World War I German was defeated and ceded one-eighth of its territory, causing the Germans' proud army to be squeezed to the limit, handing over a large amount of supplies, and carrying huge compensation, but these punishments did not harm Germany's roots. On the contrary, Germany became the only European power to achieve all predetermined strategic goals.
may sound a bit incredible, but that's the truth. Why do you say so?
What is Germany launching a war? There are many reasons, but the fundamental purpose is to attack Britain, weaken Britain's world hegemony, break the British-dominated international order, and establish Germany's hegemony in Europe, so as to gain more benefits in the reallocation of European and even international interests.
Although Germany was defeated on the battlefield, from a strategic perspective, all these results were achieved.
Before the war, the two most powerful countries in Europe, Britain and France, both suffered losses and failed to win with the Americans' last last shot. After the war, Britain's world hegemony was defeated, France was in a slump, and Tsarist Russia collapsed. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was split into a series of small countries, it was still within Germany's sphere of influence. Moreover, these small countries were generally pro-Germany. Later, most of them became Nazi allies during the Second World War.
compared with the pre-war German Empire , the British native British Isles can be called "small countries", and the population of Britain was not large, and only these limited manpower, especially the essence of the ruling group, was severely consumed in the war. Thousands of people who could have been colonial officials, naval officers, diplomats, bank managers, or young people who had been traveling around the world with British Empire passports to die in trench wars.
So Britain was forced to give up a large amount of rights and interests to its "allies" around the world. On the one hand, it was exchanged for them to support themselves in winning the war. On the other hand, Britain did not have the ability and enough manpower to defend these rights and interests.
The United States regards itself as the biggest contributor to the final victory of Allied Power , and has come up with a set of new world order rules with the "4-point " plan as the core, which has collided fiercely with the British mainland's balance policy, and Britain cannot resist it at all. As a result, Britain's world hegemony was severely weakened.
As for France, the main battlefield of the Western Front, it lost 3.5% of its population in the war, and the number of injuries was several times higher, and the young and middle-aged men lost all. From 1914 to 1918, the front line always stayed in France's economically developed areas. Although France finally won, everything was in ruins in the war-torn areas, and even basic agricultural construction had to be started from scratch.
In addition, the victorious countries Italy and Japan had no deep hatred with Germany, and joining the Allies camp was nothing more than a word "profit". However, neither Italy nor Japan were able to be satisfied with the post-war division of spoils, and was no longer suppressed by Britain's maritime hegemony, gradually gaining common interests and enemies with Germany, adding powerful allies to Germany. These two German opponents in fight in and later formed a fascist camp with Germany.
Even the Soviet Union, which was reborn in the ruins of Tsarist Russia, compromised with Germany under the hostility of Britain, the United States and France.
In the era when Germany was boycotted by the European continent, the only one who secretly cooperated with Germany was the red socialist Soviet Union. The two sides signed a series of secret economic, trade and military agreements. Germany provided immeasurable technical assistance to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also allowed Germany to establish a military industrial base and an training base in its territory, helping Germany avoid the constraints of " Versailles Peace Treaty ". Although it was playing with fire, it was a win-win situation for both sides at that time, and it was a "blood transfusion" for both countries at the same time.
Overall, the punishment for Germany by " Treaty of Versailles " seems to be huge, but the compensation for those bottles and jars does not hurt Germany's roots, and the core areas of the German territory are also there. The complete heavy industry system, highly organized human resources, and a valuable elite Prussian Junker noble officer regiment were all retained, which was the fundamental basis for Germany's revival.
So, although Germany was defeated, Germany looked around. Since the era of Frederick II, Germany has discovered for the first time that there is no opponent with a heavyweight in all around it.
The defeated Germany got the actual benefits they did not gain on the battlefield. This is what international politics is worthy of fun. The truth is so incredible and so ironic.
In fact, even when people were immersed in the joy of punishing Germany, some people remained awake and realized with an advanced vision that the defeated Germany benefited from it.
For example, Jul Martin Conbang, who served as the French ambassador to Germany before World War I, warned the French citizens after the war: "Victory France must gradually get used to being a inferior power, and the French that defeated was not as good as France that was defeated during the French-Prussian War ."
French commander-in-chief Foch Seeing that the Paris Peace Conference did not kill Germany's war potential, he bluntly said: "This is not peace, this is a truce for twenty years."
Nature, as an afterthought observer, we know that Europe underestimated Germany's potential for re-emerging, and even ignored the huge strategic benefits that Germany gained as a loser. However, before 1941, this was not a problem, because the whole world underestimated Germany.
