• Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    72
    ·
    20 days ago

    The Treaty of Versailles was the treaty that ended WW1. It required Germany to pay huge reparations to the rest of Europe.

    Trump just signed the Memorandum of Understanding that “should” lead to the end of the war with Iran. And the US is required to pay huge reparations to them.

    It’s a bit “on-the-nose”.

    • Tommelot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      43
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      20 days ago

      Please note that historians consider the treaty of Versailles with her ‘unrealistic’ reperations a core contributor to WW2.

      • Plauditecives@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        36
        ·
        20 days ago

        The treaty was played up by Nazi Germany for political reasons and as such is often mentioned as one of the reasons for Germany to start the war. In practice the reparations asked of Germany where significantly less than what France had to pay as reparations for the 1870 war.

        German economy was in a much worse state after 1929 than France was in the later half of the 19th century, making it a heavier burden. But that’s not due to the treaty itself.

        French Marechal Foch famously said of the treaty «It’s not peace, it’s an armistice for 20 years ! ». They already knew at the time that it was not enough to significantly impact Germany.

        • ohulancutash@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          19 days ago

          France had wanted the reparations set so high that it would permanently destroy any German economic prospects. Britain and the US had to restrain them, which may explain why Foch was even more hysterical than is usual for the French.

      • Miaou
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        19 days ago

        To be clear, it was a contributing factor as much as the “evil Jews destroy our country” was. Meaning, it was a propaganda tool, but otherwise completely untrue.

        The fact that Germany’s economy went down the drain during the Great Depression is quite obviously because of said economic collapse, but the propaganda machine was running full speed, and never really stopped

      • NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        20 days ago

        It would not remotely surprise me if the US is upset at the debt incurred from this and decides to start a war because of perceived unfair treatment