The Best Intentions: The Paris Peace Conference | Historical Documentary

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[SmokingJoe]

The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 was to settle the terms for the end of WW I.
Wilson US, Clemenceau France, Lloyd George UK led the conference.
By the end of it, the Germans were forced to accept these terrible terms whereby Germany gave up big chunks of Germany, gave up all German colonies like Namibia, and Germany was forced to pay these reparations a lot of it to France.
These conditions essentially guaranteed the Germans would go into ear again.
No country was going to tolerate paying such high reparations to other countries at the expense of their own people for long without rebelling.
The Germans initially REFUSED to sign such a suicidal deal, leading to those officials losing power.
The replacing German government signed the bad deal after talking to the German military who told them the German military were not in a position to fight another long sustained war there and then.

Going forward to post WW II, basically America saved Europe after WW II by bringing in the Marshal Aid with hugs amounts of aid sent to help Europe rebuild, so helping Europe to avoid demand huge reparations from Germany again.
Europe owes a lot to America.

[Verginius Rufus]

If Germany had won, it would have imposed much harsher terms on their defeated enemies. They lost some land with German inhabitants to Poland to give Poland access to the Baltic Sea. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France (it was largely German-speaking but the area had been French since the days of Louis XIV). The African colonies were not very valuable compared to those held by France and Britain.

The reparations were excessive. The French are largely to blame for the harsher terms. Wilson tried to be the voice of moderation. One book on the Spanish flu epidemic argues that his bout with the flu left him physically weakened and unable to resist the French demands.

[Brian Griffin]

It is my understanding that the reparations demanded of Germany were comparable in value to the reparations demanded by Germany of France about 50 years prior that France actually paid.

[SmokingJoe]

“The reparations were excessive. The French are largely to blame for the harsher terms.”

Yep.
Pushed by Clemenceau,

[SmokingJoe]

Well reparations after reparations usually bring more wars.
Good thing they ended the reparations cycle after WW II.

[Ditto]

It was the Europeans being Europeans. Don’t expect logic or intelligence.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Germans were stung by the "war guilt" clause. They certainly deserve a lot of the blame for starting the war but the Austrians and the Russians should get some blame too. The French were understandably upset over being invaded for no good reason and wanted to weaken Germany so the Germans couldn't do the same again--but it backfired.

I think the Germans had forced France to pay reparations in 1871 but I don't remember if the amount was in any way comparable. If Bismarck had not demanded Alsace-Lorraine in the treaty of 1871 maybe France and Germany would have been on friendlier terms.

So why does one of our states have a capital named for him?

[Ditto]

In those days, Bismarck was a hero to many. He was ahead of his time in many ways.

[rxh4n1]

“So why does one of our states have a capital named for him?”

I think it was a way to get German investors interested in North Dakota or attract German emigrants.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

The Germans also lost islands in the Pacific - the Marianas, Carolines, and Marshalls. Under the League of Nations, they were given to one of the victorious countries to rule over as the “South Seas Mandate”. That country was the Empire of Japan.

[Verginius Rufus]

Guam is one of the Marianas Islands. We took that from Spain in 1898 and Spain sold the rest of the chain to Germany.