Several observations regarding the aftermath of "The Great War" and the Treaty of Versailles: 1) France was the most insistent of the Allies in requiring Germany to pay reparations in the aftermath of WW1. 2) All the major battles of WW1 were fought in France. So, the demand for reparations was not unusual, particularly given the enormous damage suffered by France to its territory. 3) Germany, however, had little or no internal capacity to pay for the war reparations (on this there is a very interesting study of the effects of early 20C monetarism in Germany, particularly in the aftermath of WW1 which was published by the Federal Reserve). Even in the aftermath of pegging the inflation rate in early 1921 did little to reverse this internal capacity to pay. 4) Both the United States and Britain loaned Germany considerable sums of money in the aftermath of WW1 (ie: through to 1927). Much of this money went to making the reparation payments, and the balnce (if any) to re-building the shattered German economy. Little of this money was eventually repaid. The effect, however, was that the United States and Britain were effectively underwriting and /or subsidising the payment of war reparations to France. According to AC Ross, "Churchill referred to the transactions as 'complicated idiocy'." 5) Another outcome of the Treaty of Versailles was that it redrew the frontiers of Europe so that there was a large internal displacement of Germans living as expatriates on foreign soil, particularly in relation to Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, as well as of the occupied Rhineland. This was one of the perceived "wrongs" which Germany's re-unification policies of the mid-30s sought to address (and did address). 6) It is probably true, however, that Germany was still one of the strongest, and best positioned, countries in Europe in the aftermath of WW1, despite the obvious limitations that were imposed on it in consequence of the Treaty of Versailles. For example, it remained the strongest country in Europe, particularly in terms of population, geographical spread and location, preservation of internal infrastructure, and militarily. The Treaty of Versailles did, however, bring about the forced disarmament of Germany, so the military strength was muted somewhat as a consequence of the Treaty's impact. Economically, politically and culturally, however, Germany suffered in the aftermath of WW1.
But as AC Ross explains in one of his essays on WW1:
"Her population was approximately 70 million as opposed to France’s 40 million. Obviously its future population growth would, therefore, be considerably greater than that of France. Further, German territory had escaped for the most part unscathed by the war. None of the battles were fought on its soil and there had been no invasion. Contrast this with the 18th century when France was the ruling power in Europe and was led by its brilliant First Minister, Cardinal Richelieu. He very cleverly maneuvered so that all the battles were fought on German soil. As a result, the German provinces lost 30% of its population to casualties in the 30 Years War" (source: http://www.bigelowconsulting.com/CRAweb/essay4.htm).
