A film about the Paris Peace Conference that negotiated the end of World War I with the Versailles Treaty.

Using archival footage and dramatic re-enactments, this documentary deals with the immediate aftermath of the 1918 armistice that brought World War I to an end. From January to July 1919, the Paris Peace Conference dealt not only with issues related to Germany but with the thorny issue of national boundaries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. From this conference emerged Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia; the annexation of parts of Germany by other countries; the creation of Iraq; and the transfer of German colonies in Africa and China to new colonial masters. It also led to the creation of the League of Nations, championed by President Woodrow Wilson but which the US never joined. When they finally dealt with the issue of war reparations, they imposed a payments schedule on Germany that many believe provided the underpinnings of World War II.—garykmcd

In 1919, the armistice that ended the actual shooting in World War I was still ongoing, but the real peace had to created in Paris, France. Fired with idealistic enthusiasm, US President Woodrow Wilson came to Paris with many of the other nations of the world to create a new world order of justice and international cooperation. However, this idealism ran headlong into an intractable vindictiveness and petty opportunism that would corrupt the peace talks and create a disastrous peace treaty that would cause considerable turmoil and bloodshed for generations to come.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])