The Austrian delegation to Paris was led by the Social Democrat minister Karl Renner who had little choice but to agree to the redrawing of national borders that saw the emergence of several independent nations and the reduction of Austrian power.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip in 1914 had a direct effect on the outbreak of war, while the Treaty of Versailles was signed on exactly the same date five years later in 1919.