ABSTRACT
In 1916, British leaders first attempted to define an overall European peace policy. The highly conservative approach of the General Staff, which stressed Britain’s traditional interests and policy, envisaged a postwar balance of power system in which the pivot would be a strong Germanic central Europe. American and British interests in Europe were similar. Conflicts over the European settlement were not primarily between London and Washington but among individuals and groups within each country and government. During the negotiations leading to the German armistice of November 11, 1918, German territorial issues were involved in several ways. London supported evacuation conditions which signified German surrender of Mittel Europa, of western domination, and of Alsace-Lorraine. In eastern Europe, the British delegation was clearly divided over the German-Polish boundary at both the technical and the political levels. The British negotiators had to take a stand on the French demands in western Europe for security and reparations.
