Europe Since 1918

It was not intended that they should be carried out. But the new forces set loose were too strong to control. Peoples all over the world clamored for rights and privileges that it was the purpose to grant only to peoples that had been subject to the vanquished powers. To this cause of confusion, unrest, conspiracy, and open rebellion, were added the falling out of the victors over the spoils of war and the determination of France and some of the smaller nations to apply the law of retaliation to their now defenseless oppressors.

These are the three reasons why Europe since 1918 has not found peace. The League of Nations is impotent, with or without the United States as a member, to restore Europe to peace until the three Furies—Vanity, Greed, and Revenge—cease raging.

After the World War the movement in the United States to induce the American people to underwrite the Paris peace settlement did not succeed. The overwhelming rejection of their panacea for the ills of the world did not discourage the supporters of the Versailles Covenant. After four years they are returning to the campaign for American participation in the Versailles League. Since they cannot disguise the seriousness of conditions in Europe as the fourth year of the functioning of the League of Nations draws to a close, the earnest League propagandists, to get away from the remorseless logic of “By their fruits ye shall know them,” now assert that Europe’s troubles are our fault. We refused to ratify the treaty and enter the League of Nations; ergo, all these things have happened.

The writer, an observer and student of European affairs for fifteen years, has never had an ax to grind or theories and national causes to advance and champion. In the Near East during the years leading up to the World War, in Paris during the World War and the Peace Conference, and following the aftermath of the war since the treaties were signed, his sole ambition has been to record what he has observed. He is not pro-anything. He feels, as he did when he wrote “The New Map of Europe” in 1914, “The New Map of Africa” in 1916, and “The New Map of Asia” in 1919, that a host of people are seeking an unbiased presentation of contemporary events, so that sentimentality will not obscure common sense in forming their opinion on the important problem of America’s place in the world and America’s duty toward the world. We must know how things actually are in order that we may help effectively to make them what they ought to be.

Herbert Adams Gibbons.

Princeton, September, 1923.

CHAPTER		PAGE
I	The Armistice of November 11, 1918	[3]
II	The Preliminaries of the Peace Conference	[18]
III	The Peace Conference at Paris	[37]
IV	The Main Features of the Treaty of Versailles	[71]
V	The Failure of the Treaty of Versailles to Win Popular Approval	[94]
VI	New Light on the Tragedy of Paris	[111]
VII	The Treaties of St.-Germain and Trianon	[119]
VIII	The Balkan Settlement and Its Effect upon Bulgaria and Albania	[133]
IX	The Proposed Devolution of the Ottoman Empire	[148]
X	The Internal Evolution and Foreign Policy of Russia under the Soviets	[167]
XI	The New Baltic Republics	[205]
XII	The Resurrection of Poland	[231]
XIII	The Creation of Czechoslovakia	[257]
XIV	The Evolution of Serbia into Jugoslavia	[273]
XV	Greater Rumania	[295]
XVI	The Tables Turned on Hungary	[317]
XVII	Austria without Her Provinces	[330]
XVIII	From Giolitti to Mussolini in Italy	[346]
XIX	Belgium after the World War	[368]
XX	Germany from 1918 to 1923	[386]
XXI	The Expansion and Debacle of Greece	[415]
XXII	The Turkish Nationalist Movement	[442]
XXIII	The Entente Powers and the Question of the Straits	[469]
XXIV	The Eastern Question before the Lausanne Conference	[491]
XXV	The Disarmament Question before the Washington Conference	[505]
XXVI	The Continuation Conferences from 1920 to 1923	[519]
XXVII	The Unsheathed Sword of France	[544]
XXVIII	France and Belgium in the Ruhr	[561]
XXIX	Interallied Debts	[585]
XXX	The Next Moves in the International Game	[599]
	Index	[611]

CONTENTS