James Metcalfe
When the First World War was formally ended by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 it was hoped that the world had endured the ‘war to end all wars’. The reality of this was that the Treaty of Versailles was one of the very worst pieces of diplomacy ever conducted, laying on some of the harshest means onto a Germany that would only build up such resentment towards it that would allow a horror like Adolf Hitler to eventually seize power. Even in the immediate shadow of the signing were respectable individuals such as Ferdinand Foch who claimed that the treaty was merely an ‘armistice for twenty years.’
