A signature drawn in felt-tip pen, under the gilding of the Palace of Versailles. Donald Trump initialed the memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the war in the Middle East on Wednesday June 17 during a dinner organized at the historic monument. “It’s a moment of peace,” then rejoiced the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron. A center of French diplomacy, this building, emblem of the absolute monarchy, has witnessed several treaties since its construction.
🚨 President Donald J. Trump has SIGNED the Iran Memorandum of Understanding at Versailles in France. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/JQ6qlbvFAF
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 17, 2026
I manage my choices I authorize
From the second half of the 17th century until the French Revolution, all treaties with France were negotiated at Versailles. Originally a simple hunting lodge, the castle became under the reign of Louis XIV the symbol of the political and cultural power of royalty. In 1682, the Sun King decided to transfer the court, government and central administration there from Paris.
Louis XIV thus pursued a double objective, which his descendants also applied: to strengthen his control over the nobility, and to impress foreign powers with the magnificence of the castle. Thus, the historic alliance with Austria, which profoundly modified the European balance until 1789, was signed at Versailles in 1756. It was there again that the treaty was concluded by which the Republic of Genoa ceded Corsica to France in 1768.
In the 1780s, the Count of Vergennes negotiated the peace treaty at Versailles which led to the independence of the United States. Three major texts were signed there in 1783 by which the French, Spanish and Dutch, engaged alongside the American “insurgents”, recognized the cessation of hostilities with the British crown.
Double humiliation in the Hall of Mirrors
The Republic then the Empire once again moved the places of power to Paris. However, in 1871, following the French defeat against Prussia, the broad outlines of the preliminary peace agreement were defined at the Palace of Versailles, which became the Prussian headquarters in the fall of 1870. The new German Empire, to which Alsace and Lorraine were annexed, was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors. In France, the event is seen as a national humiliation.
This is why, in 1919, the same place was symbolically chosen to sign the Treaty of Versailles, which marked the end of the First World War and the defeat of the Triple Alliance (the German, Austro-Hungarian empires and Italy). “A Louis XV desk has been set up in the center under an emblematic painting of Louis
“The session lasts fifty minutes. No decorum, no music to celebrate this solemn moment. 27 delegations representing 32 powers are present, including Clemenceau for France, Wilson for the United States, and Lloyd George for Great Britain.
Loss of 68,000 km2 of territory, payment of 20 billion gold marks in compensation, demilitarization… The victorious countries (United States, Great Britain, France and other allied states) impose drastic punitive territorial, military and economic conditions on defeated Germany. Without imagining that, from this treaty signed under the auspices of History, a second world conflict will arise two decades later.
