Treaty of Versailles

From 1914 through 1918 the world was engaged in a devastating conflict, as more than 70 million combatants representing more than three dozen nations took up arms against one another. Representing Great Britain, France, Russia, and (beginning in 1917) the United States, the Allied Powers fought a largely entrenched war against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. During that time, approximately 10 million soldiers on all sides were killed, and while estimates are difficult to determine, roughly 6 million civilians across Europe perished as well.

The fighting came to an end after four long years when the German army signed an armistice on November 11, 1918, the last nation of the Central Powers to do so. Yet as military actions ceased across the world, the impact of the war was far from over. The First World War had left much of France destroyed and Europe as a whole struggling to bring about a peaceful transition. With that in mind the leaders of the Allied nations came together to draft a long-term solution to bring the world back together.

The result was the Paris Peace Conference, a six-month long negotiation among the Allied Powers that culminated with the Treaty of Versailles. Far from perfect in the minds of most participants, the treaty nevertheless set the terms for how the world would begin to move forward following World War I.

As the final piece of Lest We Forget, the Pritzker Military Museum & Library presents this concluding chapter on World War I, exploring how the Treaty of Versailles laid out a post-war Europe still very much at odds with itself. Historian Michael Neiberg, Chair of War Studies at the US Army War College, describes the challenges faced by leaders, and how the treaty’s certainty was never assured. With Germany defeated, and Allied leaders looking to recoup the disastrous costs of the war, the treaty ultimately provided more questions than answers.