The Geo-Political impact of the treaties on Central and

Eastern Europe

Before 1914

Name the territories given up by Russia in 1917

Latvia Lithuania Estonia Finland Poland Ukraine Georgia

Name the territories given up by Russia in 1917

Latvia Lithuania Estonia Finland Poland

Nations that became independent after Germany’s defeat

Georgia and Ukraine formed a part of USSR

Emergence of new states (with break up of Ottoman Empire & Austria Hungary empire)

Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Poland Romania Austria Hungary

Map of europe after 1919

Map showing Ethnic Diversity

Conflicts over borders Limited in economic resources Weak governments

Problems of New Nations

Romania awarded Transylvania containing 1.5 m Magyars which was greatly resented by Hungarians

Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia had 19 millions national minorities out of a population of 98 millions

Ethnic minorities problems

Is often associated with times of great adversity, of troubles and of triumph. Having to deal with the economic difficulties and destruction of World War I, followed by the Soviet invasion during the Polish–Soviet War, and then increasingly hostile neighbors such as Nazi Germany, the Republic managed not only to endure, but to expand. Lacking an overseas empire, Poland nevertheless maintained a level of economic development and prosperity comparable to that of the West.

Poland

Czechoslovakia was created because the Treaty of Versailles tried to dismantle the Austro-Hungarian Empire according to the principles of self-determination.

Its ECONOMIC weakness was that it's economy was not based on ethnic lines, but was part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, although it DID have a very strong industrial base along its north and west border.

It DID have a strong border with Germany - a range of mountains all the way along its north and west border which were in fact well-defended by strong army emplacements.

Its FATAL WEAKNESS was that it's border-industrial-defence-emplacements area (the Sudetenland) was not inhabited by Czechs, but by Germans, who - led by a chap called Henlein - turned Nazi and rioted for unity with Germany.

Czechoslovakia

Ethnicity The new country was a multi-ethnic state. The population consisted

of Czechs (51%), Slovaks (16%), Germans (22%), Hungarians (5%) and Rusyns (4%).[5] Many of the Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians and Poles[6] and some Slovaks, felt oppressed, however, because the political elite did not generally allow political autonomy for minority ethnic groups. This policy, combined with increasing Nazi propaganda especially in the industrialized German speaking Sudetenland, led to unrest among the non-Czech population.

The state nonetheless proclaimed the official ideology that there are no Czechs and Slovaks, but only one nation of Czechoslovaks (see Czechoslovakism), to the disagreement of Slovaks and other ethic groups. Once a unified Czechoslovakia was restored after the World War II (after the country had been divided during the war), the conflict between the Czechs and the Slovaks surfaced again.

Czechoslovakia

3 millions German in Sudetenland and 3 millions Slovaks resented Czechs dominated state

This condition was exploited by Hitler to break up Czechoslovakia

Hitler encouraged Hungary and Poland to demand territories from Czechoslovakia resulting in Tschen given to Poland and ruthenis to Hungary.

Teschen (1919) Teschen was a small town between Poland and Czechoslovakia.

Its main importance was that it had valuable coal mines there which both the Poles and the Czechs wanted. As both were newly created nations, both wanted to make their respective economies as strong as possible and the acquisition of rich coal mines would certainly help in this respect.

In January 1919, Polish and Czech troops fought in the streets of Teschen. Many died. The League was called on to help and decided that the bulk of the town should go to Poland while Czechoslovakia should have one of Teschen’s suburbs. This suburb contained the most valuable coal mines and the Poles refused to accept this decision. Though no more wholesale violence took place, the two countries continued to argue over the issue for the next twenty years.

Dispute in Vilna- 1919, Treaty of Riga

Research topics

Part II

The Peace of Riga, also known as the Treaty of Riga; Polish: Traktat Ryski was signed in Riga on 18 March 1921, between Poland, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine. The treaty ended the Polish-Soviet War.

Treaty of Riga

1. Poland was to receive monetary compensation (30 million rubles in gold) for its economic input into the Russian Empire during the times of partitions of Poland.

2. Poland was also to receive railway materials (locomotives, rolling stock, etc.) with a value of 29 million gold roubles.

3. Russia was to surrender works of art and other Polish national treasures acquired from Polish territories after 1772 (such as the Załuski Library). Both sides renounced claims to war compensation.

4. border issues between Poland and Lithuania would be settled by those states.

5. Article 6 created citizenship options for persons on either side of the new border.

6. Article 7 consisted of a mutual guarantee that all nationalities would be permitted "free intellectual development, the use of their national language, and the exercise of their religion."

Terms of the Treaty

Many years before 1920, Vilna had been taken over by Russia. Historically, Vilna had been the capital of Lithuania when the state had existed in the Middle Ages. After World War One, Lithuania had been re-established and Vilna seemed the natural choice for its capital.

However, by 1920, 30% of the population was from Poland with Lithuanians only making up 2% of the city’s population. In 1920, the Poles seized Vilna. Lithuania asked for League help but the Poles could not be persuaded to leave the city. Vilna stayed in Polish hands until the outbreak of World War Two. The use of force by the Poles had won.

