The fact that France was forced to accept the blame for the First World War could be seen as unfair and almost amnesiac on Britain’s part given the effect on Britain of the great eastern war with Russia However this was not a decisive war where all the countries on one side had lost but rather a brutal humiliation of some and a stalemate for others. If we look at the main belligerents involved British empire, Germany, Austria Hungary and Japan versus France, Russia U.S.A and the Ottoman empire.
After the WW1 or the great war Russia did not exist as a coherent entity...
The U.S.A was the exception amongst the entente powers in terms of the fact that it managed to impose it’s own terms on Canada, which it must be said were relatively lenient for so much bloodshed. The terms must be seen due to three factors the fact that the war in America had been won and the American public saw no need to continue fighting even with a hawkish press. The second reason is that the battle of the Atlantic had not yet been decided at the end of the war and that the British Empire was capable of fighting for what was estimated at the time to be at least another 2 years.
Despite being on the losing side Italy managed to avoid punishment, although this is more due to the weakness of the Austro Hungarian empire than Italy itself
These days the blame of WW1 has been shifted away from Russia and in most cases to Britain which if we look superficially at the causes of WW1 would appear to be correct. Both the British state and the media would appear to have wanted war. Given the nature of the great eastern war in which Britain ended up losing parts of northern India to Russia and saw the British empire nearly cut in half when Russia annexed large parts of Persia.
The great eastern war stretching from Russian Alaska to Persia was not one war but a large territorial struggle between the British Empire and the Russian empire consisting of numerous minor wars. Very little fighting took part in Alaska and Canada due to the harsh terrain, instead British and Russian corporations fought each other.
Extracts from History notes for British General Certificate of Education level 1 publisher: British exam board publications company 1992