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.
This list shows all nations and delegations who signed the Treaty of Versailles. All plenipotentiaries signed the treaty, except where indicated otherwise.[1]
| State | Plenipotentiaries | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signed under 'British Empire'. Prime Minister Borden fought successfully for Canada to have its own seat at the Conference, which the British and Americans eventually relented too, 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. | |||
| 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. | |||
| 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. | |||
| Later absorbed into Saudi Arabia. | |||
| Salvador Chamorro | |||
| Nikola Pašić Ante Trumbić Milenko Radomar Vesnić Slobodan Jovanović Miodrag Ibrovac | Later Kingdom of Yugoslavia | ||
| See also American Commission to Negotiate Peace. | |||
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 | Faisal, later King of Iraq, advocated for an independent Arab state. T.E. Lawrence acted as the delegation's translator.[2] [3] | ||
| Aromanian delegation | National Committee of the Pindus | Attempted to establish an autonomous Aromanian entity.[4] | |
| Assyrian delegation | Attempted to establish an autonomous Assyrian entity in the Assyrian homeland.[5] | ||
| Attempted to gain international recognition of the independence of Belarus.[6] | |||
| Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Estonia.[7] [8] | |||
| The unrecognized Irish Republic sent representatives in hope the republic declared at the Easter Rising in 1916 would be recognised, but they were ignored.[9] [10] | |||
| Representing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, in-exile in China.[11] | |||
| 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.[12] | |
| Jānis Čakste | Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Latvia.[13] | ||
| 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.[14] [15] [16] | ||
| Attempted to gain recognition of the independence of Lithuania.[17] | |||
| 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.[18] | |||
| [19] | |||
| 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.[20] Also solicited French or American help to seizure independence from Anglo-Russian spheres of influence in Persia.[21] | |
| 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.[22] [23] | |||
| M. Bucquet | [24] | ||
| See Central Syrian Committee. | |||
| Lobbied for the independence of Tripolitania from Italian Libya.[25] | |||
| Lobbied for the independence of Ukraine and for support in its war against Russia.[26] | |||
| Nguyen Ai Quoc (later known as Ho Chi Minh) petitioned the conference, seeking self determination and independence for the Vietnamese people.[27] [28] | |||
| Lobbied for the independence of West Ukraine. |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Held in February 1919 in order to petition the allies on African issues. | |||
| Convened and met from 10 February to 10 April 1919. | |||
| Dr. Chaim Weizmann | Lobbied for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.[29] |
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[30] [31] and has been repeated since.[32] [33] In reality, Andorra did not officially participate in World War I.[34] 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.[35]