4. Drafting the treaty

Although primarily a diplomatic document, the Treaty of Versailles covered a wide range of subjects. Many of the articles of the treaty had little to do with Germany. The point was to reestablish a new world order based on a shared understanding of global ideals. However, “Drafting the treaty” explains that the core of the treaty dealt with ways to reduce the power of the new Germany—reducing its territory and its military power. The treaty’s first part dealt with Wilson’s prized League of Nations, with the remainder of Part 1 and some of Part 2 of the treaty fixing Germany’s new borders. An important part involved the setting of Germany’s reparations payments.

6. War to end war?

The world that the Treaty of Versailles left behind looked anything but peaceful. Even as the ceremonies at Versailles were taking place, the Russian Civil War was threatening to engulf Europe in a war of ideologies. “War to end war?” considers the place of the Treaty of Versailles in the history of peacemaking, the numerous problems of enforcing the terms of the treaty, and the many repercussions of the document, including the war between the Soviet Union and Poland, the failure of Germany to make reparation payments, and the American Senate’s rejection of the League of Nations. Ultimately, the treaty failed to reflect or take into account the massive changes that the war had unleashed.

2. The big three (or maybe four)

In the early months of 1919, David Lloyd George, Woodrow Wilson, and Georges Clemenceau together held as much influence over world affairs as any three men in history. They had the power to redraw borders, determine forms of government for foreign countries, and influence the destinies of people around the world. “The big three (or maybe four)” describes the views of these three men, the challenges ahead of them, and how they influenced the peace conference. It also explains the role of Italy’s prime minister, Vittorio Orlando, who also wanted a place at the negotiating table, and the input of Japan, which was keen to increase its influence in the Pacific Rim.

5. To bed, sick of life

What would happen if the Germans refused to sign the treaty? The Allies were not prepared to resume the war or to handle the possibility of a German government collapse. “To bed, sick of life” describes the doubts and fears of the Allies and the German response to the proposed Treaty of Versailles. The request of German foreign minister Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau for amendments was rejected and he returned to Berlin without any agreement. The German cabinet resigned on June 20, 1919 rather than vote in favor of accepting the treaty, but Provisional president Friedrich Ebert persuaded the National Assembly to approve it, despite the unfavorable terms, and the treaty was officially signed in Paris on June 28.

3. Ideals versus interests

“Ideals versus interests” considers the workings of the Paris Peace Conference by examining four different rationales for the shifting of post-imperial borders in Europe. Unfortunately, they often stood at cross purposes to one another. The most obvious, and most traditional, rationale would award the winners pieces of territory taken away from the losers. A second rationale, supported by Woodrow Wilson, was national self-determination, which proved maddeningly difficult to administer. The third rationale was strategic: the new states needed to have borders that they could defend and had to be able to play a role in stabilizing and balancing the postwar order. The fourth rationale was economic: the new states needed to feed themselves.

1. From war to armistice to peace conference

“From war to armistice to peace conference” outlines the events that took place from the summer of 1918, when it became clear that the Germans could not win the war, to the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, and the Paris peace conference in early 1919. It describes the attempts of Allied supreme commander Ferdinand Foch to draw up an armistice to end the military phase of the war and the tension between the generals and the politicians. Both international and domestic politics played an important role in shaping the Paris conference, with the growing threat of Bolshevism and elections in the United States and the United Kingdom threatening to complicate matters.