Did the Allies make a mistake at the Treaty of Versaille by forcing such harsh sanctions against Germany?
In retrospect, YES, the reparations required to be paid by Germany to the Allies was extreme. The conditions imposed upon Germany were so harsh after WW1 that it plunged the country into a depression and set the stage for Hitler’s emergence. From wikipedia. On April 29, the German delegation under the leadership of the foreign minister Ulrich Graf von Brockdorff-Rantzau arrived in Versailles. On May 7, the anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, the Germans finally received the peace conditions. Terms imposed by the treaty on Germany included partitioning a certain amount of its own territory to a number of surrounding countries, being stripped of all of its overseas colonies, particularly those in Africa, and limiting its ability to make war again was limited by restrictions on the size of its military. Because Germany was not allowed to take part in the negotiations, the German government issued a protest to what it considered to be unfair demands, and soon afterwards withdr
