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Treaty of Versailles

June 28, 1919 · Versailles

Peace treaty signed 28 June 1919 at Versailles, ending the war between Germany and most Allied Powers five years after the Franz Ferdinand assassination. It required German disarmament, territorial concessions, reparations, and the Article 231 war-guilt clause. Resentment of the treaty powered the Nazi Party's rise and the Second World War.

On the map Contemporaries

Key people

Woodrow Wilson US president; one of the Big Four negotiators

Georges Clemenceau French premier; led the peace conference

David Lloyd George British prime minister; one of the Big Four negotiators

Jan Smuts signatory for South Africa

Participants

Before and after

Ended: World War I July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918
Led to: Founding of the League of Nations January 10, 1920
World War II September 1, 1939 – September 2, 1945

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

1915

1918

1921

1924

1927

1930

1933

1936

1939

1942

1945

Fourteen Points

Armistice of 11 November 1918

May Fourth Movement

Treaty of Versailles

Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)

Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine

Founding of the League of Nations

Treaty of Trianon

Treaty of Sèvres

Beer Hall Putsch

Remilitarization of the Rhineland