January 25, 1919

League of Nations

Paris Peace Conference Approves a League of Nations Resolution and Drafting Commission

The purported founding took the form of a unanimous vote appointing a committee. The League had no members, no Council and no Secretariat yet.

A resolution and a committee

At 3 p.m. on 25 January 1919, Georges Clemenceau opened the Paris Peace Conference's second plenary session and presided over it. Woodrow Wilson addressed the delegates in support of placing a League of Nations at the centre of the peace settlement.

With no delegate requesting further debate, the conference unanimously adopted a resolution declaring a League essential to the settlement — one that should be an integral part of the general peace treaty and should possess periodic conferences, a permanent organisation and a secretariat.

It then appointed a representative committee to work out the League's constitution and functions.

What did not exist that afternoon

No operating international organisation came into being on 25 January. There were no member states, no Council, no Assembly and no Secretariat.

The commission was initially designed around fifteen seats — two representatives from each of five great powers plus five from powers with special interests. The smaller powers selected Belgium, Brazil, China, Portugal and Serbia on 27 January, and the commission began meeting on 3 February.

It held ten meetings before presenting a first draft Covenant on 14 February.

Which date the institution actually starts from

The Covenant was approved in revised form on 28 April, became part of the Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June, and entered into force on 10 January 1920. The first Council met on 16 January 1920.

Different references therefore use different institutional birth dates, but the League's commencement is ordinarily tied to the Covenant's entry into force rather than to the January resolution.

The United States appeared in the Covenant's annex as an intended original member, never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, and never joined.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

January 25 is firmly documented, but calling it the day the League was founded overstates the action. It was the date the conference approved the principle and authorized a drafting commission.
The Covenant was unanimously approved in revised form on April 28, incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles signed June 28, and entered into force on January 10, 1920. Different references therefore use different institutional 'birth' dates.