But what they actually took was more, proportionnally speaking that what germany had to pay after WWI ( see thread above ).
Frankfurt asked for less than 10 % of Versailles in purely monetary reparations, if adjusted for inflation. This sum is even lower if one includes the new ideas of e.g. patent transfer and seizure of foreign assets (incl. the merchant marine, foreign branches of German companies like Bayer etc.) invented at Versailles.
I did some googling, and there seems to be a lack of unbiased data on how much Germany really paid. German sources claim 100+ billion marks paid. US sources average 39 billions.
So Germany seems to have paid more, corrected for inflation, even considering the size of the conflict. Keynes was mostly right in his view on Versailles IMHO; he advocated 36 billions maximum.
But I mostly care about the psychological effects, like blatant Allied violations of said treaty. Germany demanded no reparations at Brest-Litowsk ...
But destroyed the french fortification system, leaving them wide open to invasion. {SNIP} And let's not forget that Prussian troops occupied parts of France for two years after the indemnity was paid.
I am afraid You are wrong. The French fortresses were taken as a collateral, not destroyed IIRC. France created massive additional fortifications after 1871 without any German protest.
German troops already occupied parts of France and merely delayed their full withdrawal until France complied with its treaty obligations.
But Took Alsace and Moselle, as colonies.
I humbly disagree with the term ´colony´. Said territories had been occupied by France without any credible legal basis when the German Emperor was busy defending Christianity from the Turks, who were supported by the eldest daughter of the church, France.
We have no French data on the linguistic setup, but according to German data most locals spoke an admittedly strange German dialect. Listen to the locals today ... their French is weird, even after decades of massive French propaganda and reeducation.
Any territory that bases its cuisine on Sauerkraut is German!
But actually imprisonned him, instead.
Napoleon III was taken as a POW (CiC of the French Army), treated with full honors and later released - despite violations of the Laws of Warfare by his francs tireurs.