HKDSE History | Treaty of Versailles and the Interwar Years: tutor prep guide

HKDSE History | Treaty of Versailles and the Interwar Years: tutor prep guide | terms, reparations and the road to 1939

2026-11-01

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Students know Germany was angry but cannot say which clause caused it. This lesson sorts the terms into four columns and pairs each column with a concrete German reaction.

Objectives — Students can: (1) classify the terms as territorial, military, economic and war guilt; (2) use figures to show the scale of reparations and disarmament; (3) link the treaty to inflation in the 1920s and the Nazi rise in the 1930s.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
End of WWI	Armistice year and signing year	1918 and 1919
German republic	Name of the Weimar legislature	the Reichstag
Causal chains	How one event produces the next	through an intermediate condition

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-8 min	The peace conference	Aims of the Big Three	State the three-way split
8-22 min	Four categories	Territory, military, economy, guilt	Sort ten clauses
22-34 min	Scale in numbers	Reparations and disarmament	2200 marks per head
34-46 min	German reactions	Sign or refuse	Give two reactions
46-56 min	The chain	Inflation, depression, Nazis	Order the links
56-60 min	Exit check	Three questions marked at once	Independent work

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Terms: classify first, then memorise numbers

Territory: Alsace-Lorraine to France, a demilitarised Rhineland 50 km wide, the Saar under League control for 15 years, Danzig a free city, all colonies lost. Military: army capped at 100,000, navy 15,000, six battleships, no submarines, no air force. Economy: 1320 billion gold marks, fixed by the 1921 schedule. Guilt: Article 231 placed sole war responsibility on Germany. Once sorted, an answer has four working lines instead of a list of loose clauses.

Task: place ten clauses into the four-column table and add one German reaction per column.

Scene 2: Numbers: give the scale, not just the fact

Before 1914 the German army was about 4.5 million; after the treaty it was 100,000, roughly one in 45. 1320 billion gold marks across about 60 million people is 2200 gold marks each, at a time when a worker earned tens of marks a month. The treaty was signed on 28 June 1919 and war returned in September 1939, only 20 years later; arguing that the treaty caused the war means naming the events of those 20 years.

Task: divide the total reparations by the population and state the burden per person (2200 marks).

Scene 3: The chain from 1919 to 1939

One usable chain: heavy reparations, the 1923 occupation of the Ruhr and hyperinflation, the destruction of middle-class savings, the loss of moderate support for Weimar, the 1929 Depression, rising Nazi votes, the 1933 takeover, the tearing up of the treaty, and war in 1939. Every link needs its intermediate condition, otherwise “therefore” is a leap. Balance matters too: the treaty was harsh but not the only cause; the structural weakness of Weimar and the Depression carry equal weight.

Note: on “who was to blame”, give both treaty and non-treaty factors and say which weighed more.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Classification	Four categories	Territory, military, economy, guilt	Two examples each
Data	Scale comparison	Disarmament ratio, reparations per head	1 in 45, 2200 marks
Causation	Treaty to war	List intermediates, then order	inflation, Nazis, 1939
Evaluation	Was it fair?	Two points each side	harsh versus defensible

Sanity check (teach this): Keep the years consistent: armistice 1918, signature 1919, in force 1920, war 1939. Reparations are in gold marks, not the inflated paper marks; saying only that the army “was reduced” without a figure proves nothing.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
1320 billion marks divided by 60 million people	2200 marks each	Convert units first
Army from 4.5 million to 100,000	about 1 in 45	Divide and round
Which category does Article 231 belong to?	War guilt	Responsibility clause

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Mixing the years	Signing the treaty in 1918	“1918 was the armistice; the signing was June 1919.”
Writing only that Germany was angry	No clause named	“Say which clause angered which group.”
Skipping the chain	Treaty, therefore war	“Name inflation, the Depression, the Nazi rise.”
Wrong currency	Billion paper marks	“Gold marks, not the inflated paper marks.”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary History chapter index — All chapters
HKDSE History practice paper — International relations

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
One example from each of the four categories	territory, military, economy, guilt	All three right: move to the 1920s
The disarmament ratio	about 1 in 45	One wrong: redo the figures
Three intermediate events to 1939	inflation, Depression, Nazi rise	Two wrong: back to act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Must every clause be memorised?

No. Two or three per category is enough; classification and reaction matter more than listing.

Did the treaty directly cause WWII?

It is a major long-term cause, but the Depression and Weimar weaknesses must be included.

Why did the USA not ratify it?

The Senate opposed joining the League and being bound by collective security, so the treaty was never ratified.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.