The Age of World Wars (1914-1945)

The main points of the peace treaties

Peace of Versailles between Germany & the Entente:

1. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.
2. The eastern provinces (“Polish corridor”) of Germany were annexed to the new Poland.
3. Saarland was put under French control for fifteen years.
4. The Rhineland was demilitarized.

• Overall, Germany was not weakened so much that it could not recover, but the peace was shocking and humiliating to the German public, maintaining a taste of retaliation.

Treaty of Saint-Germain between Austria & the Entente Powers:

1. Austria was created from the German-speaking Alpine provinces (annexing the Slovenian and Italian territories). But the Czech Republic, which had a mixed population, was ceded „in return” it received the western counties of Hungary, Burgenland.
2. It was forbidden to unite with Germany (Anschluss), even though the population was German-speaking and wanted to unite because they thought the country was unviable.

The Treaty of Neuilly between Bulgaria & the Entente Powers:

1. ceded the Aegean coast to Greece.

Treaty of Sevres between Turkey & the Entente Powers:

1. It divided the Arab territories between Great Britain (Iraq, Jordan, Palestine) and France (Syria, Lebanon).
2. Greece and Italy got from the Anatolian territories, which also created an independent Armenia.
   • A national movement broke out in Turkey. Kemal Pasha modernized the country and defeated the Greeks.
   • In 1923, a new Peace was made in Lausanne, in which Turkey preserved Anatolia.

The new states

The treaties around Paris reshaped the map of Europe, creating a number of new states:

1. Finland and the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) separated from Russia.
2. Poland was created from the territories of Russia, Germany, and the Monarchy, but its eastern border could only be recognized in a separate war with Soviet Russia.
3. Czechoslovakia was formed from the Czech provinces of Austria and the Felvidék(=Uplands/Upper Hungary). At that time Subcarpathia(Kárpátalja) also belonged here.
4. Romania doubled with the annexation of Transylvania, Banat, Kelet-Tiszántúl (=Transtisza eastern region), and Bessarabia recovered from Russia.
5. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) was established: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia from Austria joined Serbia and Montenegro, and Southern Hungary (Délvidék) was annexed.

The new states were nominally nation-states, in fact a large number of people from the formerly ruling nations (Hungarians, Germans, Russians) lived in the territory as minorities.

Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were already multi-ethnic states, although the former came under Czech and the latter under Serbian rule.

Dates:

• June 28, 1914 (assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife in Sarajevo)
• July 28, 1914 (outbreak of World War I)
• 1914-1918 (World War I)
• 1916 (Battle of the Somme)
• 1917 (February Russian Revolution and Bolshevik takeover)
• 11 November 1918 (end of the First World War)
• 1919 (beginning of theParis Peace Conference, Treaty of Versailles)
• 1922 (creation of the Soviet Union) | Wilhelm II, Nicholas II, Lenin, Trotsky, Wilson, Clemenceau | quick victory, attrition warfare, stalemate, static battle, trench warfare, two-front war, central powers, Allies of World War I or Entente Powers, front line, home front, reparation, League of Nations, minority protection.