Versailles Opens: The Peace Conference That Failed
Thirty-two nations sent delegates to the Palace of Versailles in January 1919 to redraw the map of a world shattered by four years of industrialized slaughter. The 'Big Four' of Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George, and Orlando dominated proceedings, but their agendas clashed violently. Wilson wanted self-determination and a League of Nations. Clemenceau wanted Germany crushed and paying reparations for generations. Lloyd George wanted a balance between punishment and stability. The resulting treaty satisfied nobody completely. Germany lost 13 percent of its territory and all overseas colonies. The war guilt clause, Article 231, forced Germany to accept sole responsibility for the conflict. Reparations were set at 132 billion gold marks, a sum so crushing that economist John Maynard Keynes predicted it would guarantee another war. He was right within twenty years.
January 18, 1919
107 years ago
Key Figures & Places
France
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World War I
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Palace of Versailles
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Paris Peace Conference, 1919
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Versailles
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World War I
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Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)
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Palace of Versailles
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Wilhelm I
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proclaimed
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Hall of Mirrors
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Franco-Prussian War
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German Emperor
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Constitution of the German Confederation (1871)
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Otto von Bismarck
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Prussia
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Kaiser
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Frederick I of Prussia
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German Empire
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Liste des monarques de Prusse
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Versailles, Yvelines
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Histoire de Berlin
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Alt-Kölln
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Berlin-Friedrichswerder
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Dorotheenstadt
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Friedrichstadt (Berlin)
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Brandenburg–Prussia
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Selbstkrönung
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Königsberg
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Kingdom of Prussia
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Königskrönung Friedrichs III. von Brandenburg
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Königsberger Schloss
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France
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