Paris Peace Conference

(1919–20) Meeting that inaugurated the international settlement after World War I. It opened on Jan. 12, 1919, with representatives from more than 30 countries. The principal delegates were France's Georges Clemenceau, Britain's David Lloyd George, the U.S.'s Woodrow Wilson, and Italy's Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, who with their foreign ministers formed a Supreme Council.

Commissions were appointed to study specific financial and territorial questions, including reparations. The major products of the conference were the League of Nations; the Treaty of Versailles, presented to Germany; the Treaty of Saint-Germain, presented to Austria; and the Treaty of Neuilly, presented to Bulgaria. The inauguration of the League of Nations on Jan. 16, 1920, brought the conference to a close. Treaties were subsequently concluded with Hungary (Treaty of Trianon, 1920) and Turkey (Treaties of Sèvres, 1920, and Lausanne, 1923).