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Around 1923 it finally sinks in that the treaty of Versailles is, to be polite, an unmitigated disaster and that revision is an absolute necessity. Not only is Germany militarily impotent as a potential ally against Lenin's USSR, not to mention disturbing reports about this Stalin figure likely to succeed him, but Germany is more likely to find common ground on a temporary basis with Moscow than against.

This, of course, is not acceptable and so something must be done to ease the situation in Europe vis a vis possible German revanchist tendencies.

A diplomatic confrontation takes place where the United Kingdon not only insists on a second revisionist conference of Versailles but informs France that the upcoming seizure of the Ruhr industrial region will cause such destabilization in Germany and Europe that if it is not averted the UK will have to consider the alliance with France over.

Shocked and outraged, France grimly accepts that the loss of the alliance with the UK would be too high a price to pay and, after angry protests in Paris and near hysteria from Warsaw, a conference is organized.


The Weimar Republic is, of course, delighted by this and immediately makes public announcements designed to improve the chances of this conference.

1) The border adjustments with Belgium, a mere three towns, and with Denmark, approved by popular will in a plebiscite, are very small and will not be subjects for discussion.

2) Any claim on Alsace-Lorraine is absolutely rejected.

3) Germany insists that the Saar basin remains German soil but concedes that the coal mines shall remain in French hands until such time as the French coal mines flooded in 1918 are fully repaired, also offering any German assistance which might hasten that day.

*A unexpected side effect of this is, after quite a bit of public outrage in Germany, the destruction of Ludendorff as a political player. The perceived need to protect Hindenburg leads the German government to place the onus for what they now declare an unacceptable act on Ludendorff but to make a serious effort to present Ludendorff as some kind of rogue officer acting on his own.


4) Weimar hopes(expects) that changes in the military restrictions will follow but agrees in advance that any such changes will not commence until a set number of years after a successful conference is concluded. Berlin quietly informs London and Paris that with the current economic situation there really isn't much prospect of major rearmament for a few years.

*Given the recent Spartacist uprisings and the strict gun control in Germany, plus the proven usefulness of the friekorps as a sort of reserve, a standing army with a few more divisions of infantry is seen as the immediate need.

5) As a sop to France and the Little Entente and given Hungary's behavior under Bela Kun changes in the terms imposed on Hungary will not be up for discussion at this time. Austria will attend but other than reparations and military restrictions it is unclear what subjects would be raised.

6) Given the Greek debacle in Anatolia the British and French agree that Turkey will be invited in hopes of improving relations with Ankara.

7) Poland only attends at the last minute after France, itself unhappy, is forced to inform Warsaw that if a choice must be made between the British alliance and perhaps the Little Entente(Czechoslovakia) or the Polish alliance, well...also when informed flat out that Poland will be making concessions but which concessions may be significantly influenced by the role Poland plays at the affair.

*Anyone familiar with Poland's diplomatic involvment at the Treaty of Versailles already knows this will end badly.

8) As a late decision the USSR is invited to attend and a high level delegation does arrive.

9) The United States will not be attending as this is a conference under the auspices of the League of Nations and the US is not a member. Rumors that reductions in reparations against Germany may be followed by a united front on debts owed to the US causes a panic on Wall Street...



So in January 1924 the conference begins...
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