122 e lusive v ictories
terms, including very limited reparations and immediate German
membership in the League of Nations. Germany would be most likely
to behave as a responsible member of the international community if
treated as such rather than as a pariah.
Of the three goals, the president achieved in Paris something closely
approximating what he wanted on the League plan but fell far short on
the others. Despite Clemenceau’s deep skepticism that an international
organization could offer a meaningful security guarantee, the four
leading powers (the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy)
agreed that the peace treaty would begin with provisions establishing a
League of Nations. Included was wording to permit the enforcement of
sanctions against aggressors violating the sovereignty of member states
(Article X, of which more will be said later). The League design,
however, was fl awed, requiring unanimity on many matters that would
stall action in a crisis.
Self-determination proved a much more vexing concept than Wilson
had appreciated, despite warnings from others in the American dele-
gation. New nations were carved out of old empires in Central and
Eastern Europe, but often at a steep price in the form of ethnic minor-
ities being included within national boundaries, an outcome that
pointed toward future political instability. Moreover, nothing was
done to make good on the notion of consent of the governed where
colonial powers on the winning side were concerned. Quite the opposite
happened: they also gained new imperial possessions (often under the
fi g leaf of League of Nations’ mandates) through the dismemberment
of the Ottoman Empire or stripping Germany of its colonial holdings
in Africa, Asia, and the Pacifi c islands.
Th e peace terms imposed on Germany scarcely resembled the ones
Wilson had suggested in his various wartime speeches and that the
Germans expected when they accepted his armistice terms. Among the
articles sparking German objections were those that placed millions of
ethnic Germans within the borders of Poland and Czechoslovakia,
denied the possibility of a German union with the new rump state of
Austria, placed the Rhineland under temporary Allied occupation,
required that most German naval vessels be turned over to the Allies
(their crews scuttled them before this could be done), and severely
limited the size and equipment of the German military.