ABSTRACT
The promise of an Anglo-American guarantee was not fulfilled and when in October 1919 the United States Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, France lost the guarantee. The Peace of Paris, shorn of the Anglo-American guarantee, was the first of many diplomatic defeats. The new states of eastern Europe could not compensate for the eclipse of Russia. France sought security in three ways: enforcement of the peace treaties and payment of reparations; support for the League of Nations and collective security; the creation of alliances in central and eastern Europe. A measure of the importance which the German problem assumed for France after 1919 was the concentration of attention on Europe and a major difference between British and French policies was the weight given by the two governments to their respective overseas commitments. An international committee led by the American General Dawes produced the Dawes Plan which Germany, Great Britain and France accepted in April 1924.
