Cover image: This was the extreme French proposal for the world after World War I as documented in Paris in 1915 (L’Europe future de demain. démembrement des empires Allemand et Austro-Hongrois – déchéance du Royaume de Prusse by F. Pigeon, published in Paris 1915.)

Text by Xaritos Anastasiou

The primary objective was the complete dissolution of the three Central Empires (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire), as well as the Kingdom of Prussia, the heart of the Second Reich.

The German Empire would be entirely dismantled, and the re-establishment of a unified German state would be prevented. The territories west of the Rhine or Rhineland would be divided between Belgium and France, which would reclaim Alsace-Lorraine, the bone of contention in the eternal Franco-German conflict, while also satisfying the significant territorial claims of war-torn Belgium. A large neutral zone would be created east of the river, with the economic capital of the Reich, Frankfurt, within it and under international, or rather Allied, control. Denmark would annex the entire region of Schleswig-Holstein, extending as far as Hamburg.

Silesia, Eastern Pomerania, Western and Eastern Prussia, Eastern Brandenburg, and all German territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers would be annexed to the Russian Empire, effectively turning the Baltic into a Russian lake and placing vast German populations under Moscow’s administration. The remainder of Brandenburg, west of the rivers, would form the state of Prussia with Berlin as its capital. Hanover, Saxony, Württemberg, and Bavaria would become the other independent, disarmed, and deindustrialized weak German states, all together forming a buffer between Russia and the West, alleviating Russia’s anxiety about the lack of a natural border in the vast East European plain. All overseas colonies would be divided among Britain, France, Japan, Italy, and the USA.

Austria-Hungary would also be dissolved. Western Austria up to Salzburg would become new cantons of the Swiss Confederation. Italy would seize the territories promised to it in the Treaty of London, namely the entire Tyrol, Carinthia, Carniola, and the Austrian coastline from Trieste and Friuli to Istria, along with a large part of Dalmatia. The rest of Austria would unite with Moravia and the Hungarian Burgenland to form an Austrian state with a significant Czech minority and Vienna as its capital. Southern Dalmatia, along with Croatia-Slavonia and Bosnia, would be acquired by Serbia, and Montenegro would receive Herzegovina.

Galicia-Lodomeria would be annexed to Russia, thereby placing all the (often conflicting) Ukrainian and Polish populations of Europe under the Tsar’s rule. Hungary would cede Transylvania and the Banat to Greater Romania, a traditional ally of France in Southeastern Europe, with the Tisza River marking the new Hungarian-Romanian border, deep within Hungary, as compensation to Romania for keeping Bessarabia under Russian control, as well as for the annexation of Bukovina by Russia.

Albania would be divided between Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro, while the Ottomans would be confined entirely to deep Anatolia. Greece would acquire the Ionian coast and territory around Smyrna; Bulgaria would receive Eastern Thrace, Eastern Pontus, and Western Armenia, while Russia would take Eastern Armenia. The Straits and Istanbul would form a neutral zone, with the possibility of this area being given to Russia, as had been agreed in the same year. France would gain a large colony in Syria, Lebanon, Cilicia, central Anatolia, and Upper Mesopotamia.

Britain would formally annex Cyprus to its empire and gain control over the rest of the Arab world, except for the Holy Lands, which would become a shared territory. These boundaries were agreed upon in the Sykes-Picot Agreement a year later; an Arab kingdom would exist there, divided into two protectorates. Finally, Italy would receive a large Asian territory centered around Antalya, a natural extension of the Dodecanese. Iran would remain divided into two spheres of influence between Russia and Britain, as had been the case before the war.

There is much debate over whether the French obsession with the complete dissolution of Germany, an obsession that the USA strongly opposed, would have brought peace and stability to post-war Europe. In any case, many of these plans remained on paper. Germany remained unified, Turkey retained Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, and new countries emerged from Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian territories. Ultimately, the world of Versailles was nothing more than what Marshal Foch had predicted—a truce for 20 years.