How Did Germany Deserve The Treaty Of Versailles

In January 1919 leaders from the Allied countries met in Paris to decide on the peace terms they would offer to the central powers. Twenty- seven victorious Allied powers were present , but the meetings were dominated by the ‘Big Three’ Britain, France and USA. Russia was not present because she was not trusted after the Bolshevik Revolution of November 1917 and had already made peace with Germany.The treaty of Versailles was created to cripple Germany so that they could not start another war. One side of the argument is that the Treaty was extremely unfair to Germany, as it took away some of her most valuable assets and fueled nationalism. However, the other side of the argument is that as Germany caused a lot of damage, she deserved to be punished and also some historians say the Treaty of Bolshevik, which was given to Russia was way worse.
This seemed harsh when linked to the other economic problems that Germany was experiencing. The payments were around 5% of the national income. As Germany could not afford to pay this, they had to borrow a lot of money from America. In addition, they had to import raw materials, which lead to a balance of payments deficit. This caused currency decline and inflation. Despite this, others believed that Germany deserved to take the full blame for the war and therefore should pay for all the damage caused. Furthermore, as Germany originally created the principle of paying reparations and had previously imposed reparations on France after the 1870 war, many groups thought that it was only fair for them to also have to pay. In addition, many people believed that the reparations were fair as the amount was changed to a more reasonable figure in