World War I ended several empires and shifted international boundaries.
When President Woodrow Wilson attended the post-war Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to negotiate a peace treaty, he chose not to include members of Congress in his delegation, even though the Senate would ultimately decide whether or not the United States would approve the treaty. Upon Wilson’s return, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles after a lengthy and contentious debate, symbolizing Congress’s uncertainty regarding the United States’ newfound status as a world power.
