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At the time of the negotiations of the Paris Peace Conference, the French security objectives went along with the projection of the political, economic and military influence of France in Central and Eastern Europe. The French ambition quickly raised the issue of the ability of the Allied powers, especially France, to transform the asset of its power into delete real political influence. Examples of the resistance to the French military model and the reluctance to satisfy the crucial French strategic imperatives were numerous. The French were thinking in terms of hegemony but they could hardly dictate the form their relations with the “smaller Allies” would take, whose aspirations for autonomy and attachment to historical and territorial legitimacies were disturbing the establishment of the new European system.