This resulted in bitter discussion amongst the leftists, and the refusal of a small group of them to disarm. View the list of all donors. Pretend Democracy: Plebescites for Territory in the Treaty of Versailles Much of the war had been fought on French soil, so France wanted to be given control of many of Germany's factories. The world adopted a new term to describe Germanys successful war tactic: Blitzkrieg, or lightning war. The tactic consisted of staging a surprise attack with massive, concentrated forces of fast-moving armored units supported by overwhelming air power. Rossino, Alexander B.Hitler Strikes Poland: Blitzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity. The result was said to be a compromise that nobody liked. Britain and France essentially acquiesced as Nazi Germany. Not until the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was its stranglehold on American politics broken. Washington, DC 20024-2126 The incident in Frankfurt gave rise to a high-profile campaign on the part of the government and the press to vilify French colonial troops, a topic that had already been used for propaganda in purposes during the war and the occupation of the Rhineland in 1919. The more radical Independent Social Democrats, and later the Communists, were strengthened. Though evidently effective, Roosevelts move has had a problematic legacy. Newer Post , In February 1920, as part of the preparation for the plebiscite, an Allied force under French General Jules Gratier and consisting of 5000 Italian and 15,000 French troops arrived. There were ongoing tensions with the Allies surrounding the implementation of the Treaty of Versailles. The final vote, on March 19, 1920, was on Lodges reservationist resolution. Germany - Treaty, WWI, Versailles | Britannica Des soldats noirs dans une guerre de blancs (1914-1922) : une histoire mondiale (Editions de l'Universit de Bruxelles, 2015). Treaty of Versailles - National Geographic Society But the sporadic violence continued. The President of the United States had done more than any to promote the Leagues cause. Wilsons defeat marked the outer limit of U.S. foreign policy for a generation. However, the Lausanne agreement was contingent upon the United States agreeing to also defer payment of the war debt owed them by the Western European governments. In May 1929 the Young Plan reduced further payments to 112 billion GM (U.S. $26,350,000,000) over a period of 59 years. As of spring 1920, the idea of the Schwarze Schmach, or Black Shame, regularly made headlines in Germany and in the parliament in Berlin. By this time Germany had paid only one-eighth of the sum required under the Treaty of Versailles. Belgium had been picked clean. Complicating the issue was that Upper Silesia had long had its own regional identity, based on Catholicism, troubled relations with Prussia, and the local mixing of German and Polish languages. The last resistance of Polish units ended on October 6. The last operational Polish unit surrendered on October 6. La Honte Noire (Hachette, 2004), Le Figaro, numro du 8 avril 1920 (via Gallica), Stengers, Jean. Find topics of interest and explore encyclopedia content related to those topics, Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically, Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust, Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. Secret treaties were also to be discouraged, and Britain and France greeted a call for the reduction in armaments by all nations with disapproval. In response to Hitlers threat to wage war against Czechoslovakia, British and French leaders signed the Munich Agreement in September 1938. This made sense in the context of Frances policy of supporting a strong Poland, and weakening Germany. Zaloga, Steve. The Silesian Uprisings (Polish: Powstania lskie; German: Aufstnde in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstnde) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic at the time. The conflict in Upper Silesia (1921) - ICRC This excitement degenerated into aggression, and our soldiers had to use their weapons in self-defence.. As such Germany was liable for all material damages. The League's top political body, the Council (on which today's United Nations Security Council is modelled), met formally for the first time on January 16, 1920. Supposedly, the isolationists represented a deeply rooted national sentiment that went back on George Washingtons 1796 Farewell Address, on which Thomas Jefferson built when he famously warned against entangling alliances at his 1801 inauguration. This left the important question of the conflicting claims of Germany and Poland to the bulk of Upper Silesia. The other portion of the Dual Monarchy, Hungary also became an independent state: under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon (November 1920) Hungary ceded Transylvania to Romania; Slovakia and Transcarpathian Rus to the newly formed Czechoslovakia; and other Hungarian crown lands to the future Yugoslavia. 