As a compromise, it was decided to request the Allied Powers to extend the plebiscite until Clausen's second line, which was adapted to include Flensburg and Glcksburg. [23] The Allies then allowed for the import of 270,000 tons of foodstuffs. President Wilson rejected Italy's claims on the basis of "national self-determination." [91], After the Versailles conference, Democratic President Woodrow Wilson claimed that "at last the world knows America as the savior of the world! [118] Prince Eustachy Sapieha, the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, alleged that Soviet Russia "appeared to be intentionally delaying negotiations" to end the Polish-Soviet War "with the object of influencing the Upper Silesian plebiscite". The Republicans controlled the United States Senate after the election of 1918, and were outraged by Wilson's refusal to discuss the war with them. Polish immigration from Galicia, Congress Poland and Prussian provinces into Upper Silesia during the 19th century was a major factor in their increasing numbers. Clemenceau accepted the offer, in return for an occupation of the Rhineland for fifteen years and that Germany would also demilitarise the Rhineland. In regards to the East Prussia plebiscite, historian Richard Blanke wrote that "no other contested ethnic group has ever, under un-coerced conditions, issued so one-sided a statement of its national preference". Further confounding the Americans, was US internal partisan politics. He believed that if Germany refused to sign the treaty, the Allies would invade Germany from the westand there was no guarantee that the army would be able to make a stand in the event of an invasion. Memorial in Wyk, Fhr, Germany. [127][135] Germans viewed the use of French colonial troops as a deliberate act of humiliation, and used their presence to create a propaganda campaign dubbed the Black shame. Learn how and when to remove this template message, "De allierede soldaters indrykning i afstemningsomrdet i slutningen af januar 1920 set fra et dansk synspunkt", "Von der deutschen Niederlage zur Teilung Schleswigs; Tiedje-Linie, Internationalisierungsplne und Grenzfestigung", "Statsminister Niels Neergaards genforeningstale p Dybbl, 1920", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1920_Schleswig_plebiscites&oldid=1160344800, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from October 2014, All articles needing additional references, Articles needing additional references from April 2023, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 15 June 2023, at 22:14. The manpower of the navy was not to exceed 15,000 men, including manning for the fleet, coast defences, signal stations, administration, other land services, officers and men of all grades and corps. [150][151][x] Production increased so that by 1937, military exports had increased to 82,788,604 Reichsmarks. [1] The treaty had clauses ranging from war crimes, the prohibition on the merging of the Republic of German Austria with Germany without the consent of the League of Nations, freedom of navigation on major European rivers, to the returning of a Koran to the king of Hedjaz.[n. The transfer of the Hultschin area, of Silesia, to Czechoslovakia was completed on 3 February 1921. 38] [31][32], Talks between the Allies to establish a common negotiating position started on 18 January 1919, in the Salle de l'Horloge (Clock Room) at the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris. 9][122], In late 1918, American, Belgian, British, and French troops entered the Rhineland to enforce the armistice. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial consequences contributed to German hyperinflation and completely ruined public finances in Germany. [4] During the 1880s and 1890s, Clausen had travelled extensively on both sides of a possible future Dano-German border, for which he published two suggestions. [14], In private Lloyd George opposed revenge and attempted to compromise between Clemenceau's demands and the Fourteen Points, because Europe would eventually have to reconcile with Germany. Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Article 177, Constitution of the International Labour Office Part XIII preamble and Article 388, "Clemenceau an Deutschland: "Die Stunde der Abrechnung ist da. or up to 1,560,000 together with bilinguals[8]. Given the objectives of the league, the wrongs of the past, and the aspirations of the future, stated Makino, the leaders of the world gathered in Paris should openly declare their support for at least "the principle of equality of nations and just treatment of their nationals" (, "The Treaty includes no provisions for the economic rehabilitation of Europenothing to make the defeated Central Empires into good neighbours, nothing to stabilize the new States of Europe, nothing to reclaim Russia; nor does it promote in any way a compact of economic solidarity amongst the Allies themselves; no arrangement was reached at Paris for restoring the disordered finances of France and Italy, or to adjust the systems of the Old World and the New. 26] The disenfranchised and often colonized "non-white" world held high expectations that a new order would open up an unheralded opportunity to have a principle of racial equality recognized by the leading global powers. A furious Vittorio Orlando suffered a nervous collapse and at one point walked out of the conference (though he later returned). But I would also say in reply that empires cannot be shattered, and new states raised upon their ruins without disturbance. Reparation was their main excursion into the economic field, and they settled it as a problem of theology, of polities, of electoral chicane, from every point of view except that of the economic future of the States whose destiny they were handling." Consequently, passive resistance was called off in late 1923. Germany was prohibited from the arms trade, limits were imposed on the type and quantity of weapons and prohibited from the manufacture or stockpile of chemical weapons, armoured cars, tanks and military aircraft.