When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Welcome delegates, to the first proper episode of the Delegation Game! Here we see everyone in the few hours before the plenary conference opened, and the Paris Peace Conference as we know it began. There was much to do, there was scheming aplenty and a great deal of opportunistic handshaking going on, as the delegations and the lonely delegates alike scoped out Hotel Twamley which would host them for the next six months. I am so incredibly excited and proud to present this to you guys - an idea which began around the time of the Armistice in November has ballooned in size and scope, to the point that I can now count 33 delegates, a number which is only set to increase as we go on. For those that have signed up and are playing the game, thanks so much for making this idea of mine a reality. For those that have yet to sign up, I hope this episode will indicate what's in store for you - absolutely every person that is mention here is played by a real person, and the negotiations continue in the Facebook group a

OTD IN HISTORY - 18TH JANUARY 1919 - THE PEACE CONFERENCE OPENS!We finally made it, to the point of a new beginning for the world, in the war torn locations where so many foreign faces were travelling, and upon which so much hope had been places. There was a lot riding on the Paris Peace Conference, and those present on its very first plenary session, attended by all delegates then available in Paris, and a gigantic press corps, could not hide their excitement or positivity.It seemed as though anything was possible, with the world assembled here, to make a better peace for a better world. How could any power present deny the importance of peace? How could any power deny the importance of new institutions to safeguard the peace of the world like the League of Nations? Surely, only the wicked, the cynical, the deceitful, would dare ruin this goal of all civilised nations? Surely cooperation would be easily gained for the grandest of Woodrow Wilson's plans? Surely the world would not be let down by selfishness o

I am SO EXCITED to bring you all this episode. This is exactly what this project is all about - a comprehensive examination of primary sources, left to us by those that were in place and charged with TAKING charge a century ago. Here we cover the period of 13-17 January 1919, using the minutes of the Paris Peace Conference, provided by the US Foreign Relations papers series as our guide. I am super keen to hear what you all thought, but read on if you want to know more about this very chunky episode before you get started...By 15th January 1919, everyone of importance had arrived, but there was much work to be done before this world summit could open. In #23, we examine this body of work which preceded the official opening of the Paris Peace Conference. Join us as we drift between the major characters, assessing the major concerns of each, and the ways in which their aims created controversy and friction with their counterparts. It was not an easy task to make everyone feel on the same page, and the list

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 12th January 1919 - David Lloyd George arrives in Paris for the preliminary peace talks.Before the Paris Peace Conference opened, it was important for all sides to meet and talk together. As all three men spoke English well, Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George could be expected to do the bulk of the negotiating personally. However, the initial set up of the Conference did not allow this personal arrangement, so the three men took advantage of that precious week before the conference officially opened, during the preliminaries, to build relationships, wrest concessions and have a ramble around the French capital.The arrival of the British PM on 12 January kicked the preliminaries into high gear, and from the beginning, it became clear that everyone had travelled to Paris with a degree of optimism, but also with their own aims and ambitions. The Italians, as well, could not be ignored, and their support and assent for certain agreements was clearly going to be necessary if the wheels we

With the launch of the Delegation Game only a week away (on 18th Jan 2019) I thought it'd be beneficial to set out some detail about this fantastic explosion of nerdiness, and what you need to do in order to take part. We look at some tools which the game will avail of, investigate what kind of impact your scheming can have on the proceedings, outline the structure of each episode going forward, and close the episode with some FAQ's, so that we're all on the same page.The Delegation Game is a seriously exciting effort by yours truly to engage more completely with the source material and era which the Versailles situation provides. I've already been blown away by the interest and enthusiasm shown, but if you'd like to know more, then this episode is for you! We launch in a week, so make sure you take your seat in Paris! Thankssss, and I'll see you all there soon!**********The Delegation Game is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 10th January 1919 - the Spartacist Uprising reaches its apex - before it is brutally crushed in Berlin.Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were the most prolific casualties, but much more was going on beneath the surface than simply the execution of Germany's communist extremists. The establishment of organisations like the Freikorps, and the struggle for order and law in this defeated, depressed country, contain more than enough stories all by themselves. In this episode, we will conclude our examination of this ill-fated uprising, assessing why it failed, what its aims were, whether it could have succeeded and how its impact was felt across the country and among the allies. Did it make the allies more or less eager to bring Germany to peace, before she succumbed to Bolshevism altogether? Let's find out, as we go back in time...****************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate

