The Versailles Treaties are a system of treaties, signed between the defeated and the victors in the First World War. There were two visions about the content of the treaties and how the peace after the devastating war should be preserved. One of the visions was expressed by the British and French Prime Ministers. They thought that Germany and its allies are the only causers of the war and they should carry all the burden of the post war consequences. On the other hand the U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson, saw another, maybe much more realistic reason for the war. In his opinion the wars in Europe were caused by “Europe’s cynical methods of statehood.” He prepared the “Fourteen Points” plan in which he proposed a world “safe for democracy” based on self-determination and a League of Nations. In the end, the treaties, signed with each one of the defended states, were a compromise between the two visions. Of course, Clemenceau’s and Lloyd George’s opinion overweighed in the final form of the documents. The defeated states suffered extraordinary restrictions. Many of the proposals by Wilson, regarding the human rights, and his demands for softer measures for the states from the Central Powers, were ignored. As a result Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, Turkey suffered enormous territory loses as well as unbearable reparations (for Germany - £6,600 million in gold, which was just recently paid). The countries had to reduce their military powers to the minimum necessary for defense. One of the most hurtful clauses in the Versailles Treaty was that Germany had to accept the blame “for all the loss and damages of the war”. 8 new countries appeared on the map of Europe. They were given to the minority populations previously living in the borders of the fallen empires. As a result of the signed treaties a new world system was formed. Its goal was to perceive the peace gained after the First World War. The problem was that the system was too fragile. The defeated countries suffered way too much, more than they could cope with. A new wave of dissatisfaction rose among the states. It was clear that the harsh measures were a premise for a new war, and it was waiting right around the corner. It was just a matter of time that Germany and its allies claim what was taken from them in an unfair and crippling way. 1. Wilson’s “14 Points” Wilsonianism, as it came to be called, derived from the liberal internationalism that had captured large segments of the Anglo-American intellectual elite before and during the war. It interpreted war as essentially an atavism associated with authoritarian monarchy, aristocracy, imperialism, and economic nationalism. The European governments still practiced an old diplomacy of secret alliances, militarism, and balance of power politics that bred distrust, suspicion, and conflict. The antidotes were democratic control of diplomacy, self-determination for all nations, open negotiations, disarmament, free trade, and especially a system of international law and collective security to replace raw power as the arbiter of disputes among states. This last idea, developed by the American League to Enforce Peace, found expression in the Fourteen Points as “a general association of nations” and was to be the cornerstone of Wilson’s edifice. He expected a functioning League of Nations to correct whatever errors and injustices might creep in to the treaties themselves. (McDougall, 2014) Liberal internationalism set the tone for the Paris Peace Conference. European statesmen couched their own demands and argued their cases on grounds of “justice” rather than power politics. Yet Wilson’s principles proved, one by one, to be inapplicable, irrelevant, or insufficient in the eyes of European governments, while the idealistic gloss they placed on the treaties undermined their legitimacy for anyone claiming that “justice” had not been served. According to Walter McDougall “Wilson’s personality must bear some of the blame for this disillusionment. He was a proud man, confident of his objectivity and prestige. He had visited Europe only twice before, as a tourist, and now delayed the peace conference in order to make a triumphant tour of European capitals.” From this statement we can consider that this is another reason why the Allies did not approve the plan in its fullness. Maybe the U.S. president did not have the qualities, needed to persuade them, and his confidence played him a bad joke. The situation in the U.S. government was also complicated. The fact that the Democrats lost their Senate majority in 1918 and Wilson’s refusal to include Republicans in his delegation allowed Roosevelt to declare that Wilson had “absolutely no authority to speak for the American people.” As a result of all the circumstances, Wilson experienced a great difficulty promoting his ideals in Paris and at home. Only a peace between equals, he said, can last. O