The British once again experienced the bitterness of standing alone on the European continent. This was different from their former glorious isolation—this time, everyone had joined forces to target them.
From the Germans' standpoint, their actions were entirely correct. Since they could not win, of course they had to cut their losses in time.
There had never been any notion of fighting to the bitter end on the European continent. By admitting defeat early, the Germans paid a far smaller price than they had at the same point in history.
There were no major changes militarily; they were all restricted, in fact even more harshly than before. Yet in terms of national sovereignty, Germany had not been carved apart.
So what if the Electorate was restored? It was a tradition of the German lands, and it had never lacked supporters.
The new reparations plan was far more rational than the previous one: no less than 30 percent of fiscal revenue, and no less than 30 percent of the German government's annual currency issuance.
Everyone had grown wiser. This time, they accepted only cash. Reparations were to be settled in Lev and gold; no one chose German industrial products directly as war reparations.
The specific amount of reparations was still being calculated, but the bottom line for payment had already been set and did not exceed the Germans' capacity to pay.
From this perspective, even though they had lost this war, the Germans had not come away empty-handed. As the defeated side, they had earned everyone's respect through their strength and secured terms more lenient than those of the Versailles System.
Having paid the price of several million lives for such treatment, whether they had lost or gained from it was a question only they themselves could likely answer.
Outskirts of