What effect is accomplished by the authors choice to put this paragraph at the beginning of the stroy?

after the signature of the treaty of versailles in june 1919, germany lost nearly 25,000 square miles and a population of 7 million people. these territories included eupen-malmedy area and moresnet which were ceded to belgium. regarding relations with france, germany ceded the sovereignty of the saar coal mines to this country, as well as the provinces of alsace-lorraine.

explanation:

remember, the goal of an adjective clause is to add more information to a noun or a pronoun. as you can see from the examples above, you can add information by including a longer adjective clause or tighten up a sentence by turning the adjective clause into an adjective phrase.