Treaty of Versailles

World War 1 was not over even though the fighting had stopped in November 1918, a peace treaty had to negotiated and signed. On January 1919 delegates from 27 countries traveled to the Palace of Versailles in France for a peace conference, making the treaty with Germany named the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Saint-Germain was also negotiated which ended the war with Austria-Hungary.  Important participants of the conference were the  “Big Four” which consisted of President Wilson, British Prime Minister David George, Georges Clemenceau the French Premier, and Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando. No representatives for Russia were invited because Wilson along with others didn’t recognize Lenin’s government as a real government. The Negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles lasted five months.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Germans on June 28, 1919 and was designed to punish and weaken Germany. The treaty blamed Germany for the war, it stated that it had been caused by “the aggression of Germany.” President Wilson came to the conference with a plan called The Fourteen Points, which wasn’t fully used. The plan was designed to eliminate the causes of the war through free trade, freedom of the seas and more, the last eight points addressed the right of national self-determination. The US senate didn’t sign the treaty, they voted in November 1919 and in March 1920 and both times it was ratified. Later on the United States negotiated a separate peace treaties with the Central Powers.