Germany was in dire straits by the time revolutionaries began taking over the streets in early 1919. Bolshevism was spreading westwards, but perhaps the most potent ingredient in this spread was the lack of available food, and the endless opportunities this gave rabble rousers to cause anarchy and chaos on an unimaginable scale. Hunger was a more powerful weapon than any political message, and the combination of this desperation for a solution and the despair at the lack of aid - not to mention the continuing blockade - would soon spell disaster.Initially Germans held it together, but they could only keep the lid on the boil for so long before it all erupted. Here, we examine the background to the infamous Spartacist Uprising which seemed to threaten the end of Germany as the world knew it!**************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->

OVER_THIS_PERIOD_IN_HISTORY - the first week of January 1919 - Woodrow Wilson begins his tour of Italy!In Italy, as in France, the citizens of that exhausted country were excited indeed to received the American President, and for six days until his departure on 6th January, Wilson travelled across Italy meeting everyone from the Pope to the King to the Premier. His mission was one of networking and publicity, and it went well, even if the Italians, deep down, did not gel particularly well with Wilson's vision of a new world. The world Wilson imagined, that of cooperation, and end to imperialism and peace, was in contrast to an Italian leadership and people who expected to be rewarded for their entry into the war. In time, the tension would explode, and Italy would get nothing at Wilson's insistence, a bitterness which helped facilitate Mussolini's acsendency. Initially at least, however, the Italian people were Wilson's friends.**********************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of yo

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 26th December 1918 - Woodrow Wilson meets David Lloyd George in London!Hope you're all not TOO full of foodstuffs, because we have an important little bulletin to bring to you! The US President's visit to London in late 1918 was significant for a myriad of reasons - not least of which was the sight of an American President getting a horse and carriage ride through the city's streets! Who would ever have imagined that such displays were possible between former colony and former master?Now these powers were firm friends, and the relationship between President and PM would only improve as time went on, and the two men realised they had more and more in common, to the detriment of the French premier of course, who quickly became something of an outsider. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you history friends! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here we conclude this incredible and early podcast Christmas present, which is 2/3 alternative history and 1/3 a breakdown of whether I believe this makes sense and why I went with what I did. How plausible was it all? You decide. This could be a very fun topic to have a number of debates on, but here we look at the opening phases of the war and what went right/wrong for each side. Irish troubles? Of course they are ever present! I hope you've enjoyed a different path instead of the dire one we got in 1914. Would the world be a better place had Princip missed? That's probably a story for another day, but for now we examine how the Entente came to collapse, and what this meant for the thoroughly victorious allies...Support and get in touch->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month! ->Follow WDF on Twitter! ->Join the Fac

Welcome history friends, as we launch into a little sideshow I cooked up for you all. This is the first in a chunky 2-parter series on alternative history, where we build a different world in the style you're used to, having asked the question - what would have happened if Gavrilo Princip missed, rather than actually successfully assassinated the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand? Using all I've gathered in my years studying the First World War and the July Crisis in particular, I give you my answer, so I hope you enjoy it! Over the course of the episode we will look at several threads, such as the change in Serbian government and increasing tensions provoking reactionary policies across the Balkans, it remained to be seen whether the European alliance system would save the peace or help destroy it. Find out here, and remember to catch part 2!Support the show!->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!->Support the podcast financiall

You've been introduced to the Big Three of Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George - you know their aims, their backstories and their fears. What happens though when these men gather together in the same room? Could they possibly cooperate? Could their varied viewpoints and aims be reconciled? Before the Paris Peace Conference opened, I feel it'd be useful to take each of the three men under our microscope again, and refresh ourselves on what they wanted, what they did NOT want, and that grey area where they could see themselves compromising.This episode will conveniently tie together all we've learned about the three men so far, and it is our last episode of the Versailles project before Christmas, so have a listen, refresh yourself, and I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season festivity Christmas food time! I think I covered all my bases! Thankssss :D *************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debat

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 14th December 1918 - The Coupon Election secures Lloyd George's Coalition Government.It had long been expected that Lloyd George would call for an election at the end of the war, to beat off challenges to his position from both sides of the political spectrum, and to secure his mandate for the looming peace conference. Much was said about punishing Germany during the campaign trail, and making her pay what she owed to Britain and everyone else. The British electorate were thus heavy with expectation once their PM left for France in the new year - they anticipated Lloyd George would drive a hard bargain, and wrest concessions from the defeated foe which would vindicate their losses. As Lloyd George discovered, but probably knew already deep down, it wasn't so simple as taking things from Germany.Lloyd George, whatever his white lies, did managed to secure a mandate from the British electorate with this election. It was the most votes ever cast in any election in British history, and fo

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 13th December 1918 - US President Woodrow Wilson lands in France.Woodrow Wilson had a vital role to play in the Treaty of Versailles, and was certainly the most dynamic actor in the Paris Peace Conference. Apparently immune to the old trappings of statecraft, intrigue and power, Wilson represented something new and promising for those French citizens and Europeans who were sick of war and who longed for something better. Wilson's rapturous welcome convinced him that he had done the right thing by deciding to travel to Paris personally, even though many had disapproved back home.Flattered, excited, vindicated though he was, the reception did not last. Wilson would never be so popular in France again...***********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!->Visit the homeland for this new project!->Become a delegate and p

