Treaty of Versailles and the founding of the League of Nations
- Date
- 28 June 1919 (in force 10 January 1920)
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Europe / Global
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
Signed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on 28 June 1919 — five years to the day after the Sarajevo assassination — the Treaty of Versailles formally ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied powers.
It required Germany to accept responsibility for the war (the 'war guilt' clause), cede territory, drastically limit its armed forces, and pay heavy reparations. Part I of the treaty was the Covenant of the League of Nations, the first permanent international organisation dedicated to preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and arbitration; the League came into being when the treaty took effect on 10 January 1920. The settlement redrew the map of Europe and the Middle East and created the mandate system. Its punitive terms and the United States' refusal to ratify or join the League weakened the new order, and resentment in Germany contributed to instability that historians link to the rise of Nazism and the Second World War.
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Empires active in 28 June 1919 (in force 10 January 1920)
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Solomonic dynasty1270 CE – 1974 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Russian Revolutions of 1917March & November 1917 (February & October Revolutions, O.S.)
- Sykes-Picot Agreement partitions the Ottoman Middle East16 May 1916
- The Xinhai Revolution and the fall of the Qing1911–1912 (Wuchang Uprising 10 October 1911; abdication 12 February 1912)
- Hitler's appointment and Nazi consolidation of power30 January 1933 – August 1934
- Stalin's Great Purge (Great Terror)1936–1938
- The Munich Agreement Cedes the Sudetenland1938
Further reading
The wider story
The Penguin History of the World
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