The Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference, opening January 18, 1919, made France the center of world diplomacy. Delegates from 32 nations gathered to reshape the world order. Paris hotels filled with diplomats, experts, and lobbyists. The city became a babel of languages and competing national aspirations.

Clemenceau, presiding over the conference, pursued single-minded goals: German disarmament, territorial adjustments ensuring French security, and massive reparations compensating French losses. His determination clashed with Wilson's idealism and Lloyd George's pragmatism. The "Big Three" negotiations, conducted in Clemenceau's study, determined millions' fates in afternoon sessions.

French public opinion demanded harsh treatment of Germany. Four years of propaganda depicting German barbarity, combined with visible devastation, created appetite for vengeance. Newspapers published calculations of French losses—1.4 million dead, 4 million wounded, 10 departments devastated. The equation seemed simple: Germany must pay for what Germany had destroyed.

Yet French negotiators faced frustrating realities. American and British allies, less damaged by war, showed less enthusiasm for crushing Germany. Wilson's Fourteen Points conflicted with French security needs. The principle of self-determination threatened French colonial empire. Revolutionary Russia's absence created eastern uncertainties. Japan's presence raised questions about racial equality France preferred to avoid.

The treaty's signing on June 28, 1919—fifth anniversary of Sarajevo assassination—took place in Versailles's Hall of Mirrors where Germany had proclaimed its empire in 1871. The symbolic reversal delighted French opinion. Yet thoughtful observers worried. Marshal Foch declared: "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years." His prediction proved tragically accurate.