Treaty of Versailles: German territory lost by present country| ��ƽ��

Number of present-day countries* holding territories lost by Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919

German territory/colony	Number of present-day countries
Mainland Europe	7
German New Guinea	7
German East Africa	6
German West Africa	5
German South West Africa	1
German Samoa	1
German China	1

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Release date

January 2020

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Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

June 28, 1919

Supplementary notes

* The corresponding countries are as follows:
Mainland Europe - Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland.
German New Guinea - Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands.
German East Africa - Burundi, Chad, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania.
German West Africa - Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo.
German South West Africa - Namibia.
German Samoa - Samoa.
German China - China.

Data was compiled from various sources available on the World Digital Library and Encyclopedia Britannica, in relation to Article 22 of the Treaty of Versailles and the .

Release date is date of extraction.

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The Treaty of Versailles reduced Germany's territory in Europe by approximately 13 percent, and stripped Germany of all its overseas territories and colonies. If a map of these territories is transposed on to a modern map of the world, we can see that these territories are situated in 28 modern countries. In Europe, all of this land was given to neighboring states (including Lithuania, which bordered German East Prussia at the time), with the largest areas of land being annexed by France and Poland. The Treaty of Versailles also established the Free City of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk, Poland) as a semi-autonomous city-state under League of Nations protection.

German Africa

Germany's African colonies were administered in three zones, the largest of which was German West Africa (approximately 2.7 million square kilometers), which was mostly situated in modern Cameroon and Ghana, but also included parts of modern Nigeria, Togo and the Central African Republic. After this was German East Africa (also known as Tanganyika) which primarily makes up Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania today, and also included parts of Chad, Kenya and Mozambique. The third region was German South West Africa, also known as Tanganyika, which was completely situated in what is Namibia today. Although it is difficult to know the exact parameters of Germany's African territories, it is estimated that German Africa was at least 4.5 million square kilometers (modern Germany is just over 357,000 square kilometers).

Pacific Germany

As with Africa, Germany had three separately administered territories in the Asia-Pacific region, however these territories were much smaller and spread out than the African colonies. Germany's Chinese territories were located in the Shandong Province, and their controversial transfer to Japan caused a ripple effect that was not resolved until 1922. Germany's largest Pacific territory was German New Guinea, which also administered all nearby Pacific colonies, apart from German Samoa. Following the Treaty of Versailles, all of these territories then passed into French, British or British Commonwealth control.