21-01-2005. Borah and Johnson were prominent progressives and anti-imperialists, who saw the Treaty and Covenant as violations of the precepts of international law they had always defended. L'accord militaire franco-belge de 1920 et le Luxembourg (Revue belge de de Philologie et d'Histoire, 2004), Pppinghege, Rainer: Republik im Brgerkrieg. So the Ruhr Uprising and extended French occupation had barely ended by the time the Spa Conferences tough negotiations began. In Germany, commercial transport vessels, including all ocean liners, locomotives, commercial motor vehicles, factory equipment and anything else that was not "nailed down" was confiscated. French troops then fired on the Germans, killing some of them. But when a second resolution of ratification was put to a vote on March 19 (scarcely two months after the Council meeting), it, too, failed to gain a two-thirds majority. The new Republic of Turkey, established in its aftermath, signed a superseding Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, effectively partitioning the old Ottoman Empire. Negotiations between the allied powers started on May 7, the anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. French military had taken over towns in key locations such as Gau Algesheim, forcing homelessness upon inhabitants. The League of Nations was intended to arbitrate international disputes and thereby avoid future wars. The 1924 Dawes Plan modified Germany's reparation payments. Germany launched the unprovoked attack at dawn on September 1, 1939, with an advance force consisting of more than 2,000 tanks supported by nearly 900 bombers and over 400 fighter planes. Clemenceau also wanted to symbolically destroy the old, militaristic Germanysomething that could have been achieved by never allowing the pre-1914 politicians back into politics and by hanging the Kaiser (who had abdicated towards the end of the war and fled to Holland). The Hlunsko Hulczyn area of Upper Silesia to, The area of German cities Eupen and Malmedy to, The area of Soldau in East Prussia (railway station on the Warsaw-, From the eastern part of West Prussia and the southern part of East Prussia, Warmia and Masuria, a small area to Poland. Crucially, the reservationists were not opposed to the treaties, U.S. membership in the League, or a role for America in upholding the postwar order. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Even some British newspapers picked up on the story and within days, France was forced to withdraw its colonial troops but this only added fuel to the fire as it seemed to acknowledge the claims of the Germans. There was a Polish counter-demonstration and violence broke out as several Polish-speaking demonstrators were killed. Civil War in Central Europe, 1918-1921 (Oxford University Press, 2019), Gietinger, Klaus. The Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Svres on August 10, 1920, ending hostilities with the Allied Powers; but shortly thereafter a Turkish War of Independence began. A Plebiscite Police force consisting of locals from both groups was established, but it could not halt the cycle of intimidation, violence and murder. *Buying via this link supports The Great War (Affiliate-Link), Older Post The Hlunsko Hulczyn area of Upper Silesia to Czechoslovakia (area 316 or 333 km, 49,000 inhabitants), The eastern part of Upper Silesia to Poland (area 3,214 km, . This did not deter Hitler, who was determined not to be dissuaded from war by either threats or concessions. In all, several thousand leftists were arrested and 1200 of them were kept at a former prisoner of war camp. Weimar Republic - Treaty, Versailles, 1919 | Britannica However, the Lausanne agreement was contingent upon the United States . Clemenceau was the most radical member of the Big Four, and received the nickname Le Tigre (The Tiger). If you want do dive more in to the details, we have put together some excellent books on every subject. Upper Silesia on March 20, 1921, an overall majority voted to remain with Germany. By. More recently, however, a new point of view has gained currency, well-articulated by historian Gerhard Weinberg in his book A World at Arms, that the treaty was in fact quite advantageous to Germany and far more generous than it had a right to expect. We still tend to think in terms of isolationists versus internationalists today. The way in which the U.S. assumed global leadership after 1945, under his Democratic heirs Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, was in large part a response to it. The French and Belgians on the other hand, were concerned. Germany was neither crushed nor conciliated, which, in retrospect, did not bode well for the future of Germany, Europe, or the world as a whole. Indeed, the ease with which Germany later shook off the treaty's restrictions argues strongly against its being the "Carthaginian peace" of John Maynard Keynes' formulation. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty that officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and the German Empire. