Introduction

Assessing the “Paris System”: Self-determination and Ethnic Violence in Alsace-Lorraine and Asia Minor, 1919–23

“…and domestic ethnic conflicts across several European and colonial settings in the aftermath of the Paris Peace Conference. 7 Yet they too touch upon the contours and inner workings of the "Paris system" only briefly and in general terms, defining the postwar order rather vaguely as "an informal, dynamic combination of various related promises, practices, and proclamations" that "provided a new language and understanding of nationalism and internationalism, sovereignty and territoriality, ethnicity and popular participation. " 8 A more promising approach is offered by the work of several international historians who have made important inroads toward a more systematic study of both the regional diversity and overall functioning of the Paris system.…”

Navigations of National Belonging: Legal Reintegration after the Return of Alsace to France, 1918–39

“…In this way, the Paris Peace Conferences imbued an older set of ideas about national self-determination with "new energy and legitimacy, " centering them in the new world order. 24 Such references to self-determination were not applied to Alsace, however. In the October 1918 document which had noted the unlikeliness of a majority of Alsatians voting to return to France, Balfour rejected a plebiscite for that very reason.…”