World War I and its aftermath set much of the world on a radically altered course of political development. In April 1917, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress asking for a declaration of war so that the world would “be made safe for democracy.” Yet what emerged from the battlefields of Europe and the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles was a world that began to wonder whether democracy was any better at delivering peace and stability than imperial monarchy. Those who forged the treaty for the “war to end all wars” had incorrectly assumed that the basic economic stability of Europe would remain intact. The dynasties of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary were destroyed, and by the end of the 1920s the victors themselves were contending with inflation, a credit collapse, and rising protectionism that threatened to destroy the social and economic security of the continent.