Paris Peace Conference Research Articles

ХЭЛФОРД МАККИНДЕРИ ГЕОГРАФИЧЕСКОЕ ОФОРМЛЕНИЕ ПОЛИТИКИ В НАЧАЛЕ ХХ В.

The article attempts to analyze the process of intellectual design of geopolitical thought, which in the early twentieth century, when on the eve of the Great War an attempt was made to form a geographical certainty of foreign policy strategy. The study is based on the understanding of the geographical axis of history, carried out by the British geographer H. Mackinder, who was one of the founders of British geopolitics. His approach involved identifying key geographical regions of the world that influenced the vectors of European politics in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. At this stage, H. Mackinder's understanding of the definition of the Heartland as the center of world politics of European states is studied. The geographical approach of the British thinker to identifying patterns of political development of foreign policy fit into the desire to formulate laws of foreign policy, which were undertaken in the early twentieth century and subsequently formed the basis of geopolitical science. In the practical sphere, within the framework of the development of a post-war model of world development in 1919 during the Paris Peace Conference, the Heartland concept was expressed in the Versailles Peace Treaty concluded in 1919 in the form of the creation of a buffer zone between Germany and Soviet Russia.

Austen Chamberlain and the Locarno Treaties revisited

ABSTRACT The approaching centenary of the Locarno conference in October 1925 provides a convenient reason to re-evaluate the significance of the treaties that emerged from it. Often styled as the ‘real’ peace settlement at the end of the First World War, the treaties of Locarno collectively represent one of the most important attempts to ensure lasting peace in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. Central to the treaties’ reputation as the ‘real’ peace settlement is their role in rehabilitating Germany’s Great Powers status after the humiliation suffered at the Paris Peace Conference six years earlier. The Locarno agreements have been seen as one of the rare highpoints in post-First World War Western European diplomacy. They were viewed by contemporaries as a real diplomatic breakthrough that would allow finally for the ghosts of the enmities that had caused the First World War to be laid to rest, although subsequent generations of scholars have been much more critical about what the agreements achieved in the long-term. This article focuses on the contribution made to the conference by the head of the British delegation, the Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain. It re-examines his diplomatic priorities, especially his reputation as a Francophile. Its central thesis is that Chamberlain himself can be seen to embody the essential reasons why the Locarno agreements were heralded as a success at the time of their conclusion, but less so with the perspective of hindsight. The treaties contained within them two opposing diplomatic forces. On the one hand, the remnants of the pre-war national state system, with its emphasis on diplomatic self-interest, secret, private negotiations, versus the so-called ‘new’ diplomacy: international, open, democratic and accountable. This rendered most of the European diplomatic problems in the post-First World War era intractable; indeed that they were incapable of resolution by anyone. Chamberlain’s entire engagement with the western European security question during the mid-1920s can be seen as evidence not only of those tensions but of the futility of trying to resolve them.

For a United Russia? The White Movement’s Rejection of National Self‐Determination, 1918–20

AbstractFor obvious reasons, the White Movement rarely features in works concerning national self‐determination in the aftermath of the First World War. Beyond the looming shadows of Woodrow Wilson and V. I. Lenin, the “governments” of White generals that swore allegiance to A. V. Kolchak made no secret of their desire for a Russia “one and indivisible.” Those responsible for drafting Omsk’s edicts were suspicious of self‐determination’s apparent Germano‐Bolshevik origins. Analyzing the so‐called Russian state’s resistance to both the term and concept of national self‐determination—and its relatively novel association with secession—highlights the self‐defeating nature of Kolchak’s policies on the matter. Moreover, and most significantly for wider discussions on national self‐determination during the period, the White Movement’s rejection of federalism in any form, coupled with the stalling progress of White armies, the conclusion of the Paris Peace Conference, and the consolidation of Soviet Russia made statehood for Russia’s neighbor nations more realistic, logical, and justifiable. The political failures of the White Movement contributed to the feasibility of small states in the eyes of both the Allies and the national peoples themselves, and this warrants attention.

“How Ineffective is the Existing International Health Office”: Problems in the Creation of the Health Organization of the League of Nations

In this article, based on documents from the League of Nations archives, the author examines the history of the creation of the League of Nations Health Organisation after the First World War. The founders of the League failed to implement the Treaty of Versailles and create a single global organisation to fight epidemics and preserve public health. At the time of the creation of the Versailles world order, there were several centers around which a permanent international health organization could be formed. The Covenant of the League of Nations, which was part of the Treaty of Versailles, required stricter coordination of all international health institutions and their subordination to a single center in the League of Nations. The British delegation at the Paris Peace Conference took initiative in solving this problem. However, all attempts to create a health organization quickly ended in failure due to disagreements between the Allied Powers. The United States, guided by the interests of commerce and the preservation of influence, took the position of protecting the independence of the International Office of Public Hygiene in Paris. France also wanted to keep the prestigious international office in Paris. As a result, the Health Organization of the League of Nations experienced constant underfunding, as well as bureaucratic red tape in an environment where quick decisions had to be made in the field of medical research and disease control.