[n. Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) were not limited by the treaty, thus this loophole was exploited and as such the number of NCOs were vastly in excess to the number needed by the Reichswehr. [5]:16 In the 1920 plebiscites, Clausen's first line was closely imitated in what became the plebiscite's Zone I, while his second line became the basis of Zone II, although the plebiscite zone was extended to include the city of Flensburg and the town of Glcksburg. 4][n. 5][n. 6][n. 7], The treaty stripped Germany of 65,000km2 (25,000sqmi) of territory and 7million people. Within six months of the transfer, Belgium was required to conduct a plebiscite on whether the citizens of the region wanted to remain under Belgian sovereignty or return to German control, communicate the results to the League of Nations and abide by the League's decision.[n. [148] [ix], The Weimar Government also funded domestic rearmament programs, which were covertly funded with the money camouflaged in "X-budgets", worth up to an additional 10% of the disclosed military budget. Germany was to demobilize sufficient soldiers by 31 March 1920 to leave an army of no more than 100,000 men in a maximum of seven infantry and three cavalry divisions. Germany's eastern frontiers faced Russia and Austria, who had both in the past balanced German power. [77][78] Lloyd George and his private secretary Philip Kerr believed in the treaty, although they also felt that the French would keep Europe in a constant state of turmoil by attempting to enforce the treaty. A complete withdrawal was considered, but rejected in order to maintain a presence to continue acting as a check on French ambitions and prevent the establishment of an autonomous Rhineland Republic. [155][156][157] The resulting rearmament programmes were allotted 35billion Reichsmarks over an eight-year period. Germany - Treaty, WWI, Versailles | Britannica [127][130], The British Second Army, with some 275,000 veteran soldiers, entered Germany in late 1918. Plebiscites After the First World War - GCSE History by Clever Lili Local majorities for Germany also existed elsewhere: In the small town of Tinglev, in the city of Snderborg, site of a substantial German navy base, and the city of Aabenraa. When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, he was determined to overturn the military and territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. [180] Richard Debo wrote "both Berlin and Warsaw believed the Soviet invasion of Poland had influenced the East Prussian plebiscites. The plebiscites were held on 10 February and 14 March 1920 in two zones that had been defined according to the wishes of the Danish government,[3] and based on lines drawn in the 1890s by Danish historian Hans Victor Clausen[de]. [124] Although Clausen correctly estimated Tnder to be vastly pro-German, he considered the town to be economically dependent on its pro-Danish rural uplands, and placed both the town and its uplands north of his first line. Desertion rates within the German army began to increase, and civilian strikes drastically reduced war production. The sense of betrayal led to great demonstrations in China such as the May 4th movement. Sensing victory before the American Expeditionary Forces could be ready, Germany now shifted forces to the Western Front and tried to overwhelm the Allies. Twelve days after the start of the uprising, Wojciech Korfanty offered to take his Upper Silesian forces behind a line of demarcation, on condition that the released territory would not be occupied by German forces, but by Allied troops. 5] [162], In his book The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes referred to the Treaty of Versailles as a "Carthaginian peace", a misguided attempt to destroy Germany on behalf of French revanchism, rather than to follow the fairer principles for a lasting peace set out in President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, which Germany had accepted at the armistice. [114] "[116], Frank Russell wrote that, in regards to the Saar plebiscite, the inhabitants "were not terrorized at the polls" and the "totalitarian [Nazi] German regime was not distasteful to most of the Saar inhabitants and that they preferred it even to an efficient, economical, and benevolent international rule." 35] The most critical and controversial provision in the treaty was: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies." [18], The German and Polish governments, under a League of Nations