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2007. A colorized 1931 postcard of the League's Geneva headquarters, the Palais Wilson, named in honor of Woodrow Wilson. The government in Berlin ordered its forces to stop there, but General Oskar von Watter viewed this as civilian interference in military affairs, and argued that the advance should continue a sign that the German military had still not adjusted to post-war civilian control. On June 28, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, France. France wanted revenge, Britain wanted a relatively strong, economically viable Germany as a counterweight to French dominance on Continental Europe, and the U.S. wanted the creation of a permanent peace as quickly as possible, with financial compensation for its military expenditures and the destruction of the old empires. [caption=020993dc-cabe-4014-aed6-86ebf73280aa] - [credit=020993dc-cabe-4014-aed6-86ebf73280aa]. In particular, the German Sicherheitspolizei was active in preventing the Poles from politically organizing themselves. [1] East Upper Silesia is the easternmost extremity of Silesia, the eastern part of the Upper Silesian region around the city of Katowice . The View From Prague and Bratislava. On April 3, following an ultimatum, the German authorities decided that the various leftist groups were not fully complying with the Bielefeld agreement or were doing so too slowly they would attack. Worries about the future of liberal international order under the Trump administration are regularly tied to the supposed isolationism of his electorate. Per Treaty of Versailles: most of Prussian provinces of Posen and West Prussia, eastern Upper Silesia and the area of Dziadowo: . One seat at the main table, where the Councils permanent members sat underneath a statue symbolizing France, had been left empty for Woodrow Wilson. 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite - Wikipedia This clause forced Germany to accept complete responsibility for initiating World War I. German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II. In retrospect, a good case can be made that Germany was in a superior strategic position in 1919 than it had been five years earlier. Poland mobilized late, and political considerations forced its army into a disadvantageous deployment. Also, he wanted to maintain and possibly increase Britains colonies, and both he and Clemenceau felt threatened by Wilsons self-determination, which they saw as a direct threat to their respective empires. Wilson could not attend the Council meeting, however, because he was locked in an increasingly bitter struggle with the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., over ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the state of war between the Allies and Germany. It should be noted that for the purpose of the plebiscite the purely German districts of . Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. Revision of the Versailles Treaty represented one of the platforms that gave radical right wing parties in Germany, including Hitler's Nazi Party, such credibility to mainstream voters in the early 1920s and early 1930s. revoked the Versailles treatys limitations on its military (1935). This would have taken Germany 65 years to pay. ISBN links support NWE through referral fees. BBC - History - World Wars: Versailles and Peacemaking Half the Wilsonian Democrats consequently joined the irreconcilables in voting against. Only two months before, on November 19, 1919, the upper chamber of Congress had refused to back the Treaty Wilson had painstakingly negotiated over the first six months of that year. The traditional way in which the Treaty fight was long remembered is as a conflict between Wilsonian internationalists and so-called isolationists. According to this narrative, the former wanted deeper American participation in global affairs and international organization. President Woodrow Wilson, photographed in 1919. There was also pressure from the Conservatives (who were part of the coalition government) demanding that Germany be punished severely in order to prevent such a war in the future as well as to preserve Britains empire. At first, the Communist newspaper The Spartacist was outraged at the negotiations and created its own stab in the back accusation: [The Bielefeld delegates] in complete abandonment of their proletarian duty plunged a dagger into the back of the fighting masses of the proletariat. (Popp 93). But while the Germany army was crushing the Ruhr Uprising by entering the neutral zone, the French had decided to take action and make good on their previous warnings. In Britain, public opinion tended to favor some revision of the territorial and military provisions of the Versailles treaty. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw officially surrendered to the Germans on September 28, 1939. German military buildup began almost immediately, in direct defiance of the treaty, which, by then, had been destroyed by Hitler in front of a cheering crowd. France had suffered more materially than the other parties in the "Big Four" and had insisted upon harsh terms. The Treaty of Versailles called for a plebiscite in Upper Silesia, which was partly claimed by Poland and entirely claimed by Germany. Alsace and Lorraine, annexed in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, returned to France. . The self-proclaimed Ruhr Red Army defeated local right-wing Freikorps units in bloody skirmishes in the second half of March, and enjoyed some protection from any eventual attacks from the German army because much of the areas it controlled were in the neutral zone. