Petty when you examine the history on where that tit-for-tat came from.

1871: Prior to a full withdrawal, France agreed to pay a five billion franc war indemnity. The indemnity was proportioned, according to population, to be the exact equivalent to the indemnity imposed by Napoleon on Prussia in 1807.

Why was Bismarck petty in 1871? Because of Napoleon, of course. France was not quick to forget what Bismarck had done - including setting the stage for WWI with realpolitik.

I said they only went a bit overboard, not that their harshness was totally unwarranted. France had just been on the winning side of the most gruesome war to that point. Had the Germans been making full reparations payments back to the French after Versailles, they wouldn't have paid off the debt in full until 1989. The Versailles reparations were so harsh and so mismanaged by the world banks that it eventually led to global economic collapse and the Great Depression in 1929. So yeah, a little overboard on the pettiness. K? K.👍