The peace settlement signed on June 28, 1919, that formally ended the First World War — imposing disarmament, territorial losses, reparations, and the war guilt clause on Germany, establishing the League of Nations, and creating the political conditions that made the rise of Hitler and the Second World War possible, or so the dominant interpretation holds.
The peace treaty that ended the First World War was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles — the same room where the German Empire had been proclaimed forty-eight years earlier. The symbolism was intentional. So, many argue, was everything that followed.