This is something I've been genuinely questioning a lot lately. Granted, Versailles would definitely play a role in leading to World War II...but was it really that much harsher than other treaties in that same general time period? I get the desire for revenge that came before(in the case of France, with the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War), and after(in the case of Germany), and I most certainly see both sides' arguments for why they supported/rejected a harsh peace, given the scale of destruction that occurred, but was it really as draconian as some say it is, or was it just the latest 'Carthaginian Peace' that had been enforced on the loser, and not that unique?
And on another note, a trend I've noticed is that between 1618 and 1914, only a few of the 'General European Wars' in that time, the ones that drew in most of the major nations, ended in a true victory for one side, with most of them seeing one side or the other getting more or less at the peace deal:
1. Thirty Years War(1618-1648): Could be considered a victory for Protestant forces, but none of the major combatants were really close to complete collapse, and each retained their position as a major power for at least another half century. Was ended by the Peace of Westphalia.
2. Franco-Dutch War(1672-1678): Some French gains, but for the most part, they were unable to achieve most of their goals, including the conquest of the Netherlands. Ended by treaties and negotiations.
3. Great Turkish War(1683-1699): Austrian Victories in battle, coupled with the decline of the Ottomans after the fact, makes this one a definite exception to the trend, though it's placement here is iffy.
4. Nine Years' War(1688-1697): Large scale battles and sieges, but surprisingly little changes to the actual political situation. Sure, the Coalition prevented the French from expanding massively, but French supremacy remained intact.
5. War of Spanish Succession(1701-1714): The preservation of German and Dutch borders in Germany was offset by the loss and partition of the Spanish Empire, so a true victor is again, hard to define.
6. Great Northern War(1701-1721): This is a definite exception, as Sweden's power was shattered by Russia and it's allies, with the Tsar's new empire reaching great power status.
6. War of the Austrian Succession(1740-1748): The only real winner here was Prussia, but France and Austria remained great powers on the continent.
7. Seven Years' War(1754/1756-1763): In essence two wars fought at the same time(France vs Britain and Prussia vs Austria and Russia), the British were able to break French power in North America, but on the continent itself, each major combatant remained intact, and a recognized player in Europe. No territory, again, changed hands there.
8. French Revolutionary Wars/Napoleonic Wars(1792-1815): This is an interesting case, as the French won most of the wars, up until the very final ones. However, the system France enforced after their victories would collapse, and the system the allies enforced after their victories would persist, at least for a time. Even so, the victors were not as harsh as they might have been, or one would expect them to be. France remained a major power in Europe.
9. World War I(1914-1918): The Allies defeated Germany on the battlefield and in terms of logistics, but weren't invading Germany itself by the end of the fighting. Thus, as far as the German populace, even if they were suffering from starvation, knew in the tightly controlled, highly militarized environment of the time, they were 'stabbed in the back', as the obvious signs of defeat weren't being reported to them.
In a nutshell, I believe the previous system of relatively lenient terms, combined with the lack of obvious signs that they were so close to defeat, is what really led to how Versailles is remembered today. By the standards of how most major European Wars ended in previous centuries, it was undeniably harsh, but then again, none of the previous wars were at the scale World War I was. And of those conflicts, the only conflict that I could see holding a case as being as destructive was the Thirty Years War...which was exactly 300 years in the past WHEN World War I ended, and even so, it ended in a relatively lenient manner.
