The Treaty of Versailles and the Problem of Solution of Interstate Territorial Disputes: Self Determination or Dictator of Winners?

Abstract

This article analyzes the problem of delimitation of the German border according to the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference. The author examines, how on the basis of the Treaty of Versailles in the neighboring German and Polish, French and Danish territories were held plebiscites to determine the disputed territories. The author concluded that the people’s plebiscites held under the control of the League of Nations, were rather democratic, and reflected in general the political position of the peoples living for a long time on this territory. The exception was only the territory of Danzig and Memel with the majority of German population. The article emphasizes that only the western border of Poland has been revised in a relatively democratic way. The peoples of eastern Poland under the decisions adopted in Versailles had no the right to express their opinion on the problem of demarcation of new state borders.