Catastrophe at Versailles

The idealistic Wilson argued that no victor should be declared after World War I: only “peace among equals” could last. Having won at an incredible price, Britain and France showed zero interest in such a plan. But the devastation wrought by the war created popular pressure for a just and enduring outcome. Wilson scored a diplomatic victory at the peace conference, held at Versailles, near Paris, in 1919, when the Allies chose to base the talks on his Fourteen Points, a blueprint for peace that he had presented a year earlier in a speech to Congress.

Wilson’s Points embodied an important strand in progressivism. They called for open diplomacy; “absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas”; arms reduction; removal of trade barriers; and national self-determination for peoples in the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and German empires. Essential to Wilson’s vision was the creation of an international regulatory body, eventually called the League of Nations, that would guarantee each country’s “independence and territorial integrity.” The League would mediate disputes, supervise arms reduction, and — according to its crucial Article X — curb aggressor nations through collective military action. Wilson hoped the League would “end all wars.” But his ideals had marked limits, and in negotiations he confronted harsh realities.