Hitler used this as an excuse to precipitate a crisis eventually leading the appeasement by Neville Chamberland in the Munich Agreement of 1938. Many Germans ended up within Czechoslovakia in an area called the Sudetenland. Several of the border changes made after World War I were issues leading up to World War II. The British were granted mandates over land that became Iraq, Jordan and Israel after the Second World War. The French were granted a mandate over an area that eventually became Lebanon and Syria after World War II. The Ottoman Empire was broken up into several pieces. They achieved independence after World War II. German colonies in the Pacific, including Samoa and New Guinea, became League of Nations Mandates administered by the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia. Senate opposed and ultimately did not approve the Treaty. As a result, China refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles awarded Shandong to the Japanese even though it was part of mainland China. Both China and Japan were members of the Allies opposing the Germans. Germany had a sphere of influence on the eastern coast of China, the Shandong province. Most did not achieve independence until after World War II. The mandate system was intended to provide temporary supervision until the countries were ready to govern themselves as independent nations. These colonies were converted into League of Nations ‘Mandates’ and split between the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and South Africa. Africaįigure 2 shows the German colonies in Africa that were forfeited at the end of the War. They remained part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991, when the Baltic nations once again became independent. Stalin annexed these countries in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II. Instead, each country used the chaos following the Russian Revolution and end of World War I to declare independence. However, these were not part of the post-war treaties. Three Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia came into existence after World War I. As a result, the German province of East Prussia was divided from the rest of the country. The Polish corridor was provided to grant Poland access to the Baltic sea. Poland was created from portions of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. The boundaries of Romania were expanded based on ethnic considerations to include as many Romanians as possible within its borders. Yugoslavia (Originally called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) – this country included Serbia, Montenegro along with the Croatian areas of Austria-Hungary The geographic changes in Europe are displayed in Figure 1 below:Īustria-Hungary was divided into several countries: These concepts were accepted by the Allies and included in the Treaty of Versailles with Germany the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary and the Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria. Several of Wilson’s points dealt with territorial issues including the provision of independent countries for each of the main ethnic groups in Europe. Wilson gives us fourteen.” Wilson felt that a harsh treaty would risk future war, stating in his ‘Peace without Victory’ speech: “Victory would mean peace forced upon a loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished… It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which term of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand.” Time would prove him correct as many historians believe that the harsh Treaty of Versailles was one cause of World War II. Prime Minister of France, Clemenceau was reported to have commented that “ God was satisfied with Ten Commandments. Having incurred several million casualties and severe financial hardship, they were not that interested in a generous settlement for Germany. The British and French were concerned about the Fourteen Points. This speech detailed his concept of a fair and equitable peace to all parties. Nine months later, in January 1918, President Wilson articulated ‘Fourteen Points’ as the basis for negotiating a peace settlement. The United States entered World War I in April 1917. After the armistice of November 11, 1918, the victorious Allies redrew the maps of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East to replace these fallen empires. Four empires collapsed during World War I – the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Austria-Hungary Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
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