Makers of the Modern World

Afonso Costa: Portugal

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
by Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses

To be published in October 2010, on the 100th anniversary of republic, this biography of Afonso Costa described by loyal press as 'the leader of the small nations', considers the political implications of Portugal’s participation in the First World War and of the ‘defeat’ in Paris.

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Price: £10.40

Epitácio Pessoa: Brazil

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
by Michael Streeter

To be published in April 2010, on the 91st anniversary of his election as the president of Brazil, while in Paris, this is the story of Epitácio Pessoa, the Treaty of Versailles and the rise and fall of Brazil’s tumultuous First Republic.

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Price: £9.99

South America

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
by Michael Streeter

While Brazil declared war on Germany in the First World War, the rest of South America held back. But four – Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay – did break off diplomatic relations with Germany in 1917, in sympathy with US policy and with the Allies in Europe. Their reward was a place at the Paris Peace Conference table and for the first time a chance to play a role on the world stage rather than just in their own backyard.

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Price: £10.40

Central America

Makers of the Modern World: The peace conferences of 1919-23 and their aftermath
by Michael Streeter

They were in the United States’ backyard, and in some cases under her direct protection. So in many ways it was little surprise when Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and Honduras joined the war on the Allied side in 1917 and 1918.

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Eleftherios Venizelos: Greece


by Andrew Dalby

The Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos (1864–1936) was one of the stars of the Paris Peace Conference, impressing many of the Western delegates, already possessed of a romantic view of ‘the grandeur that was Greece’, with his charm and oratorical style. He won support for his country’s territorial ambitions in Asia Minor, the ‘Great Idea’ of a revived Hellenic empire controlling the Aegean and stretching to the Black Sea.

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Price: £9.99