recommendation, agreed to enforce protections of minority interests that would last for 15 years. Orlando refused to see World WarI as a mutilated victory, replying at nationalists calling for a greater expansion that "Italy today is a great state.on par with the great historic and contemporary states. ", "Bibliographical Introduction to "Diary, Reminiscences and Memories of Colonel Edward M. House", "The Surrogate Hegemon in Polish Postcolonial Discourse", "Why was the Zimmermann Telegram important? [128] [108] Japanese diplomacy had bitter memories of the rhetoric of the Yellow Peril, and the arrogance, underwritten by the assumptions about a White Man's Burden, memories aggravated by the rise of racial discrimination against their business men, severe immigration restrictions on Asiatics, and court judgments hostile to Japanese interests, which characterized Western states' treatment of their nationals. On the other hand, prominent Allied figures such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. [170] [87][81][82][86][88][89][90] When Clemenceau stood for election as President of France in January 1920, he was defeated.[90]. The vote in Central Schleswig (Zone II) took place on 14 March 1920, where 80.2% (51,742 votes) voted to stay German, while 19.8% (12,800) voted to become Danish. 19] Ultimately, only 271 of 33,726 voters signed the protest list, of which 202 were German state servants. Article 198 prohibited Germany from having an air force, including naval air forces, and required Germany to hand over all aerial related materials. In three of the four major towns, especially in the southern region directly at the border with Zone II, German majorities existed, with a German majority as large as 70 to 80 percent in and around Tnder (plus southerly Udbjerg) and Hjer. 16] Togoland and German Kamerun (Cameroon) were transferred to France, aside from portions given to Britain, British Togoland and British Cameroon. [22] Over the winter of 1919, the situation became desperate and Germany finally agreed to surrender its fleet in March. But secret military clauses were included that allowed for Germany to develop weapons inside the Soviet Union. These four men met in 145 closed sessions to make all the major decisions, which were later ratified by the entire assembly. British economist and Versailles negotiator John Maynard Keynes summarized this position as attempting to "set the clock back and undo what, since 1870, the progress of Germany had accomplished. Thus the treaty's allowance of 100,000 volunteers was a compromise between the British and French positions. [25][26][27][28][29] According to Dr. Max Rubner 100,000 German civilians died due to the continuation blockade after the armistice. The Peace Treaty of Versailles Articles Articles 1 - 30 and Annex The Covenant of the League of Nations Articles 31 - 117 and Annexes Political Clauses for Europe Articles 118 - 158 and Annexes German Rights and Interests Outside Germany Articles 159 - 213 . [5] At the same time, he effectively abandoned his second line, as the population of Central Schleswig remained pro-German, and as he considered it vital that the future border should be based on the self-determination of the local populace. It is easy to say what should have been done, but more difficult to have found a way of doing it. With this in mind, he asked Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg if the army was capable of any meaningful resistance in the event the Allies resumed the war. The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. Poland obtained almost exactly half of the 1,950,000 inhabitants, viz., 965,000, but not quite a third of the territory, i.e., only 3,214.26km2 (1,255mi2) out of 10,950.89km2 (4,265mi2) but more than 80% of the heavy industry of the region. Publicly, these diplomatic exchanges were largely in regards to trade and future economic cooperation. [121] But rather than inform Ebert himself, he had Groener inform the government that the army would be in an untenable position in the event of renewed hostilities. [2] [138][139] The plebiscites were held on 10 February and 14 March 1920, and the result was that the larger northern portion (Zone I) voted to join Denmark, while the smaller southern portion (Zone II) voted to remain part of Germany. There were 4 key plebiscites held as part of the Versailles Settlement. Within the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles, Orlando obtained certain results such as the permanent membership of Italy in the security council of the League of Nations and a promised transfer of British Jubaland and French Aozou strip to the Italian colonies of Somalia and Libya respectively. The Effects Clausen had excluded both from his two lines. The Treaty of Versailles (article) | Khan Academy [17] 24] In March 1921, the Inter-Allied Commission held the Upper Silesia plebiscite, which was peaceful despite the previous violence. Germany was not allowed to participate in the negotiationsit was forced to sign the final result. [15] It resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany and 483,514 for Poland. A revived Germany would be a counterweight to France and a deterrent to Bolshevik Russia. Gauge the moods of the European people and statesmen as Woodrow Wilson arrived to forge an end to World War I Machray concludes that given the aggressive anti-Polish campaign conducted by local authorities and German volunteers, "the results were far from being an objective reflection of the true desires of the oppressed people". 