The Treaty of Versailles, signed at the Palace of Versailles southwest of Paris, officially ended World War I. Signed on June 28, 1919 in the famous Hall of Mirrors, and took effect on January 10, 1920. The Big Four, PM Georges Clemenceau of France, PM Emanuele Orlando of Italy, PM David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, and US President Woodrow Wilson, made the major decisions of the Treaty in closed-door meetings. The Treaty addressed political agreements geared toward peacekeeping measures, the redistribution of territorial borders in Europe and the colonial empires, and the formation an international body to ensure peacekeeping measures, known as the League of Nations. France and Britain insisted on inclusion of the War Guilt Clause, which assigned all blame for the war on Germany. The Treaty placed sanctions on the German government requiring reduction of territory, limitations on the nation’s military, and war reparations paid to the Allies.
Department of State U.S.A. Office of the Historian. “The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles.” Accessed April 26, 2018, https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/paris-peace.