The Moral Turning-Point of the First World War: Self-Determination and the Non-Annexation Principle

Abstract

Abstract Before the Russian Revolution of March 1917 had transformed the whole relation of the belligerents to the national question, it was generally assumed that annexations of territory would follow the conclusion of the First World War, as they had followed the conclusion of previous wars, on the basis of the right of con quest, without regard to nationality or the wishes of the populations concerned. On the Allied side, this assumption was reflected in the secret treaties of 1915-17, which provided for the post-war distribution of enemy territory in the event of an Allied victory. The annexationist schemes embodied in these treaties—envisaging the partition of the Ottoman Empire between Russia, Great Britain, France, and Italy, and vast accessions of territory transferring millions of foreigners to the rule of Italy, Romania, Japan, France, and Russia at the expense of the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires-were characteristic of an outlook which saw enemy territory as ‘booty’, or legally disposable property, to be acquired by the victors as the spoils of war.