The Soviets and the Request for a Plebiscite in Bessarabia: One Hundred Years Since the Soviet-Romanian Conference in Vienna from 27 March to 2 April 1924

Six years after the union of Bessarabia with Romania, the works of a Soviet-Romanian conference began in Vienna, on 27 March 1924, after lengthy preparatory negotiations. The delegates of the two countries presented two divergent offers: a plebiscite versus the recognition of Romania’s sovereignty over Bessarabia. Romania’s offer was natural and in full agreement with its national interests of good neighborliness with the Soviets, but also with the policy of the Great Powers, signatories of the Paris Treaty on Bessarabia. On the contrary, draped in the democratic garb of the plebiscite, the Soviet offer aimed to turn Romania into the proving ground for dangerous and toxic experiences for its stability and state integrity, and also to deceive the Western democracies, seeking to demolish everything that had been built in this part of Southeast Europe, based on the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference.

Hamilton Fish Armstrong and Yugoslavia: How an Internationalist's Idea of a New State Made Interwar-Era Foreign Affairs—and Foreign Affairs

This article considers the role of national spaces in the creation of interwar-era internationalism. Specifically, it explores how the future editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, the mouthpiece of what would become the American Foreign Relations Establishment, found his way to internationalism not in the corridors of Versailles at the Paris Peace Conference, but rather through treading through the corners of the newly made Yugoslavia. During the 1920s and 1930s, internationally minded thinkers from across the political spectrum shared at least one commonality: they rooted their dreams for an international world in particular, and expressly national, spaces. This article explores how and why international thinkers became invested in foreign national movements during the interwar, suggesting that to some, these new states both represented and contributed to an idealized vision of an international world that could promote unity while protecting particularities.

The Ruhr Crisis of 1923 and the International Transition in Europe after the WWI

Article aims to analyze the impact of the Ruhr crisis 1923 on the history of the international relations in Europe after the WWI. This crisis, which began by the occupation of the Ruhr region by the French and Belgian troops and ended by the approval of the new reparation plan (Dawes plan) in 1924, played the crucial role in the transformation of the international order (so-called Versailles order), envisaged by the Paris peace conference of 1919–1920. Author scrutinizes such aspects, as the links between the Ruhr crisis and the specifics of the WWI ending, he discerns the crisis' consequences in the Western and Eastern Europe, the role of the Anglo-American mediation in the regulation of the Franco-German conflict, according to the British and US interests. The essay concludes that the Ruhr crisis made critical impact on the consolidation of the Versailles order. The events unfolded in 1923, created the conditions for the "international turn" of 1924–1925, including the formation of the Anglo-Franco-German "European concert" instead of the Entente disintegrated during the crisis. Author demonstrates the direct link between the events of 1923 and the further stabilization of Europe negotiated during the London (1924) and Locarno conferences (1925), though this link sometimes remains "under shadow" in the major studies of the international relations in Europe after WWI. Besides this, the novelty of the article is explained by the rarely used documents from the British and French archives analyzed by the author.

Between Lower Austria and Moravia: displaced local elites and the Feldsberg/Valtice agricultural school

ABSTRACT Since its founding in 1873, the Lower Austrian Regional Agricultural, Pomiculture and Viniculture School in Feldsberg, Lower Austria – today Valtice, Czech Republic – has played an important role in the local community. This secondary school has educated agricultural workers as well as provided continuing education for people in the region and beyond. Picture postcards from the turn of the twentieth century show the school with other notable town landmarks, reflecting its importance in the small, predominantly German-speaking border community. The Paris Peace Conference awarded Feldsberg/Valtice, a historically Lower Austrian town, to Czechoslovakia after the First World War. Analysis of this agricultural school provides a way to examine post-war borderlands from a regional perspective. The secondary educational institution became a point of conflict as the new Czechoslovak state transformed it from a German-speaking Lower Austrian school to a Czech-speaking one in Moravia. The Czechification of the agricultural institution in Feldsberg/Valtice was part of a larger effort to build a Czechoslovak national state. The author examines the life of the Lower Austrian school’s last German director, Matthias Arthold, who first studied at the school and then worked at other institutions across Lower Austria and Moravia, before becoming the Feldsberg/Valtice school’s director in 1908. Analysis of the alumni associations, one German, founded in 1913, and the other Czech, founded in 1924, illuminates the legacy of local elites and institutions that the provincial-turned-international border transformed.

