Paris, 1919
The guns had finally fallen silent.
Four years, millions dead, and a world forever changed.
The Armistice of November 11, 1918 marked the end of fighting.
But peace—if it could be called that—was only just beginning.
The victors gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
Leaders from the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy sat down to redraw the world.
Woodrow Wilson, idealistic and hopeful, championed his Fourteen Points, envisioning a new era of peace and self-determination.
But in the shadows, resentment simmered.
The Treaty of Versailles was not just a peace agreement; it was a verdict.
Germany was blamed for the war—the "war guilt" clause—and burdened with crushing reparations.
The map of Europe was torn apart:
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved. New nations like Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia emerged. Poland was reborn after more than a century of partitions.
But the treaty sowed the seeds of future conflict.
Germany's economy crippled, its people humiliated.
The treaty's harsh terms bred anger and desperation.
Meanwhile, in Italy, Fiume became a flashpoint of nationalist fury.
In the United States, Wilson's vision faced opposition, and the country retreated into isolation.
Across the globe, the League of Nations was born—an idealistic hope for peace—but lacked the power to enforce it.
Soldiers returning home faced shattered societies and uncertain futures.
For many, the horrors of war lingered in nightmares.
A German veteran wrote:
"We signed peace with broken hands and broken hearts."
Europe was a continent exhausted but restless, fragile but volatile.
The peace that was meant to end all wars had planted the roots for the next.