David Lloyd George's assent to the top of the greasy pole came at a difficult time for Britain and the allied war effort. The war did not appear near its end after all; instead the bloody stalemate had begun to tell, on all sides, and 1916 had been a year of crushing disappointments. Faced with a crisis in confidence, PM Asquith made way for the last Liberal Prime Minister of the age, Lloyd George, who ensured by early 1917 that he had the support of his colleagues in the wartime coalition to continue on with the war in the manner that he saw fit.Lloyd George's vision was tempered by realities and the hard lessons which still lay ahead, but he was at his best when delegating to his colleagues, when relinquishing something of his iron grip on power, and when accepting that sharing the load was the best way to win the war. New men were made and old men retreated from public life in disgust, but Lloyd George wasn't here to make friends. His single minded determination to win this damned war earned him admiration

David Lloyd George, the unlikely Prime Minister, and the only PM in history to have spoken Welsh fluently, comes under our microscope in the final of our profiler episode couplets. Lloyd George's childhood and upbringing, his experience of life in Wales, his love of country, of justice and of independence - these were all important building blocks of a character which would soon serve Britain at its most critical time.We open our account of Lloyd George with an anecdote from Harold Nicolson, a vital eyewitness to the events of the Paris Peace Conference, and a man who happened to be present when the PM jubilantly announced the end to the war. This represented the end of a long, exhausting journey for Lloyd George, but he wasn't finished yet! Join us as we unwrap Lloyd George the man, before he became Lloyd George the leader.**********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points are an integral part of what made the end of the First World War so fascinating, but also so confusing. Did the President want to go easy on Germans for the sake of it, or did he have more ambitious goals in mind? Was he as determined to remake the post-war order as we are often told, or were these fourteen points simply a smokescreen for the imperialistic policies which the president wished to pursue? The answers to these questions are not clear cut, but join us for episode twelve where we discuss each of these points in turn, assess how they were received by the international community, examine the impact of each point, and then detail the president's feelings on the document which he had just communicated to the world. The Fourteen Points were supremely important, not least because they represented the first true statement of peace terms revealed by any of the allies. Coming as they did in January 1918, the end of the war was some way off, but it is impossible to understate

Welcome to Woodrow Wilson's United States of America. As we build towards a key concept, the Fourteen Points, here we set some background and ask some pertinent questions, such as - why did the US intervene in the war, and why did Wilson wait so long before doing so?Woodrow Wilson is a character we must understand if we are to grasp the nuances of the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles which that created. Wilson was an integral part of what made the end Treaty so significant, but he can also be blamed for its uninspired record in America, and its ultimate failure. All the while, his message was one of firm but fair treatment for a defeated Germany, and this message was one which many at the top levels of Germany's government could not fail to heed.To understand where such high minded ideals came from, we must examine Woodrow Wilson before he arrived in Paris in late 1918. More than that, we must investigate whether Wilson's ideals were developed not to meet the crisis of the Great War, but as

ON_THIS_DAY_IN_HISTORY - 1st December 1918 - The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes is proclaimed by Prince Regent Alexander of SerbiaThis kingdom, known to history as Yugoslavia, was to have a tumultuous birth, life cycle and death, but even its very name was contentious! Serbs wanted the state to indicate the greater Serb role in its administration and creation; non Serbs wanted to maintain the facade that all were equal under the new kingdom, and that it was more a union or federation than a unitary state. The facade was not maintained for long.This fragile kingdom, which drew together so many Balkan states and tidied up the region a great deal, was not built to last, but in this episode we examine the circumstances surrounding its proclamation, in the context of a world which was struggling to get to grips with everything that had come pouring out of Pandora's Box...*************The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engag

If finding a solution to Western Europe was difficult, then untangling the morass which was Eastern Europe seemed like mission impossible. Thankfully for those flocking to Paris, Eastern Europeans had taken it upon themselves to do the legwork for them. Poles, Czechs, Yugoslavs and Romanians had all taken advantage of the power vacuums left by the vanished empires, and had staked their claims to land, people and resources while those in Paris gathered. Some leaders, like Edvard Benes (pictured) took matters into their own hands, while others were overtaken by the pace of events.In this episode we examine the fates and behaviours of these four powers, before they presented their individuals cases to the Paris Peace Conference in late January-early February 1919. All they would require, it was said, was the blessing of the statesmen at the French capital for their efforts...and maybe a tiny few adjustments here and there...***********The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and int