forces out of Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. The removal of forces from Libya was at a slow rate and Germany was allowed to exert influence there for a few more years. In return, the German sovereignty of Tunis and the Italian sovereignty of Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti were recognized. France was not allowed to have any military presence in North Africa and the size of British forces in Egypt was limited. German and Italian merchant ships were also guaranteed passage through the Suez Canal.

Europe:

Germany agreed to a scheduled withdraw of forces from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria. German sovereignty over Denmark, Luxemburg, Poland, Lithuania, and Romania was recognized. Germany also permanently gained some formerly French territory (area east and north of the Meuse and Mosell rivers). Italy also gained a small amount of former French territory and also Albania and Greece (but it proved unable to hold Greece). Belgium and the Netherlands were demilitarized zones where no sizable army or navy was allowed to reside. Germany has right to inspection in these territories and retained considerable political influence. France was reunited but reduced in size and holdings (as mentioned above), strict limitations were placed on the size of its military and France agreed to pay reparations to Germany.

This agreement allowed Germany to move more forces to its Russian front and to cement many gains it had made in the west and south. It was, however, extremely unpopular at home. There were large scale violent protests in Munich and many other cities. The Nazi faithful tried to oust Rommel but were unsuccessful.



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