Paris Peace Conference

The Paris Peace Conference was the 1919 gathering where the Allied powers negotiated peace treaties with the states defeated in World War I. Its settlements reshaped borders, imposed terms, and established the League of Nations.

Armistice of 11 November 1918: The agreement that ended fighting between the Allies and Germany on the Western Front in 1918. It stopped the fighting but left the Allies to negotiate the peace settlement.
Council of Four: The group of leaders from the United States, Britain, France, and Italy that made the conference’s central decisions. Its meetings concentrated the decisive negotiations among the leading Allied powers.
League of Nations: An international organization founded in 1920 to promote cooperation and prevent war. The conference established the League as a central part of the postwar order.
Carthaginian peace: A peace settlement designed to cripple or humiliate a defeated enemy. Critics used this analogy to condemn the severity of the terms imposed on Germany.
Fourteen Points: Woodrow Wilson’s 1918 principles for a postwar settlement, including national self-determination and a general association of nations. Wilson brought these proposals to Paris as a basis for peace, though the final terms departed from them.
Treaty of Versailles: The 1919 treaty that formally ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers. It was the conference’s principal settlement and imposed terms on Germany.
Mandate system: The League of Nations system that assigned former German and Ottoman territories to administration by other powers. The conference’s territorial settlement placed these territories under Allied-mandated rule.
Self-determination: The principle that peoples should determine their own political status and government. It shaped claims at Paris but was applied selectively across the settlement.
Allied powers of World War I: The coalition that fought the Central Powers in World War I, led by Britain, France, Russia, and later the United States. The conference was chiefly directed by the victorious Allied governments.
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye: The 1919 treaty that established peace between the Allied powers and Austria. It translated the collapse of Austria-Hungary into a settlement with Austria.

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