The Paris Peace Conference gathered over 30 nations at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris, France, to shape the future after World War I. The Russian SFSR was not invited to attend, having already concluded a peace treaty with the Central Powers in the spring of 1918. The Central Powers - Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire - were not allowed to attend the conference until after the details of all the peace treaties had been elaborated and agreed upon. The main result of the conference was the Treaty of Versailles with Germany.
Signing delegations
This list shows all nations and delegations who signed the Treaty of Versailles. All plenipotentiaries signed the treaty, except where indicated otherwise.
State Plenipotentiaries Notes Billy HughesJoseph Cook Ismael Montes Paul HymansJules Van den HeuvelEmile Vandervelde Robert BordenCharles DohertyArthur Sifton Signed under 'British Empire'. Prime Minister Borden fought for Canada to have its own seat at the Conference, which the British and Americans eventually relented to, opening the doors to allowing Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and South Africa to send representatives as well. Borden also insisted that he be included among those leaders to sign the Treaty of Versailles; however, it was agreed that Canada would sign under the British Empire. Lu ZhengxiangWellington KooCao Rulin Many in China felt betrayed as the German territory in China was handed to Japan. Wellington Koo refused to sign the treaty and the Chinese delegation was the only nation that did not sign the Treaty of Versailles at the signing ceremony. At the time of the Paris Peace Conference there were two governments claiming to be the legitimate government of China: the Beiyang Government in Beijing, and Dr Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou based Kuomintang (KMT) movement. However, they worked together to create the united diplomatic team that would plead China's case in Paris. Antonio Sánchez de Bustamante y Sirven Czechoslovakia Karel KramářEdvard Beneš Enrique Darn y de Alsua France Georges ClemenceauStephen PichonLouis-Lucien KlotzAndré TardieuJules Cambon Hermann MüllerJohannes Bell Germany were excluded from the negotiations, but Hermann Müller and Johannes Bell, as government ministers in the new Weimar Republic, signed the treaty as representatives of Germany on 29 June 1919. Eleftherios VenizelosNicolas Politis Joaquín Méndez Haiti Tertullien Guilbaud Rustam HaidarAbdul Hadi Aouni Later absorbed into Saudi Arabia. Policarpo Bonilla India Edwin Samuel MontaguGanga Singh Vittorio Emanuele OrlandoSidney SonninoGuglielmo ImperialiSilvio Crespi Saionji KinmochiMakino NobuakiChinda SutemiMatsui Keishirō Charles D. B. King William Ferguson Massey Salvador Chamorro Antonio Burgos Carlos de Candamo Poland Ignacy Jan PaderewskiRoman Dmowski Afonso CostaAugusto Soares Ion I. C. BrătianuConstantin Coandă Nikola PašićAnte TrumbićMilenko Radomar VesnićSlobodan JovanovićMiodrag Ibrovac Later Kingdom of Yugoslavia Siam Charoonsakdi KritakaraTraidos Prabandhu Jan SmutsLouis Botha David Lloyd GeorgeBonar LawAlfred Milner, 1st Viscount MilnerArthur BalfourGeorge Barnes Woodrow WilsonRobert LansingHenry WhiteEdward M. HouseTasker H. Bliss See also American Commission to Negotiate Peace. Juan Antonio Buero
Other national representatives
Despite not signing the treaties, other delegations were sent to the Paris Peace Conferences, some uninvited, in order to represent their national interests.
