The Paris Peace Treaties of 1919 and the founding of the League of Nations appeared to contemporary liberals to ratify the victory of the liberal principle of national self-determination championed by the Allies over the imperialism of the Central Powers. Under the Treaties, the Allies attempted to “redraw the political map [of Europe] on national lines” and thus to establish an international system of liberal nationstates. The nations were to enter into a form of social contract with one another, under which they would be, in Woodrow Wilson's words, “governed in their conduct towards each other by the same principles of honour and of respect for the common laws of civilized society that govern the individual citizens of all modern States.” Thus, not only would each nation develop liberal institutions of its own, but the relations among nations would, for the first time, be based on the principles of rule by law, impartial justice, and popular sovereignty, rather than on “the great game, now for ever discredited, of the Balance of Power.” Almost immediately, however, the United States Senate refused to ratify the treaty that founded the League of Nations; the difficulty of establishing national states in Eastern and Central Europe became apparent; and hopes of an era of peaceful co-existence modeled on a liberal interpretation of the principle of nationality began to fade.