Saarland summary

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Saarland , or Saargebiet, State (pop., 2002 est.: 1,066,470), southwestern Germany. It has an area of 992 sq mi (2,569 sq km). The capital, Saarbrücken, lies along the Saar River. The region was contested by France and Germany from the 17th century until 1815, when France ceded most of it to Prussia by the Treaty of Paris. When Alsace-Lorraine was added to the German Empire in 1871, the Saar ceased to be a boundary state and developed rapidly as a coal-mining and industrial area, producing iron and steel. French military forces occupied it after World War II, but it was restored to West Germany and became a state in 1957.

Treaty of Versailles Summary

Treaty of Versailles, peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and associated powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on January 10, 1920. A brief treatment of the Treaty of Versailles follows. For full

Germany Summary

Germany, country of north-central Europe, traversing the continent’s main physical divisions, from the outer ranges of the Alps northward across the varied landscape of the Central German Uplands and then across the North German Plain. One of Europe’s largest countries, Germany encompasses a wide