Nation Representatives Notes Arab delegation FaisalLawrence of Arabia Faisal, later King of Iraq, advocated for an independent Arab state. T. E. Lawrence acted as the delegation's translator. First Republic of Armenia Avetis AharonianHamo OhanjanyanArmen Garo Aromanian delegation National Committee of the Pindus Attempted to establish an autonomous Aromanian entity. Assyrian delegation Bishop Aphrem Baroum Attempted to establish an autonomous Assyrian entity in the Assyrian homeland. Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan Alimardan bey Topchubashov Belarusian Democratic Republic Anton Luckievich Attempted to gain international recognition of the independence of Belarus. Jaan PoskaNikolai KöstnerJaan TõnissonAnts PiipKarl Robert PustaMihkel MartnaEduard LaamanJoakim Puhk Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Estonia. Ethiopian Empire Dejazmach TafariDejazmatch Nadew Sought international recognition of its territorial integrity and independence from Italian Eritrea, British Somaliland and French Somaliland. Also wanted to be considered not a "barbarous state" but rather a "civilised [African] country" with unique interests, so that it might strengthen its position on the world stage as a subject of international law, being capable of participating in the international arena instead of remaining isolated. Democratic Republic of Georgia Nikolay ChkheidzeIrakli TsereteliZurab Avalishvili Irish Republic Seán T. O'Kelly The unrecognized Irish Republic sent representatives in hope the republic declared at the Easter Rising in 1916 would be recognised, but they were ignored. Korean Provisional Government Kim Kyu-sik Representing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, in-exile in China. Kurdish delegation Şerif Pasha Representing Society for the Rise of Kurdistan and its goal to establish an independent country, or an autonomous entity, in Kurdistan. Zionist OrganizationDr. Chaim WeizmannLobbied for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Daoud Amoun (first delegation)Elias Peter Hoayek (second delegation)Abdullah El-Khoury (third delegation) Three separate delegations were sent to attempt to: expand the borders of Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate and to gain recognition of the independence of Lebanon. Jānis Čakste Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Latvia. Augustinas VoldemarasAntanas Smetona Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Lithuania. Nicholas I of Montenegro The unification of Serbia and Montenegro on 18 November 1918 was contested by the exiled king of Montenegro. Despite Italian support, Montenegro was denied an official seat at the Peace Conferences, and the unification of Serbia and Montenegro was recognised. William F. Lloyd Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus Abdulmajid Tapa Tchermoeff Persia Mostowfi ol-MamalekVosugh od-DowlehMohammad Ali Foroughi Iranians, as a neutral power, negotiated war reparations to both, Allies and Central Powers (suggesting Ottoman and Russian territory) due to Persian campaign. Also solicited French or American help to seizure independence from Anglo-Russian spheres of influence in Persia. Russia Sergey Sazonov The Allied Powers refused to recognise the Bolshevik government of Russia, and instead invited representatives of the Russian Provisional Government (chaired by Prince Lvov), the successor to the Russian Constituent Assembly and the political arm of the Russian White movement. M. Bucquet Chekri GanemJamil Mardam Bey See Central Syrian Committee. Tripolitanian Republic Lobbied for the independence of Tripolitania from Italian Libya. Ukrainian People's Republic Hryhorii SydorenkoMykhailo Tyshkevych Lobbied for the independence of Ukraine and for support in its war against Russia. Nguyen Ai Quoc Nguyen Ai Quoc (later known as Ho Chi Minh) petitioned the conference, seeking self determination and independence for the Vietnamese people. Vasyl Paneiko Until December 1919, part of the Ukrainian People's Republic mission. Following negotiations with Poland, lobbied for the independence of West Ukraine.
Non-national representatives
Other non-national or pan-national delegations were in Paris, hoping to petition the allies on issues relating to their causes.
Group Major People Notes 1st Pan-African Congress W. E. B. Du BoisIda Gibbs Held in February 1919 in order to petition the allies on African issues. Inter-Allied Women's Conference Marguerite de Witt-Schlumberger Convened and met from 10 February to 10 April 1919.
Oversights An oft-stated myth is that the Principality of Andorra was not invited to attend, due to an 'oversight' and that the issue of Andorra being at war was eventually resolved on September 24, 1958, when a peace treaty was signed. This claim first appeared in North American newspapers in 1958 and has been repeated since.E.g., "Skin-flicks in Shangri-La", The Economist, 1974; Time, 1960. In reality, Andorra did not officially participate in World War I. In 2014, the news outlet Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra investigated the 1958 claim and could find no documentation of any original declaration of war. Historian Pere Cavero could only find an exchange of letters between the German consul in Marseille and the Catalan Ombudsman, where the former asks if there is a state of war with Andorra and the latter responds they could find nothing in their archive to indicate this.
See also League for Small and Subject Nationalities
References