the historical link between the treaty drawn up in 1871 and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and demonstrate why?

Question

the historical link between the treaty drawn up in 1871 and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles and demonstrate why the French were so revengeful.

Answer 1

In the 1871 Treaty that established peace between Prussia and France, it was France that was forced to surrender the towns of Alsace-Lorraine. This angered the French and from 1871 French policy was based on 'revanche' or revenge to gain those towns back from Prussia (Now the German Empire).

In 1919, The Prussians or German Empire were defeated by the Allies of the Triple Entente. France made it clear that Germany would have to restore the territories of Alsace-Lorraine back under French control. France also was very hard in exacting revenge on Germany through its demands that Germany pay for reparations.

The French never forgot the humiliation of 1871 or the suffering when Prussia laid siege to Paris, cutting off supplies such as food, resulting in starvation and deprivations.

Answer 2

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1 resulted in the complete defeat of France at the Battle of Sedan, the overthrow of the Emperor Louis Napoleon III, the siege of Paris, and the rise and suppression of the Paris Commune. On top of that, the Germans demanded cession of the border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. Also, the Germans occupied France for some time. To ice the cake, the Prussians went to the palace of the former French kings at Versailles and used the Hall of Mirrors there to proclaim the unification of Germany under the King of Prussia, who thus became Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Ironically, the Germans struck in the same way in both wars. In 1870, knowing that Prussia would soon go to war with France, the Prussian commander Helmut von Moltke told the general staff to estimate how long it would take France to mobilize. The staff reported 20 days. von Moltke told the staff to plan for Prussian mobilization in 19 days. In the event, Prussia was mobilized and crossing the French border in 19 days. It took France 21 days to complete mobilization.

In 1914, according to the Schlieffen plan, Germany was mobilized and crossing neutral Belgium to attack the French in the far west where they least expected.

To get an idea of French feeling about all these things, read a 19th century short story called "Ball of Fat," by Guy de Maupassant. It is a bitterly ironic story about life under the Prussian occupation.