Versailles #19: Wilson Goes To Rome (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

 OVER_THIS_PERIOD_IN_HISTORY - the first week of January 1919 - Woodrow Wilson begins his tour of Italy!

In Italy, as in France, the citizens of that exhausted country were excited indeed to received the American President, and for six days until his departure on 6th January, Wilson travelled across Italy meeting everyone from the Pope to the King to the Premier. His mission was one of networking and publicity, and it went well, even if the Italians, deep down, did not gel particularly well with Wilson's vision of a new world. The world Wilson imagined, that of cooperation, and end to imperialism and peace, was in contrast to an Italian leadership and people who expected to be rewarded for their entry into the war. In time, the tension would explode, and Italy would get nothing at Wilson's insistence, a bitterness which helped facilitate Mussolini's acsendency. Initially at least, however, the Italian people were Wilson's friends.