Paris Peace Conference Research Articles

THE ALBANIAN PROBLEM AND THE USA ON THE EVE OF THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE IN 1919

Nineteen-nineteen was a year of peacemaking and national boundaries were being revised throughout the world. It was also a year of hope, especially for the Albanians, when many people believed that the world could be remade according to Wilson. The year was crucial in the development of Albania. For Albania the story of 1919 is both national and international. On the international scene the problem of what to do with Albania was as always tied to other issues. Albania had been created in 1913 by the Great Powers in an attempt to preserve the stability of the Balkans by preventing the growth of the states which were victorious in the first Balkan War and by maintaining Albania as a foreign dominated balancing factor. This system by which the Great powers maintained their control over the Balkans was broken completely by the First World War. During the peacemaking the Albanian problem became part of both the Adriatic question of Greece and the question of Greek and Italian claims in the Eastern Mediterranean. The aim of this paper is to consider these claims, the influence of Essad Pasha on the eve of the Paris Peace Conference and the American attitude towards the Albanian issue.

The American Attitude Towards Albania During the Peacemaking in 1919

The American attitude towards Albania played an important role during the peacemaking at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. The United States, unlike the European nations, entered the conflict without interests or policy toward Albania. Before the entry of the United States into the First World War there had been no American policy towards Albania and it had never been recognized by the United States. It was only after America’s entry into the world struggle that an American attitude toward the Albanian problem began to develop. More concretely, it was in the Inquiry, an organisation which was to begin preparations for the peace settlement, that an American policy towards Albania began to form. Unfortunately, before the Paris Peace Conference the plans of the American experts for a solution to the Albanian problem were similar to the Albanian settlement outlined in the Treaty of London. On the eve of the Peace Conference, the American position became more favourable to Albania. During the negotiations the United States supported the integrity of Albania within its 1913 frontiers and refused to allow this small country to be partitioned further. President Woodrow Wilson and ex-President Roosevelt united in sympathy for the Albanian cause. The Albanians are deeply grateful to them for leading the way in the defense of their just cause. The Albanian problem during the peacemaking brought Albania to the foreground and its name appeared in big headlines on the first page of the American newspapers at that time, helping a large section of the American public to locate Albania.

How Peace Operations Did Not Emerge as a Norm after the First World War

The execution of international plebiscites and international administrations in post-World War I Germany was chosen as a case study because it is accepted as an early model of peace operations. It held promise for the emergence of a new norm for resolving territorial disputes according to the principle of self-determination. In order to understand why the norm failed in its early emergence stage process, the paper analyzes the discussions on Germany territorial disputes among the three main Powers − France, Great-Britain and the United States − during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as the constitutive stage. Then it compares it with the execution of international operations in Germany. The paper combines IR theory with international history. It shows that a ‘norm amalgamation’ is a precondition for a norm to emerge. The norm entrepreneurs have to amalgamate an ideational-constitutive process with an operational-appropriateness. In the case studies it shows that during the discussions of the victorious Powers there were several tensions and dilemmas: a tension between the ‘old norm’ and ‘new norms’. Moreover, The Powers were also divided concerning the process of operational-procedures.

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN KOSOVO NATIONAL PROTECTION COMMITTEE AND THE ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT DURING (1918-1924)

The Kosovo National Protection Committee (KNPC), which was founded in Shkodra on May 1, 1918, was one of the most important organizations of Albanian political pluralism in the years 1918-1924. The Committee had a broad political, democratic and national program that would have played the role of the government for Kosovo and strongly represented its voice. With such a status, the Committee could play an important role in Albanian political life at that time. Hoping that the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 would resolve the Albanian question, the leadership of the Committee sent successive memoranda and telegrams respecting the independence of Albania and reversing the injustices inflicted by the Great Powers on the Albanian people in 1913. During these years, the Committee established close relations with the Albanian governments. At first, it objected to the pro-Italian capitulation policy of the Durres government and condemned its actions. Later, when the patriots decided to convene a new national congress due to the international political circumstances and the danger of the disintegration of the country, they endorsed this initiative and praised it as a historic congress. They joined the decisions of the Lusnya Congress and participated as members of the resulting national government. If one recognizes the names of the members of this organization, one can say that the KNPC was one of the most important influences in the history of Albanian statehood in the years 1918-1924.