Vilna Dispute

Funeral of the Polish soldiers who died at Vilna

Germany saw relatively small amounts of territory transferred to Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium, a larger amount to France and the greatest portion of all to Poland. It was the loss of territory to Poland that caused by far the greatest resentment. Millions of Germans found themselves in the newly created countries as minorities

Problems faced by German Minorities

Austrian Germans resented ban on union of Austria and Germany

German-Polish relations deteriorated after West Prussia, Posen, Danzig and part of Upper Silesia was given to Poland.

Memel a German speaking territory went to Lithuania

A nationalist uprising in Turkey by Mustapha Kemal

Establishment of a Republic Turkey went to war with Greece

Impact of Treaty of Sevres on Ottoman empire

Turkey regained Smyrna Thrace Part of Armenia Part of Aegian Island

Impact of Treaty of Lusanne (1923)

As per the Treaty of London(1915) Italy should have received

1. Fiume – which became a free city 2. Dalmatia – went to Yugoslavia In 1919 Fiume was occupied by Italy but

later declared a free city as per the Treaty of Rapallo

Italian anger at the Paris Settlement

Before 1914

Map of europe after 1919

1.Emergence of Baltic States Latvia Lithuania Estonia Finland 2. Bolshevik government came to power

Soviet Union after WWI

Trade agreements with Great Britain, Poland, Finland Germany and Turkey in 1921 to build its shattered economy.

USSR remained diplomatically isolated. USSR did not join League of Nations until

1934.

Soviet Isolation

Between USSR and Germany Terms 1. Trade and financial cooperation 2. Secret military agreements-(allowing

Germany to test military equipment on Russian soil.

3. Cooperate against Poland as both lost territories to her.

Treaty of Rapallo-1922

Chanak Incident Trotsky Permanent Revolution Pg 30- course companion- Source analysis

exercise

Research

Part III

The Chanak Crisis, also called Chanak Affair in September 1922 was the threatened attack by Turkish troops on British and French troops stationed near Çanakkale (Chanak) to guard the Dardanelles neutral zone. The Turkish troops had recently defeated Greek forces and recaptured Izmir (Smyrna). The handling of the crisis by the British cabinet was a major contributor to the downfall of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. In addition, it was the occasion of the Canadian government's first assertion of diplomatic independence from Great Britain.

Chanak Incident

The theory of the permanent revolution was first developed by Trotsky as early as 1904. The permanent revolution, while accepting that the objective tasks facing the Russian workers were those of the bourgeois democratic revolution, nevertheless explained how in a backward country in the epoch of imperialism, the "national bourgeoisie" was inseparably linked to the remains of feudalism on the one hand and to imperialist capital on the other and was therefore completely unable to carry through any of its historical tasks. The rottenness of the bourgeois liberals, and their counterrevolutionary role in the bourgeois-democratic revolution, was already observed by Marx and Engels

Permanent Revolution

Trotsky was a key figure in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, second only to Vladimir Lenin in the early stages of Soviet communist rule. But he lost out to Joseph Stalin in the power struggle that followed Lenin's death, and was assassinated while in exile.

Trotsky was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein on 7 November 1879 in Yanovka, Ukraine, then part of Russia. His father was a prosperous Jewish farmer. Trotsky became involved in underground activities as a teenager. He was soon arrested, jailed and exiled to Siberia where he joined the Social Democratic Party. Eventually, he escaped Siberia and spent the majority of the next 15 years abroad, including a spell in London.

Trotsky

In 1903, the Social Democrats split. While Lenin assumed leadership of the 'Bolshevik' (minority) faction, Trotsky became a member of the 'Menshevik' (majority) faction and developed his theory of 'permanent revolution'. After the outbreak of revolution in Petrograd in February 1917, he made his way back to Russia. Despite previous disagreements with Lenin, Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks and played a decisive role in the communist take-over of power in the same year. His first post in the new government was as foreign commissar, where he found himself negotiating peace terms with Germany. He was then made war commissar and in this capacity, built up the Red Army which prevailed against the White Russian forces in the civil war. Thus Trotsky played a crucial role in keeping the Bolshevik regime alive. He saw himself as Lenin's heir-apparent, but his intellectual arrogance made him few friends, and his Jewish heritage may also have worked against him. When Lenin fell ill and died, Trotsky was easily outmanoeuvred by Stalin. In 1927, he was thrown out of the party. Internal and then foreign exile followed, but Trotsky continued to write and to criticise Stalin.

Trotsky settled in Mexico in 1936. On 20 August 1940, an assassin called Ramon Mercader, acting on Stalin's orders, stabbed Trotsky with an ice pick, fatally wounding him. He died the next day

The Little Entente was an alliance formed in 1920 and 1921 by Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia with the purpose of common defense against Hungarian irredentism and the prevention of a Habsburg restoration. France supported the alliance by signing treaties with each member country.

The Little Entente began to break down in 1936 and disbanded completely in 1938. France had seen the Little Entente as an opportunity, in the interests of French security, to revitalize the threat of a two-front war against Germany

The Little Entente

In the 1920s, France as the decisive supporter of the Little Entente pursued its policy towards tightening the alliance. Hence this power launched a series of friendship treaties aimed at forging the relations between France, Czechoslovakia, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and Romania

Source Analysis- Treaty of Rapallo

Assignment