I.

Introduction

Treaty of Versailles, peace treaty signed at the end of World War I between Germany and the Allies. It was negotiated during the Paris Peace Conference held in Versailles beginning January 18, 1919. Represented were the United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy; the German Republic, which had replaced the imperial German government at the end of the war, was excluded from the parley. Included in the first section of the treaty was the Covenant of the League of Nations, the world's first peacekeeping body, which was given the responsibility for executing the terms of the various treaties negotiated after World War I. The treaty was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles near Paris. (The United States did not ratify the agreement but signed a separate Treaty of Berlin with Germany on July 2, 1921.)