Versailles #57: Danzig and the Rhine (Patreon)

[PATRONS]

Here we take stock of the situation by the last week of April 1919 by focusing our microscope on two apparently unrelated, but hugely important issues – specifically the future of the Rhine, and the status of the city of Danzig. These two issues of the Rhineland and Danzig were intrinsically linked with the outbreak of the Second World War, and it is thus important in our narrative to establish where they came from. As we will learn here, not only did these two issues provide Hitler with different opportunities, they also represented, to Woodrow Wilson, an opportunity to send a unique message to the Italians...