VERSAILLES 



6071 



VERTEBRATES 



sailles has a school of military engineering and 

 artillery and is the seat of a bishopric. It is 

 also a garrison town, but is not important in- 

 dustrially. During the siege of Paris in 1870- 

 1871, the German army made Versailles its 

 headquarters, and for a period after the war the 

 town was the official capital of France. Popu- 

 lation in 1911, 60,458. 



Palace of Versailles. This is one of the most 

 magnificent palaces in the world. It is said 

 that Louis XIV spent over $100,000,000 on it 

 and on the park beyond. The palace is three 

 stories high, in form a great square, with a wing 

 at either side and one in the back, projecting 

 into the park. Above the center of the impos- 

 ing facade, which is a quarter of a mile in 

 length, are the words A toutcs les gloires de la 

 France ("To all the glories of France"). Within 

 are shown the apartments of Louis XIV, with 

 the furnishings much as they were in his day; 

 the room in which Louis XV died; the cham- 

 bers of Marie Antoinette, and the museum of 

 art and history for which the palace is to-day 

 chiefly noteworthy. Paintings and statuary 

 show, as far as may be, the history of France 

 from the days of Clovis, great galleries being 

 devoted to the different historical epochs. 

 Especially interesting are the rooms which 

 contain relics of the Crusades. 



The park, with its fountains, terraced gar- 

 dens, lakes, avenues and formally clipped trees, 

 is of much interest, though it is distinctly of 

 the artificial rather than the natural type. The 

 display when the fountains are running is beau- 

 tiful, and attracts huge crowds of visitors. So 

 great is the expense for such an exhibition, 

 ver, that it is usually not given oftener 

 than once a month. 



After its construction by Louis XIV, Ver- 

 sailles was the royal residence of several suc- 

 ceeding kings. Here were built the Grand and 

 mon for the favorites of Louis 

 XIV and Louis XV, and here lived Louis XVI 

 and Marie Antoinette. The wasteful luxury of 

 the life thry 1 .1 c nmp <1 the people of Paris, 

 who in 1789 marched to the palace and com- 

 pelled the king an-: > return with them 

 iie city. The famous meeting of the States- 

 General, with which the French Revolution 

 !y began, was held in the Palace of Ver- 

 s, which had also been the scene, seven 

 re earlier, of the signing of the preliminary 

 agreement at the close of the war between Eng- 

 . and the American colonies. R.D.M. 



Consult De Nolhac'a Versailles and the Tria- 

 non, English translation (1912). 



VERSAILLES, TREATY OF, a series of agree- 

 ments signed in the Hall of Mirrors, in the 

 Palace of Versailles, summing up the conclu- 

 sions and penalties growing out of the War of 

 the Nations. The preliminary tasks of the 

 envoys of the victorious allied and associated 

 powers were completed at Paris between Jan- 

 uary and June, 1919; the conference was domi- 

 nated by Great Britain, France, the United 

 States, Italy, and in lesser degree, by Japan. 

 The "big four" of the group of statesmen were 

 Premiers Lloyd George of Great Britain, Clem- 

 enceau of France, Orlando of Italy and Presi- 

 dent Wilson of the United States. 



On June 28 representatives of twenty-nine 

 nations (including Australia, the Union of South 

 Africa, Canada, India and New Zealand) wit- 

 nessed two envoys of the new German nation 

 sign with them the treaty which stripped Ger- 

 many of power and reduced it to the position 

 of a nation incapable of conquest. The original 

 German commission appointed to attend the 

 Versailles conference refused to sign the treaty, 

 and the German Cabinet imposed the duty 

 upon Johannes Bell, Minister of Colonies, and 

 Herman Mueller, Minister of Foreign Affairs. 

 On page 2479 will be found the penalties ex- 

 acted of the German nation. 



The treaty with each of the powers of the 

 Germanic alliance was considered separately. 

 The Austrian penalties, as tentatively arranged, 

 are given on page 502. On September 1st full 

 demands upon Bulgaria and Turkey had not 

 been formulated. Bulgaria strove to secure ad- 

 ditions of territory that would bring practically 

 all Bulgars under its government. Turkey 

 could hope for little comfort. The "Sick Man 

 of Europe," as the sultan had been termed for 

 many years, knew that he would lose all power 

 in Europe and that in Asia he would be de- 

 prived of the greater part of his domain, leav- 

 ing to him only Anatolia, which is almost en- 

 tin ly occupied by Turks. All of his subject 

 peoples, which he had ruled with unparalleled 

 cruelty, were to be given their freedom, under 

 the protection : Christian powers (see 



i age 5914). See WAB or THE NATIONS. 



VERTEBRATES, vwr'tc brayU, or VERTE- 

 BRATA, vurtcbra'ta, the highest branch of 

 the animal kingdom, including all animals 

 which possess backbones. The various groups 

 comprising the vertebrate animals are mam- 

 mals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The 

 spinal column, or backbone, is made up of seg- 

 ments called vertebrae, to which are attached 

 the ribs and the bones supporting the jointed 



