Treaty of Versailles: livestock reparations from Germany to France and Belgium

Part VII of the Treaty of Versailles dealt with the reparations accrued by Germany as a result of the First World War. While the treaty itself avoided giving exact figures about the amount the German government owed (instead highlighting the duties of the planned Reparations Commission) it did outline some initial reparations that would later be subtracted from the final sum owed. One of these initial specifications instructed the German government to transfer thousands of heads of livestock to France and Belgium, in three monthly installments. The largest payments were for 140,000 milk cows, and 120,000 sheep, with the largest share of animals going to France.