“I don’t want to harm anyone!”: Evgeny Ladnov and his Life Paths

The article studies the biography of Yevgeny Ladnov, one of the activists of the Belarusian People’s Republic (BNR), who held high positions in its government and headed the Belarusian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. It is commonly believed that the changes brought by the 1917 revolution in Russia actively contributed to the formation of new life trajectories for low-ranking officials now occupying positions of authority, those of ministers and generals. In a number of cases, new identities emerged (in particular, the transition from Russian to Belarusian self-consciousness), but sometimes such changes were purely instrumental in nature and were merely a reaction to the times changing drastically. Using the case of Ladnov’s family history, it could be shown that the last scenario found its implementation long before the revolution, and the events of 1917 were just the next stage in the same process. Being an ethnic Pole and an inhabitant of the western borderlands of the Russian Empire, Ladnov, went through a series of situational changes from “Polishness” through “Russianness” to “Belarusianness”. At the same time, his personal energy contributed to the fact that he sincerely perceived the patterns inherent in each of the identities. The paper is based on previously unknown documents relating to Ladnov and his family.

The Establishment of North-Eastern Borders of Romania: International and Legal Support for Incorporation of the Bessarabia Lands into the Kingdom (end of 1919 — the 1st half of 1920)

The foreign policy of Romania throughout the first decades of the 20th century was neither unplanned nor spontaneous. It was pursued by the Kingdom’s leadership within the framework of the idea of establishing the “Greater Romania”. Generally, the policy of official Bucharest during the war period and the period of the formation of the Versailles system of international relations was concentrated on defending national interests and gaining the status of a regional leader in the Balkans. The purpose of the article is to analyse the political struggle around the “Bessarabia” issue at the Paris Peace Conference throughout December 1919 — March 1920. Indeed, exactly this time frame became decisive for the Romanian Kingdom in terms of the recognition by the international community of its sole priority to rule Bessarabia. Great amount of relevant information and materials enabled authors of the article to analyse a comparatively short-term period of proceedings of the Paris Conference as it clearly demonstrates the tense atmosphere of the process of creating a new geopolitical map of post-war Europe. As a whole, Alexandru Vaida-Voevod’s activities in solving the “Bessarabia” problem had positive outcomes for Romania. On March 12th, the National Assembly directed the decision on this issue to the government in Bucharest. Taking into account preliminary conclusions and “yearning” of Bessarabia population the Allies in general declared for the reunification of Bessarabia and Romania. At the same time, they demanded that official Bucharest guarantee legitimate interests of Bessarabia on the same conditions as for other parts of the Kingdom.

Coffee, Ships, and Peace: Brazilian and US diplomacy at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

Coffee, Ships, and Peace: Brazilian and US diplomacy at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference

THE ACTIVITIES DELEGATION OF THE ALBANIAN COLONY OF TURKEY IN THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE 1919

It was at the end of the First World War, in 1919, that a Peace Conference in Paris was made possible to be convened. The Peace Conference finally opened a new page in the history of international relations. Albanian people were wholly and directly focused on the proceedings of the Paris Conference from the very beginning, hoping that there they would find solutions to their problems and concerns regarding the national question. In the framework of these efforts and fully aware of the danger that threatened the country, the Albanians had to raise their voice and make known the national cause at the Conference meetings considering that, at the time, the territory of the Albanian state was occupied and the Albanians could not depend on the support of any of the triumphant post-war States. They believed that displaying their demands at the Conference convened to establish world peace would be a good opportunity to defend their rights and the injustices inflicted to them. Therefore, in addition to the delegation of the National Government from the Congress of Durres, whose purpose was to represent the Albanian people in the Conference, there were other representatives from the Albanian diaspora. One of them was the delegation of the Albanian Colony of Turkey. The purpose of the activity of this Albanian representation was the protection of the independence of Albania, the protection of the territorial integrity of the Albanian state from the danger of a new fragmentation and the efforts for the recovery of the country. The delegates of the Albanian colonies worked together carrying out many activities in aid of the national cause, as well as propagating the right of existence of this nation through the press, meetings with various personalities or through memoranda sent to major states. The article dwells on the diplomatic and political activity of the representatives of the Albanian Colony of Turkey at this conference. Despite the difficult circumstances, the representatives of the Albanian Colony of Turkey believed in the idea that the Albanian state would rise again. Their activity marked the historical period of the Albanian people.

