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The leaders who committed their nations to war in 1914 never dreamed that the conflict would drag on for years and claim millions of lives. They never imagined that it would lead to the birth of a massive Bolshevik state while destroying the empires of czarist Russia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Ottoman Turkey. And in the aftermath of the Great War, the individuals at the negotiating table found themselves trying to do nothing less than piece their world together anew. At the centre of the negotiations were three individuals, each a fascinating bundle of enlightenment, narrow-mindedness, tolerance, bigotry, pragmatism, and idealism. And, to a large extent, we are all still living in the world they drew up for us.
THE observation "it is harder to make peace than war" was, as one might expect of someone so witty, that of Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France at the end of the First World War and during the peace conference that followed. Of course he only half meant it. Yet, there is some truth in the remark as well. What could be harder than the huge, all-demanding struggle that had lasted for four years? War, as Dr Johnson so famously said about the prospect of being hanged, concentrates the mind wonderfully. And a war like the First World War, where the stakes were so very high, narrowed the choices before leaders significantly. The most important policy was to win - or, at least, not to lose. All else flowed from that.
However, decisions about the peace settlements that followed after the guns fell silent were also taken under pressure. The peacemakers who met in Paris feared that, unless they moved quickly to wind up the war and to try to set the framework for a better international order, Europe and perhaps the wider world would be plunged into anarchy, revolution, and misery. On the other hand, they faced a great range of possibilities and choices. How should the borders be drawn in the centre of Europe and in the Middle East? What exactly should be the nature of the treaties with Germany and its allies, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire? What shape should the proposed League of Nations take? In the end individuals -...