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland, sealing Polands fate. Prior to World War II, the Second Polish Republic administered the area as . In October 1939, Germany directly annexed former Polish territories along Germany's eastern border: West Prussia, Poznan (Pozna), Upper Silesia, and the former Free City of Danzig. The Leipzig Trial, without the Kaiser or other significant national leaders in the dock, resulted mainly in acquittals and was widely perceived as a sham, even in Germany. This essay will examine the effect of the Treaty of Versailles on the region of Upper Silesia. Moreover, Germany was forbidden to maintain an air force. Much of the Leagues economic and social work was funded by philanthropies like the Rockefeller Foundation. The planned advance of the German Army would be a violation of the terms of the Versailles Treaty, so the Germans asked the Allies if they could send in their troops anyway. France had suffered terrible human and economic losses during the war, and was finding its British ally was less steadfast once the armistice had been signed. Thousands of German troops were moved in, and within a week the uprising had been put down. The Fourteen Points, delivered by the President of the United States to the American congress in January 1918, and his subsequent addresses represented an ambitious and idealistic bid by Woodrow. The " former eastern territories of Germany " ( German: Ehemalige deutsche Ostgebiete) refer in present-day Germany to those territories east of the current eastern border of Germany i.e. The "Big Four" that negotiated the treaty consisted of Prime Minister David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, President Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States of America. The British Upper Silesia Force was one the first military operations that can recognisably be judged as 'modern' peacekeeping. Under Wilsons Republican successor Warren G. Harding, it hosted the Washington Naval Conference, the most important arms control conference of the era, and one of the most comprehensive of all time. Germany was not invited to France to discuss the treaty. Because Germany was not allowed to take part in the negotiations, the German government issued a protest to what it considered to be unfair demands, and soon afterwards withdrew from the proceedings. For the German press and government, this was a massacre of innocents carried out by soldiers of an inferior, bloodthirsty race, which the French should not have sent into Germany out of principle a thought that echoed wartime propaganda. Britain and France stood by their guarantee of Poland's border and declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Politically, the Majority Social Democrats had sided once again with the army, and the Freikorps, as they had during previous crises since the armistice, and this seriously weakened their support amongst their traditional working class base. "A Peace Conference at the Quai d'Orsay," by William Orpen (1919) (left); the "Big Four" at the WWI Paris peace conference, May 27, 1919: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George; Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando; French Premier Georges Clemenceau; U.S. President Woodrow Wilson (right). The judgment6 was handed down on May 25, 1926. France is also faced with the fact that the German government broke its word, which had been personally given during negotiations. (Le Figaro, La note francaise, April 8, 1920). But the peace treaty did not ultimately help to settle the international disputes which had initiated World War I. The organization created to end war, the League of Nations, began its functional existence with an empty chair crisis. In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion. The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a referendum for the self-determination of the population of Upper Silesia that was required by the Treaty of Versailles. Later, a new German foreign minister, Hermann Mller, agreed to sign it on June 28, 1919. France had suffered heavy casualties during the war (some 1.24 million military and forty thousand civilians dead). The sooner we recognize this, the sooner a more open, intelligent and productive debate on the U.S.s place in the world will be possible. At Versailles, it was difficult to decide on a common position because everyones aims conflicted with one another. However, in making that claim, it was disregarding the treaty provisions for partitioning the area according to the wishes of the Read More All German overseas colonies became League of Nation Mandates, and the city of Danzig, with its large ethnically German population, became a Free City. No military air force was allowed. Wilson hoped his proposal would bring about a just and lasting peace, a "peace without victory" to end the "war to end all wars.". Treaty of Versailles After the devastation of World War I, the victorious powers imposed a series of treaties upon the defeated powers. Alsace and Lorraine, annexed in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War, returned to France. The treaty restricted the Navy to vessels under 10,000 tons, with a ban on the acquisition or maintenance of a submarine fleet. Crowds celebrate the announcement of the end of World War I in Philadelphia, 11 November 1918. The total sum due