Treaty of Versailles :: essays research papers

At eleven O' clock on the morning of November 11, 1918, the fighting ceased on the western front in France, Belgium. For almost four years the world watched the bloodiest and most expensive wars in history. Now at last, the return of peace that was so desperately desired became a reality.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Two months later the representatives of the victorious powers in Paris to write the treaties of peace. The most important of these agreements was first to be completed. In less than four months the representatives of the German government were summoned to a suburb of Paris. There, in the Hall of Mirrors in the Great Palace of the French Kings, they signed the documents that formally brought World War I to an end. The Versailles Palace thus gave the name to one of the most important treaties of Paris and in History. Out of the Versailles Treaty came the league of Nations, one of mankinds attempts to find a means of abolishing war. Many people that signed the Treaty of Versailles struggled with each other. Some people believed there were there to find a just and lasting peace, while others were there with vengeance on the mind towards Germany. The treaty also brought about conditions that aided Adolf Hitlers rise to power in Germany. It also played a significant role in causing World War II, only twenty years later.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  With the signing of the armistice, discussion in Europe had turned to where the Peace Conference would be held. The question of where this meeting would take place caused discord. The United States and Great Britain favored small cities such as Geneva or Lausanne in neutral Switzerland, but the French insisted on Paris.(Vaughan 10) The reason behind this was because forty-eight years earlier, France suffered a crushing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, The citizens of Paris watched a Prussian army match down the Champs Elysees and under the Arc de Triomphe(Hankey 23). On January 18, 1871, Bismarck and the German princes had proclaimed the birth of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors of the Versailles Palace(Knapton173). Now that the tables were turned, France wanted to pay back Germany for the humiliation they suffered. The setting for this conference was much different from the 1815 Congress of Vienna. There, a defeated France stood at the mercy of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and British Conquerors. So it was decided on that the conference would take place in Paris.