Berlin Peace Conference, 1919 (Central Victory)

The Berlin Peace Conference was the meeting of the victorious Central Powers following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Allies following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Berlin in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 29 countries. They met, discussed and came up with a series of treaties ("Berlin Peace Treaties") that reshaped the map of Europe and the world, and imposed war guilt and financial penalties on Serbia.

At the center of the proceedings were the leaders of the three "Great Powers": Chancellor Georg Michaelis of Germany, and Minister-President Heinrich Lammasch of Austria-Hungary and Mehmed Talaat Pasha of Turkey, with Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov of Bulgaria being the next most powerful figure to create the "Big Four". The newly communist Russia was not invited to attend, but numerous other nations did send delegations, each with a different agenda. Kings, prime ministers and foreign ministers with their crowds of advisers rubbed shoulders with journalists and lobbyists for a hundred causes, ranging from independence for their countries to women's rights.

For six months Berlin was effectively the center of a world government, as the peacemakers wound up bankrupt empires and created new countries. The most important results included a punitive peace treaty that declared Serbia guilty, weakened the French military, and required them to pay all the costs of the war to the winners. The Conference also created the Mitteleuropa. Historians debate whether or not the terms imposed on the Allies helped the rise of the Soviet Union and were thus a cause of World War II, and whether the terms were the best that could be expected.