28 June 1919, the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the room where Germany proclaimed its empire in 1871, chosen for exactly that reason. For six months Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George have redrawn the world in Paris. Germany was not at the table.
Why then
The war has killed millions and bankrupted the winners. France has been invaded twice in fifty years; Britain needs a Germany that can still trade; America brings a league and a sermon. The old empires have already collapsed, and armies are still fighting over the borders the conference draws.
What they wanted
Wilson hopes to lock in a liberal order with his Fourteen Points. Clemenceau means to make sure Germany can never march west again. Lloyd George has an election to win and a balance to keep. German democrats must survive a peace they did not negotiate.
What changed
Germany loses its colonies, an eighth of its land and most of its army, and signs a clause blaming it for the war. The Ottoman Arab lands become British and French 'mandates' under the League. The reparations bill will poison the 1920s.
Still argued
Keynes called it a Carthaginian peace, one meant to destroy the loser as Rome destroyed Carthage. Margaret MacMillan argues it was a workable compromise that Germany later turned into a myth.