August 1st, 1914, the war was officially declared in response to the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand. The war lasted 4 years and ended on November 11th, 1918, with the Armistice. When the Armistice was signed, it was agreed that there would be a Peace Conference in Paris to discuss the post-war world. The conference opened on January 12th, 1919, and meeting was held at various places around Paris until January 20th, 1920. There were 32 states represented at this conference, which represent 75% of the world population at that time. However, the negotiations were mainly between the five major powers that defeated the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria). Those five major powers were: France, Great Britain, United States, Italy and Japan. The defeated were not even part of the negotiations. A part for the United States, all countries had a bad economy due to the lost of millions of talented young men and vast areas of land devastated by the war. They wanted reparations from Germany to help make up for the losses. Politicians knew they could get the support of the people and get elected if they demanded a harsh peace settlement with Germany. The Paris Peace Conference finally ended with the ratification of five treatises that dealt with the defeated powers. Those five treatises were named after five Paris suburbs: Versailles (Germany), St Germain (Austria), Trianon (Hungary), Neuilly (Bulgaria) and Serves (Turkey). The treatises imposed territorial losses, liabilities and military restrictions on members of the Central Powers. However, the most important treaty was the one with Germany: the Treaty of Versailles. .
In this second part, the different aims of the Paris Peace Conference will be examined. After the Great War, the "Big Three- (France, United States and Great Britain) had to find a peace settlement but also had to deal with social pressure.