was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission and was set at 6.6 billion. Silesia is a historical region in east-central Europe spanning the territory named Magna Germania by Tacitus. This treaty was felt to be unreasonable at the time because it was a peace dictated by the victors that put the full blame for the war on Germany. Treaty of Versailles All the German political parties united in a solemn protest against these terms. The turmoil in Germany and the temporary French occupation of Frankfurt also led to other tensions between Germany and the Allied powers over fulfilling the terms of the Versailles Treaty. [1] The term is used primarily to denote those areas that became part of the Second Polish Republic on 20 June 1922, as a consequence of the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles. In addition, the Young Plan divided the annual payment, set at 2 billion GM (U.S. $473 million) into two components, one unconditional part equal to one-third of the sum and a postponable part for the remaining two-thirds. The meeting was marked by a most conspicuous absence. Although there were many provisions in the treaty, one of the more important and recognized ones required that Germany accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-247, pay reparations to the Allies. On April 28, 1939, he announced Germanys withdrawal from the non-aggression pact signed with Poland just over five years earlier. World War I: Treaties and Reparations | Holocaust Encyclopedia Once the armistice was signed and a Polish state was created, it could now lend its support to the Polish nationalist movement in Upper Silesia. Part of his rhetorical strategy was to paint sceptics of the new organization, such as supporters of a postwar return to neutrality or anti-war activists, as misguided isolationists, who had helped cause the Second World War by rejecting the League. However, Lloyd George was aware of the potential trouble that could come from an embittered Germany, and he felt that a less harsh treaty that did not engender resentment would serve to better preserve peace in the long run. Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust. During the Great War, Polish-speaking residents had been conscripted into the German army, and had served even though they faced some discrimination. The British Army had always . At the same time as it faced internal chaos, Germany also had to hash out the details of war reparations with the victorious Allies and it all happened 100 years ago. Korfanty now called on the Polish paramilitaries to rise up for a second time and demanded the dissolution of the German paramilitary police and fighting broke out again between the two groups. For example, West Prussia and Upper Silesia, which was some of the country's best farmland and most abundant coal fields, respectively, were both given to Poland which meant that Germany would struggle even more to regain any of its former economic footing (HistoryLearningSite, 2015). On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Abstract. The French troops fired into the crowd, killing 9 and wounding 26. It is equally easy to realize them on . Main telephone: 202.488.0400 In Frankfurt, a crowd gathered at the arrival of French colonial troops from Morocco, and the situation got out of control. Silesian Uprisings - Wikipedia Current debate on U.S. foreign policy is rooted in this version of history. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. Among the treaties, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for starting the war. PDF The Treaty of Versailles, Inflation and Stabilization 12/1/2014: Hot off the Presses: Creoles and Borders. Hitler went on to negotiate a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939. It is often suggested that Lloyd George represented the middle ground between the idealistic Wilson and the vengeful Clemenceau. via email at asc-accessibility@osu.edu. In Germany, the treaty caused shock and humiliation that contributed to the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933, particularly because many Germans did not believe that they should accept sole responsibility for Imperial Germany and its allies in starting the war. West Prussia was given to Poland to provide free access to the sea, along with a sizeable German minority, creating the Polish Corridor. Upper Silesia 1921 Flashcards | Quizlet "Refusing to Give the Lady A Seat," a cartoon depicting the figure of peace as a beautiful woman being denied a seat on a train by senators opposed to the Treaty of Versailles. So as the summer of 1920 drew to a close, Germany remained in crisis. Vice President Mike Pence delivering remarks at a rally in Minnesota, 28 March 2018. There was also trouble in the East, where votes were to take place on whether the ethnically mixed regions of Upper Silesia and southern East Prussia would stay with Germany, or join the new Polish Republic. Hitler then used the action to launch a retaliatory campaign against Poland. March 1921 What was the result of the plebiscite? Eventually, the Poles agreed to a ceasefire as long as their paramilitary force was not disbanded. The ultimate version of the Versailles treaty, article 88, provided for a plebiscite concerning the division of Upper Silesia.