Diplomatic History of Europe 1500 - 2000 | The Paris Settlement (Lecture 27)

Lecture 27: After four years of devastating war, the victors of World War I gathered in Paris in 1919 for a grand diplomatic conference to draft a comprehensive settlement and create a new international order replacing that of the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Many factors were involved: the strong personalities of the negotiators (Clemenceau of France, Lloyd George of Great Britain, and Wilson of the United States), their pursuit of national interest and common stability, as well as chaotic realities on the ground in remote parts of Europe. These all combined to shape a controversial peace settlement, including the Treaty of Versailles imposed on a defeated Germany and the plan for an international League of Nations to replace the balance of power with collective security.

Essential Reading:
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 227–45.

Supplementary Reading:
Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World.