Updated Jan. 18, 2024 at 12:40 p.m.
The Paris Peace Conference, also known as the Versailles Peace Conference, opens to draw up the treaties formally ending World War I. It happened on this day in 1919.
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Why was the Versailles peace conference called?
The conference was the formal meeting of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the Central Powers (the German empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria).
What were the results of the Versailles Peace conference?
Its major decisions were the creation of the League of Nations, the awarding of German and Ottoman overseas possessions as "mandates" (mainly to Britain and France), the imposition of reparations upon Germany, and the drawing of new national boundaries to reflect ethnic boundaries more closely.
Was the Versailles Peace Conference successful?
The Treaty of Versailles humiliated Germany while failing to resolve the underlying issues that had led to war in the first place. Economic distress and resentment would help fuel the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism in Germany, eventually leading to World War II.