John Maynard Keynes and the ‘Scheme for the Rehabilitation of Europe’

This paper analyses the U.S. rejection of the Scheme for the Rehabilitation of Europe proposed by John Maynard Keynes, one of the British delegates at the Peace Conference in Paris 1919. The Scheme proposed by Keynes is an event that enables one to better understand the various processes involved in the U.S. hegemonic rise and the European decline. Furthermore, the idea of the Scheme carried a strong concept of European Union and solidarity, after the devastations of war, to be grown through economic links.

The Belarusian People’s Republic in the Politics of the UK (December 1919–July 1920): Based on Documents from the National Archives in London

Abstract The authors introduce into scientific circulation some archival documents that reflect the United Kingdom’s policy in relation to the establishment of an independent Belarusian national state after the First World War. It is shown that on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference, the UK viewed Belarus as a territory whose population was ethnically Russian, not a nation with its own identity and national movement. The British therefore did not considered it as a potential territory for the creation of a Belarusian national state. During the conference, the “Belarusian question” was discussed by UK only in terms of which state—Russia, Poland or Lithuania—the Belarusian territories should be attached to, or whether they must somehow be divided. The documents presented show that British diplomacy and British intelligence treated political and military figures from the Belarusian People’s Republic with suspicion. This position of the United Kingdom appeared crucial for the Governments of Finland and Denmark in their refusal of full international recognition of the Belarusian People’s Republic (Belaruskaya Narodnaya Respublica; hereinafter referred to as BNR).

The Genesis of Minority Rights in the League of Nations and Beyond

This article examines the development of minority rights and its protection system in the League of Nations. It traces the evolution of the concept of “minority” and the challenges of defining and designating it in international law. The paper also examines the content, guarantees, and implementation of the protection regime that the League of Nations established for certain minority groups in Europe, based on the treaties and instruments adopted at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and subsequently. The article further investigates the role of the Permanent Court of International Justice and Minority Committees in interpreting and enforcing the minority rights obligations of the concerned states. In the end, the article provides a critical assessment of the achievements and shortcomings of the minority protection systems of the League and reflects on how these systems were integrated into the framework of the United Nations.
 Dhaka University Law Journal, Vol. 33(1), 2023 P.23-48

From War Crimes to Crimes against Humanity and Genocide: Turkish Responsibility after World War I

On 24 May 1915, the Triple Entente powers of Britain, France, and Russia issued a joint declaration that qualified the massacres, imprisonments and violence inflicted on the peaceful Armenian population as “crimes against humanity and civilization.” The concept of crimes against humanity was further developed and explained by the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties (hereinafter: Commission), which was formed during the Paris Peace Conference to investigate violations of the laws and customs of war and prosecute war criminals. This article traces the evolution of discussions held within the Commission regarding the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Turkish government against its Armenian population, which technically fell outside the jurisdiction of the crimes specified in these talks, as the atrocities were committed not against the population of a belligerent state but, rather, against their own nationals. These discussions played a major part in the development of international criminal law; particularly of the concept of crimes against humanity. The Armenian Memorandum and the list of perpetrators of the Armenian atrocities were also presented to the Commission, which (together with other data and information collected) identified the crimes committed against the Armenian population by the Ottoman authorities, thus defining the concept of crimes against humanity and the acts that fell within its scope. Although post-World War I efforts for justice are generally assessed as a failed effort, crimes against humanity first materialized as a term in international law during this period and its development was based on the Armenian atrocities, which provided a critical basis for the International Military Tribunal's later convictions and contributed to the concept's evolution into its present-day significance.

Musavat Azerbaijan’s Expansionist Aspirations At Paris Peace Conference (1919)