Italy, the Paris Peace Conference and the Shaping of Czechoslovakia

Italy, the Paris Peace Conference and the Shaping of Czechoslovakia

Przyczynek do historii dyplomacji kulturalnej II Rzeczypospolitej we Francji

The article describes the circumstances in which the France-Pologne association, led by Henri de Montfort, was established in 1919 and operated to 1940. In the available literature on the subject, the activity of this association has not been given much attention. The Les Amis de la Pologne association established by Rosa Bailly in 1919 played an important role in creating a positive image of Poland in the city on the Seine in the interwar period. The recognition of the Polish National Committee (KNP) by Paris in August 1917 as the official Polish representation paved the way for the creation of the France-Pologne association. Having realised how important it was to use propaganda in international political and military relations, the Polish delegation to the Paris Peace Conference handed over the competences of the KNP Propaganda Office to the France-Pologne association. Its most important task was to conduct the promotional activities in the central press, supported by the government on the Seine. Throughout the interwar period, to advertise the Second Polish Republic’s achievements in France, France-Pologne co-organised readings, lectures, concerts, anniversary celebrations and participated in the scholarship exchange of Polish and French high schoolers and students. It also informed the French public opinion about economic relations with Poland in its magazines: „La Pologne. Politique, économique, littérraire et artistique”, „Bulletin d’information sur la vie économique polonaise” and „La Revue de l’Est Européen”.

The Past as Science: Romanian Cartography at the Paris Peace Congress of 1919

Abstract Romanian cartography at the Paris Peace Conference has so far received very little attention. Nevertheless, Romanian scholars produced tens of maps to support Romanian claims, most of them ethnographic ones. Seen as unscientific in 1919, they were quietly brushed aside. The present article argues that Romanian maps of 1919 displayed the same ideas found among Romanian elites. Ethnographic space was for them not just a matter of graphic representation of census results, but also the historical development of ancient and modern Dacia. Romanian cartography was congruous with Romanian culture in a wider sense. The article will review these ideas and then discuss their impact in Paris in 1919 and for Romanian culture since then.

China Against the Decision of the Versailles Treaty – May 4 Movement. The State of China's International Environment and Changes in the System of International Relations in the Far East Region

Decisions made after World War I at the Paris Peace Conference had serious political consequences on a global scale. In Europe, new state entities disintegrated and created, the balance of power of the main po-wers changed, with the United States of America taking the first posi-tion. A bipolar system of international relations developed gradually. It reached its final form after World War II. Under the influence of the idealistic vision of the world of American President, Woodrow Wilson, the League of Nations was created. It was a universal international organization the main task of which was to ensure the "territorial integrity and political independence” of its members and to supervise the implementation of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, regulating the global principles of international political and economic relations. They were expressed by W. Wilson in the so-called "14 points", announced in Congress on January 8, 1918. However, China was not among the beneficiaries of the "new world order" despite the fact that the Middle Kingdom participated in the war on the side of the Entente countries. The decisions made during the Paris conference were against China's raison d'état. For this reason, the country was still an economic base for strengthening its position as superpowers, especially Japan, which had been granted the rights to German concessions in China. The public protest resulted in the revolutionary May 4 Movement, which spread from Beijing to all major cities of the Republic of China, revealing the new face of Chinese society. The 100-year anniversary of these events gives rise to considerations aimed at determining the proper causes of the outbreak of the May 4 Movement and its impact on shaping internal social relations and changes occurring in the social and political space in China. The consi-derations presented in this lecture focused mainly on a synthetic appro-ach to the issue of changes occurring in the international environment, especially the policy of the powers towards China and phenomena obse-rved in Chinese society, resulting in the May 4 Movement. The material, published in subsequent volumes of "Studia Gdańskie. Wizje i rzeczywi-stość", is presented in four parts, due to the need to analyse a wide range of factors influencing the shaping of the social movement in China. In the first part, an attempt was made to indicate the conditions of the state of China's international environment and changes in the system of international relations in the Far East region in the period preceding the outbreak of World War I until its end. The changes observed in the Chinese political and economic system under the pressure of external factors and reactionary internal phenomena will be presented in the following part of the lecture. The third part will focus on the analysis of the phenomena occurring in Chinese society, especially in the context of the creation of civil society and the rejection of the Confucian tradition under the influence of liberal, socialist ideology and communism, of which the May 4 Movement was a consequence. The conclusion will involve an attempt to show the influence of the May 4 Movement on the socio-political phenomena seen during the rule of the Communist Party of China.

