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Originally Posted by Maggy J

Maybe that was because Lincoln wanted there to be peace between the two sides and any such persecution might have fuelled even more resentment...Perhaps that was something that the allies should have considered after 1918 in Europe when they decided to really scapegoat Germany. We might have avoided WW2 if they had.

Not a very good analogy Maggy. There was no side that surrendered in 1918, all that was signed was an armistice.

An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, since it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace.

Re: Treaty of Versailles

After six months of negotiations, the Allied powers decided that Germany must be stripped of all of its war-making capabilities so that the country could never commence another aggressive war again. This was done by stripping Germany of her colonial possessions and some European territory, severely restricting her military's quality and quantity, and forcing her to pay large sums in reparations. While the territorial losses and the military restrictions had already driven the proud German people to shame, the reparations clause drove them to near rage. Initial clause placed the weight of repaying 269 billion gold marks to the Allied powers; an amendment passed in Jan 1921 reduced the amount of 132 billion. Even at the reduced amount, it was an impossibly astronomical figure that would require Germany to continue paying until 1987 before the entire amount was paid off. The efforts to pay the war debts created a hyperinflation in Germany, and eventually it led to a complete economic meltdown. "The terms [of the treaty] were exorbitant, vindictive, and preposterous", said William Manchester. John Maynard Keynes did not see merit in it either, calling the peace that it promised nothing but "a Carthaginian Peace". Fellow British Winston Churchill summed up the treaty as "monstrous" and "malignant". Paul von Hindenburg, German Chief of Staff during WW1, was asked about the treaty; he responded by saying that sometimes he could not "help feeling that it were better to perish than sign such a humiliating peace."

It was in this mixture of damaged national pride and severe hardship endured by the German people that gave Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party the opportunity gain popularity. Germany, ravaged by the war, the harsh treaty, and the Great Depression, wanted to see a bright future for Germany; Hitler offered such a hope, and the German people bought into his twisted vision for a glorious German Reich.