Germany finishes paying War Reparations, from WW1

[Hugo a Gogo]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518...

Germany makes the final payment on the reparations imposed under the Treaty of Versailles on Sunday

Maybe they'll give me a tax cut now

[AndrewW-G]

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 30th September 15:23

[TEKNOPUG]

AndrewW-G said:

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 30th September 15:23

I'm happy to go ahead and blame the French for 70million dead.

[ShadownINja]

AndrewW-G said:

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 30th September 15:23

Yeah, read that somewhere yesterday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/g...

Edited by ShadownINja on Thursday 30th September 15:29

[robm3]

Well served them right for saying to Austria "go on, go on then, we'll back you.." as Austria menaced Serbia.

[plasticpig]

AndrewW-G said:

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 30th September 15:23

John Maynard Keynes predicted WWII in 1919.

Keynes said:

If we aim at the impoverishment of Central Europe, vengeance, I dare say, will not limp. Nothing can then delay for very long the forces of Reaction and the despairing convulsions of Revolution, before which the horrors of the later German war will fade into nothing, and which will destroy, whoever is victor, the civilisation and the progress of our generation.

[TEKNOPUG]

It would have been very easy to nip in the bud if someone had just had the sense to call Hitler's bluff though. It was in no way inevitable.

[fido]

ShadownINja said:

AndrewW-G said:

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 30th September 15:23

Yeah, read that somewhere yesterday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/g...

Heck, we covered it in GCSE History - crippling debt repayments, strikes, Hyperinflation .. actually this sounds eerily familar.

[anonymous-user]

AndrewW-G said:

Interesting to note that in some peoples opinion, if the French hadn’t demanded such a large settlement from the Germans, World War II may not have happened

The treaty of Versailles being linked to causes of the second world war? Really?

Next people will be suggesting the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was somehow involved in the start of the first world war!

[Hugo a Gogo]

wasn't it because a bloke called Archie Duke shot an Ostrich cos he was hungry?

[grumbledoak]

Keynes was right. There weren't really two World Wars, and the French should 'man up' to some blame for Versailles.

[Ayahuasca]

One of the best selling history books in the world, 'A Little History of the World' by Sir Ernst Gombrich OM CBE, a very good read, written in 1935, tells the history of WWI from an Austro-German perpective - very different to ours. They believed they were cheated into agreeing to the Armistice.

[Pints]

When will Britain finish paying for the reparations of the empire? Latest budget shows enormous amounts of protected funds still being paid to countries who don't need it.

[Muntu]

Pints said:

When will Britain finish paying for the reparations of the empire? Latest budget shows enormous amounts of protected funds still being paid to countries who don't need it.

They should be paying us money for dragging them out of the dark ages

[TEKNOPUG]

Ayahuasca said:

One of the best selling history books in the world, 'A Little History of the World' by Sir Ernst Gombrich OM CBE, a very good read, written in 1935, tells the history of WWI from an Austro-German perpective - very different to ours. They believed they were cheated into agreeing to the Armistice.

They lost. In what way were they cheated? Spoils of war go to the victors etc...

[Ayahuasca]

TEKNOPUG said:

Ayahuasca said:

One of the best selling history books in the world, 'A Little History of the World' by Sir Ernst Gombrich OM CBE, a very good read, written in 1935, tells the history of WWI from an Austro-German perpective - very different to ours. They believed they were cheated into agreeing to the Armistice.

They lost. In what way were they cheated? Spoils of war go to the victors etc...

The gist of it was they believed that the Armistice was going to be more like a draw than a defeat.

This was the opinion of a mild-mannered Austrian academic in 1935, so you can imagine what the feeling was amongst the more extreme population.

[TEKNOPUG]

Ayahuasca said:

TEKNOPUG said:

Ayahuasca said:

One of the best selling history books in the world, 'A Little History of the World' by Sir Ernst Gombrich OM CBE, a very good read, written in 1935, tells the history of WWI from an Austro-German perpective - very different to ours. They believed they were cheated into agreeing to the Armistice.

They lost. In what way were they cheated? Spoils of war go to the victors etc...

The gist of it was they believed that the Armistice was going to be more like a draw than a defeat.

This was the opinion of a mild-mannered Austrian academic in 1935, so you can imagine what the feeling was amongst the more extreme population.

Most of the population was starving - they should have considered themselves fortunate that peace terms were agreed at all.

Militarily it could be considered a draw at the time of the cease fire but had the war continued, it only would have gone one way.

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Friday 1st October 16:00