1-26 . It called for a negotiated end to the war, international disarmament, the withdrawal of the Central Powers from occupied territories, the creation of a Polish state, the redrawing of Europe's borders along ethnic lines, and the formation of a League of Nations to guarantee the political independence and territorial integrity of all states.[6][n. The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. Military schools for officer training were limited to three, one school per arm, and conscription was abolished. [83], Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, following the German re-militarisation of the Rhineland in 1936, stated that he was "pleased" that the treaty was "vanishing", expressing his hope that the French had been taught a "severe lesson".[78]. [168] Eventually, even under the "cruel" terms of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany's economy had been restored to its pre-war status. Voting for Germany in the 1921 vote and regarding oneself as German were two different things. When the result was announced 4,100 people, including 800 refugees from Germany fled to France.[n. Pretend Democracy: Plebescites for Territory in the Treaty of Versailles [176], French historian Raymond Cartier states that millions of ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland and in Posen-West Prussia were placed under foreign rule in a hostile environment, where harassment and violation of rights by authorities are documented. The one follows the other. People had diverse, often very pragmatic reasons for voting for Germany, which usually had little to do with a person regarding him or herself as having a German ethnonational identity. On 12 June 1919, the Chinese cabinet was forced to resign and the government instructed its delegation at Versailles not to sign the treaty. [104] Germany's first democratically elected head of government, Philipp Scheidemann, resigned rather than sign the treaty. [172] Finally, Evans argued that it is untrue that Versailles caused the premature end of the Republic, instead contending that it was the Great Depression of the early 1930s that put an end to German democracy. ", Pro-Danish post card. This is still the subject of ongoing debate by historians and economists. The proposed frontier would have incorporated Tnder/Tondern, Hjer/Hoyer, Tinglev/Tingleff and neighbouring areas and also some parts north from Flensburg the so-called Tiedje Belt[7] and would have created almost equal minorities on both sides of the frontier instead of 30,000 to 35,000 Germans in Denmark and 6,000 to 8,000 Danes in Germany.[8]. Treaty of Versailles: Definition, Terms, Dates & WWI | HISTORY [132] The British did not adhere to all obligated territorial withdrawals as dictated by Versailles, on account of Germany not meeting her own treaty obligations. In the event, the German minority remaining on the Polish side of the border suffered considerable discrimination in the subsequent decades.[19]. The Commission will conform as far as possible to the provisions of the present Treaty relating to the plebiscite in the Allenstein area; its decisions will be taken by a majority. The Treaty of Versailles was a major contributing factor in the outbreak of the Second World War. [17] The Interallied Commission deliberated, but the British proposed a more easterly border than the French, which would have given much less of the Industrial Triangle to Poland. Since a large number of German officials (notably railway officials) had been temporarily stationed in the area, this extension implied that these officials as well as their wives and any children of legal age were entitled to vote in the plebiscite. The Polish Government, convinced by the economic and political power of the region and by the autonomist movement of the plebiscite campaign, decided to give Upper Silesia considerable autonomy with a Silesian Parliament as a constituency and the Silesian Voivodship Council as the executive body. [62] [149] Adam Tooze concurred, and wrote "To put this in perspective, annual military spending by the Weimar Republic was counted not in the billions but in the hundreds of millions of Reichsmarks"; for example, the Weimar Republic's 1931 program of 480million Reichsmarks over five years compared to the Nazi Government's 1933 plan to spend 4.4billion Reichsmarks per year. There was a 90% turn out with 99.3% of the population wishing to remain with Germany. the families of locals who had opted to retain their Danish citizenship and who had consequently been expelled from the area by Prussian authorities. Little Treaty of Versailles - Wikipedia In three of these ethnically mixed areas on the new German-Polish border, however, the Allied leaders provided for border plebiscites or referendums. On 8 January 1918, however, Wilson delivered a speech (known as the Fourteen Points) that declared the American peace objectives: the rebuilding of the European economy, self-determination of European and Middle Eastern ethnic groups, the promotion of free trade, the