But you're leaving out various post-WWI details, like how the strictures of Versailles were weakened, how some of the victors ... actually, didn't entirely buy into it to begin with, and/or significantly softened their stances after a while. The US post-Wilson, the U.K., and even Soviet Russia, while not a signatory, engaged in significant cooperation with Weimar and later Nazi Germany (after all, the German defeat of Imperial Russia was a necessary precursor to their capture of the country, and their attempt to gain territory to the west was stopped in Poland). After all, Germany was given enough breathing space to rearm and try again, both before and after Hitler's rise to power.

While I'll agree the desire for conciliation was much strong, on the other hand, the harshness of the occupation, the severe losses of wealth ... I too have Southern roots, my mother is Cajun, and one story in her family history is how a great-great or so grandmother kept the Damn Yankees from stealing the family horse by wrapping her arms around its neck and just not letting go. The South indeed started from a lower base, and was sufficiently knocked down that a new war was not in the cards, on the other hand, resistance to the military occupation was also harsh and didn't end until it ended.

Some don't count overall conciliation and reintegration to have been completed until 1994, when the Republican capture of the Congress included hitherto unseen gains for the party in the South.

And let me emphasize, as I noted to masklinn, I'm not focusing on the winners except as that is relevant to the losers.