Why didn't France get to dictate the terms of the treaty of versailles on their own?

>(allowing the French/Brits to survive the German offensive in 1918)

Yeah, no. By 1917 Britain and France outnumbered Germany on the western front by almost 2 to 1. Germany were never going to break through.

What's more amusing is people seem to think Germany would automatically win ww1 if they reached Paris. France were never going to surrender until they quite literally couldn't fight.

This. Only a few decades earlier they had invaded Mexico.

By 1917 the British and French were in serious financial trouble, they were essentially bankrupt, parts of the French army were on the brink of mutiny....they were headed towards a peace of exhaustion.

>France were never going to surrender until they quite literally couldn't fight.

They were reaching that point. I'm not saying they would have folded and bent over for Fritz the way they did in 1940, but they would have called for a truce, and the Germans, who themselves had been bled white by the war, would have accepted.

It's not a huge stretch to say that the American entry into the war "saved the day" (sounds cringy, but that's a direct quote from 'The Times History of the War', a british book about WWI published in 1920).

>By 1917 the British and French were in serious financial trouble

This means nothing when you realize Germany was literally starving due to the british blockade. there are reports of people quite literally starving to death in the middle of Berlin by late 1917.

>They were reaching that point. I'm not saying they would have folded and bent over for Fritz the way they did in 1940, but they would have called for a truce, and the Germans, who themselves had been bled white by the war, would have accepted.

I don't deny American food and lend lease really, really helped the allies and may have even saved them. I'm American myself. here's what's a common historical misconception:

'Germany surrendered for military related reasons'

The fact is the real reason for Germany's surrender was the German revolution started by the Kiel mutiny, the starvation imposed by the blockade and the inability to launch any more offensives due to a lack of supplies.

Germany's surrender came from internal problems, not foreign.

In the end, what really sealed Germany's doom was the day they failed to break past the marne, and the British blockade came into effect.

There were two main allied powers that won that war
France and Britain
France wanted to dismantle Germany, and Britain (having been brainwashed by the US) wanted to let it walk free of any punishment

Since the two main victors couldnt agree, something in between was done (Germany lost some lands on the East and had to pay reparation)

>Britain (having been brainwashed by the US)
Britain was historically pro-German.
Face it, the rest of the world wasn't all that butthurt about some Frenchies getting #rekt.

I love how people look at events that happened 100 years ago and apply modern levels of strength to it. The British Empire, "Brainwashed by the US" in 1918, give me a fucking break.

>since the two main victors couldn't agree
Thank you USA for ruining nationalism with your meager contributions for the next hundred years.

Why the hell are you taking his post at face value? It's retarded. He thinks the US was controlling Britain for christ's sake, how can you take somebody who thinks that seriously?

Brainwashed doesnt mean "forced to act that way", it means influenced negatively
Of course the US were irrelevant as shit, but gay ass Wilson still managed to make Britain fuck up the peace with his retarded ideas that they wanted to follow (although they couldnt completly do it because of France)

Calm your tits, Lindy
Britain is overrated anyway
The British Empire was but a paper tiger, WW1 proved it

Britain wasn't brainwashed, they had no real reason to be ferociously butthurt towards Germany like the French did.

stop watching american heroic movies, John, you're getting brainwashed by your country's ego

Britain joined because of Belgium
I know it was only an excuse, but still they should have acted like they cared about that country (and the reparations it deserved for the hellish ammount of destruction it saw)

Europeans are the easiest religion to troll

>Largest Navy on Earth
>Mobilize 8 million men
>Massive industry

Yeah, sure,

>Mobilize 8 million men

You think that's some tough shit?
Germany mobilized many more
The fact Britain had to ally with France and some other countries to barely beat lone Germany proves it wasnt a superpower in the way the US currently are

>You think that's some tough shit?
For a Naval power, it is. Most Naval powers aren't able to mobilize so many.

>The fact Britain had to ally with France and some other countries to barely beat lone Germany proves it wasnt a superpower in the way the US currently are
I never said they were.

Too bad the US can't beat fucking vietnam