History /
Poland obliged to make war reparations to Austria and Germany after WWI. Why? [119]
Yes but they had quite a good idea that it would come about by the end,...
Actually no, they hadn't.
Germany agreed to the negotiations because of the ongoing blockade by the Brits and French but mainly because of the "Wilson's 14 points" plan to end the war and to regulate the aftermath.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points
...The Fourteen Points was a speech delivered by United States President Woodrow Wilson to a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918. The address was intended to assure the country that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe.
But what came out in Versailles was something the US/Wilson didn't agreed with what led to the pullout of the US from the "peace conference" negotiations. Germany was f*ucked!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles#United_States_rejects_Treaty
...Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany to accept sole responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248 (later known as the War Guilt clauses), to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay heavy reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers.
...and whilst I think that Zamoyski exaggerates, there in no doubt that it did happen, The Russians used a similar tactic. often the Russians and Germans used such tactics to deny each other vital resources.
That only happened once, during "Total war" in WWII.
Don't mix up the wars....both differ greatly, in ideology, reasoning, causes and execution.
And even if, a serious historians work isn't to "exaggerate" but to present objective facts and to prove them with evidence.
