France's Rhineland Policy, 1914-1924: The Last Bid for a Balance of Power in Europe

Walter McDougall offers an original analysis of Versailles diplomacy from the standpoint of the power that had the most direct interest and took the first initiatives in the search for a solution to the German problem.

The author’s new view of the struggle for execution or revision of the Versailles treaty holds sober implications for assessment of the political origins of international anarchy during the 1930s and European integration in the 1950s. He shows that the Treaty of Versailles was unenforceable, and that the French postwar government, far from enjoying predominance in Europe, suffered from financial crisis and economic and political inferiority to Germany. Versailles was thus the “Boche” peace, and the only path to a stable Europe seemed to lie through permanent restriction of German economic and political unity.

Originally published in 1978.

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