When reparations were forced on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, this demonstrated that the Allies wanted to punish Germany and keep it weak (ANSWER).
After the WW I ended with the victory of the Allies, the latter didn't hesitate to punish Germany severely. The terms outlined in the treaty aimed to weaken Germany's economy and prevent it from never again pose a military threat to the rest of Europe.
It did so by establishing a series of measures in the treaty that made Germans the responsible for the war, demanded them to pay for reparations, to cede the territories they had obtained during the war, to restrict its army to 100,000 men, to eliminate the general staff, the manufacture of armored cars, tanks, submarines, airplanes, and poison gas was, among others restrictions.