creation of appropriate mandates for former colonies, and above all, the creation of a powerful League of Nations that would ensure the peace. [7], During the autumn of 1918, the Central Powers began to collapse. "[vi] However, Wilson had refused to bring any leading members of the Republican party, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, into the talks. The British later proposed and agreed to an increase in the Reichswehr to 200,000 men, and for Germany to have an air force half the size of the French. [126] 11] Articles 165, 170, 171, 172, 198 and tables No. Hitler promised to reverse the depredations of the Allied powers and recover Germany's lost territory and pride, which has led to the treaty being cited as a cause of World WarII. On 5 May 1921, the reparation Commission established the London Schedule of Payments and a final reparation sum of 132billion gold marks to be demanded of all the Central Powers. 2 The Anschluss was widely popular in both Germany and Austria. [63] To compensate for the destruction of French coal mines, Germany was to cede the output of the Saar coalmines to France and control of the Saar to the League of Nations for 15 years; a plebiscite would then be held to decide sovereignty.[n. [165], It has been argued for instance by historian Gerhard Weinberg in his book A World at Arms[166] that the treaty was in fact quite advantageous to Germany. [92], A discontent bloc of 1218 "Irreconcilables", mostly Republicans but also representatives of the Irish and German Democrats, fiercely opposed the treaty. [ii] The United States never ratified the Versailles treaty and made a separate peace treaty with Germany. Aspiring to be accepted as a world actor with similar status to the traditional Western powers, Japan envisaged an Asian Monroe Doctrine, where Japan's proper sphere of geostrategic interests in Asia would be recognized. The result was overwhelming: 90.3% of the voters voted to return to Germany. Smuts issued a statement condemning the treaty and regretting that the promises of "a new international order and a fairer, better world are not written in this treaty". When the outcome of the vote became known, 4,100 (including 800 refugees who had previously fled Germany) residents fled over the border into France. [23], Both German and non-German observers have argued that these were the most devastating months of the blockade for German civilians,[24] though disagreement persists as to the extent and who is truly at fault. Territory of the Saar Basin - Wikipedia The most significant of these plebiscites was the one in Upper Silesia, since the region was a principal industrial center. [161], Historians are split on the impact of the treaty. (, da Atti Parlamentari, Camera dei Deputati, Discussioni, 'Von 1.058.000 Deutschen, die noch 1921 in Posen und Westpreuen lebten', ist bei Cartier zu lesen, 'waren bis 1926 unter polnischem Druck 758.867 abgewandert. On 24 January, the American garrison started their withdrawal from the Rhineland, with the final troops leaving in early February. [181], In regards to the Silesian plebiscite, Blanke observed "given that the electorate was at least 60% Polish-speaking, this means that about one 'Pole' in three voted for Germany" and "most Polish observers and historians" have concluded that the outcome of the plebiscite was due to "unfair German advantages of incumbency and socio-economic position". Signed on June 28, 1919, as an end to the First World War, The Treaty of Versailles was supposed to ensure a lasting peace by punishing Germany and setting up a League of Nations to solve diplomatic problems. The actual impact of the treaty is also disputed. 22] [112][113] The payment schedule required US$250million within twenty-five days and then US$500million annually, plus 26 per cent of the value of German exports. Between 1864 and 1866, Prussia and Austria ruled the entire region as a condominium, and they formalised this arrangement in the 1865 Gastein Convention. 23] [49] British public opinion wanted to make Germany pay for the War. 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. [1] The region was ethnically mixed with both Germans and Poles; according to prewar statistics, ethnic Poles formed 60 percent of the population. Since many of the expelled pro-Danish "optants" had emigrated to the United States, the net result of this extension was a slight increase for the German results, and it was much more likely for a pro-German emigrant living in Germany to return to the region for the plebiscite than for a pro-Danish expellee who had emigrated to the United States to do the same. [50] Wilson firmly opposed harsh treatment on Germany. During the 1940s, Mantoux wrote a posthumously published book titled The Carthaginian Peace, or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes in an attempt to rebut Keynes' claims. At the conference, Wilson promoted his Fourteen Points, with hopes that they would be included in the treaty. Banking and Redemption - International Court of Justice - ICJ & ICC In the end, Portugal ratified the treaty, but got little out of the war, which cost more than 8,000 Portuguese Armed Forces troops and as many as 100,000 of her African colonial subjects their lives.
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