Համաթյուրքականության (պանթյուրքիզմ) գաղափարախոսությունը սկզբնավորվել է տակավին XIX դարի 70–80-ական թվականներին Ռուսաստանի Ուֆա և Կազան քաղաքներում: XIX դարի վերջերից համաթյուրքականությունը թափանցեց նաև Օսմանյան կայսրություն, որտեղ այդ գաղափարախոսության հիմնադիրն է համարվում Զիյա Գյոքալփը: Վերջինիս առաջադրած քաղաքական-գաղափարախոսական դոկտրինի համաձայն, համաթյուրքականության առաջին փուլից՝ Օսմանյան կայսրության թրքացումից հետո պետք է իրականացվեր երկրորդ փուլը՝ օղուզական պետության ստեղծումը, որը պետք է ընդգրկեր Օսմանյան կայսրությունը, Արևելյան Այսրկովկասը և Իրանական Ազարբայջան (Ատրպատական) նահանգը: Առաջին աշխարհամարտում պարտված Քառյակ միության երկրների (Գերմանիա, Ավստրո- Հունգարիա, Բուլղարիա, Օսմանյան կայսրություն) հետ հաշտության պայմանագրեր կնքելու, պատերազմի արդյունքներն ամփոփելու և հետպատերազմյան խաղաղության պայմանները որոշելու նպատակով 1919 թ. հունվարի 18-ին Փարիզում հրավիրվեց Խաղաղության վեհաժողով, որն ընդմիջումներով շարունակվեց մինչև 1920 թ. հունվարի 21-ը: Идеология пантюркизма зародилась в 1870-х и 1880-х годах в российских городах Уфе и Казани. С конца XIX века пантюркизм проник и в Османскую империю, где основоположником этой идеологии считается Зия Гёкалп. Согласно предложенной Гекальпом политико- идеологической доктрине, после отуречивания населения Османской империи на первом этапе пантюркизма, на втором этапе должно было сформироваться Огузское государство, в которое должны были войти Османская империя, Восточное Закавказье и иранская провинция Азербайджан (Атропатена). С целью заключения мирных договоров с потерпевшими поражение в Первой мировой войне четырьмя союзными странами (Германия, Австро-Венгрия, Болгария, Османская империя), подведения итогов войны и определения условий послевоенного мира 18 января 1919 года в Париже была созвана мирная конференция, которая с перерывами продолжалась до 21 января 1920 года.

The East-West Procedural Conflict over the 1946 Paris Peace Conference

The article presents the procedure for the conclusion of peace treaties with the five former satellites of Nazi Germany after the end of the Second World War. The paper uses the methodology of the historical and legal analysis. The focus is on the accessible State Department archives for the Potsdam Conference of the Big Three, the first session of the Council of Foreign Ministers in London, and the December 1945 conference of the Foreign Ministers of the USSR, the United States, and the United Kingdom in Moscow. The negotiations between the three Great Powers leading to the decision to hold the Paris Peace Conference in 1946 are examined. Conclusions are made about how the USA, the United Kingdom and the USSR did not spare efforts to maintain complete control over the process without allowing other powers to interfere.

Paris Barış Konferansı’nda Türkiye Arnavut Kolonisi Delegasyonu’nun Faaliyetleri 1919

It was at the end of the First World War, in 1918, that a peace conference in Paris was made possible to be convened. The Peace Conference finally opened a new page in the history of international relations. Albanian people were wholly and directly focused on the proceedings of the Paris Conference from the very beginning, hoping that there they would find solutions to their problems and concerns regarding the national question. In the framework of these efforts and fully aware of the danger that threatened the country, the Albanians had to raise their voice and make known the national cause at the Conference meetings considering that, at the time, the territory of the Albanian state was occupied and the Albanians could not depend on the support of any of the triumphant post-war states. They believed that displaying their demands at the Conference convened to establish world peace would be a good opportunity to defend their rights and the injustices inflicted to them. Therefore, in addition to the delegation of the National Government from the Congress of Durrës, whose purpose was to represent the Albanian people in the Conference, there were other representatives from the Albanian diaspora. One of them was the delegation of the Albanian Colony of Turkey. The purpose of the activity of this Albanian representation was the protection of the independence of Albania, the protection of the territorial integrity of the Albanian state from the danger of a new fragmentation and the efforts for the recovery of the country. The delegates of the Albanian colonies worked together carrying out many activities in aid of the national cause, as well as propagating the right of existence of this nation through the press, meetings with various personalities or through memoranda sent to major states. Despite the difficult circumstances, the representatives of the Albanian Colony of Turkey believed in the idea that the Albanian state would rise again. Their activity marked the historical period of the Albanian people.

The historiography of the Greek-Turkish War in Asia Minor: Britain, Greece, and others, 1915 - 1923

2023 marks the centenary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which ended the state of war between Turkey and the western allies, in particular Greece, and reordered the Near East, settling frontiers and providing for the protection of minorities. This essay reviews the historiography of the period 1915-23 through Greek and British sources in printed books and papers, covering the Greek irredentist claim to western Asia Minor, the Paris peace conference, the occupation of Smyrna, the Greek war against Mustapha Kemal's Turkish nationalists, the collapse of the Greek army, the Lausanne treaty, and the convention on the exchange of Greek and Turkish populations agreed at Lausanne in 1923.