Catholicism and Foreign Policy: Esme Howard and British Policy towards Poland, 1919

ABSTRACT Esme Howard, the British diplomat posted to the Paris Peace Conference to handle policy towards North and Northeastern Europe, saw his proposals except for the Polish Corridor largely ignored by David Lloyd George, the prime minister, and his advisors at Downing Street. The two men had decidedly different conceptions of post-war Poland: Howard plumped for a large Poland with adequate territory and economic resources to counter the certain revival of Britain’s adversaries Germany and Russia; Lloyd George looked for a smaller one to appease republican Germany and Russia whether the latter became ‘Red’ or ‘White’. It has been suggested that as Howard was Roman Catholic, he looked to support reborn Roman Catholic Poland as much as he could. Such assertions are incorrect. Before and after 1919 in his various postings, he always put British interests above all else, even in Catholic countries in which he served. His advice at Paris was to ensure smaller Powers like Poland and the Baltic States could with British support maintain a regional balance of power against Britain’s Berlin and Moscow. Lloyd George lacked any strategic vision in seeking to ameliorate differences with the Germans and Russians.

파리강화회의에 제출한 승전국 식민지의 청원서와 그 성격

파리강화회의에 제출한 승전국 식민지의 청원서와 그 성격

Accommodating the post-war order: the Hotel Brauner Hirsch and the diplomacy of the Paris Peace Conference in Teschen Silesia, 1919–1920

ABSTRACT During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 multiple commissions were dispatched to manage the birth of the post-First World War order across central and eastern Europe. Examining the two commissions which managed the dispute over the former Habsburg Duchy of Teschen, Silesia, from the perspective of the Hotel Brauner Hirsch where they resided, this article examines the connections between diplomacy, tourism, geopolitics, and the hotel. While their hotel provided a place of work and security, its social function as a site of entertainment and enjoyment often interfered with the commissions’ diplomatic functions. Meanwhile, the real and perceived behaviour of the members of these bodies within the hotel, as well as the potential dislocation caused by their presence in the region, made their hotel a complicating factor in their diplomacy.

“At Gethsemane”: The Shandong Decision at the Paris Peace Conference and Wilson’s identity crisis

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s proposed policy of Wilsonianism during World War I was riddled with inherent contradictions. Wilson wanted to resolve the conflicts between imperialist powers and their colonial populations through the principle of “national self-determination,” but also relied on the support of the victorious great powers to realize his vision for a League of Nations. The first goal put him at odds with the great powers while the latter required him to ally with them. Wilson’s contradictory relationship with the victorious Allies manifested itself in the resolution of the Shandong question and how Wilson was unable to reconcile the moral principle of self-determination with realist power politics. To form a League of Nations, Wilson had to choose between “ethics” and “politics,” leading to a personal identity crisis. For Wilson, choosing to trust in collective security over moral responsibility was a choice made “at Gethsemane.”

The Image of Ukraine in Great Britain during 1919–1920s

The article examines the evolution of the image of Ukraine in the intellectual discourse of the British Empire immediately after the First World War, i.e., during 1919–1920s. This period was marked, on the one hand, by the continuation of the national liberation struggle within Ukraine and, on the other hand, by discussions on the post-war arrangement of Europe and the world at the Paris Peace Conference. Great Britain, as one of the victors in the war, as well as one of the most powerful states at the time, took an active part in these discussions, and the future of Ukrainian lands significantly depended on its position. Therefore, it seems interesting to trace the image of Ukraine that has developed among British intellectuals and politicians at this time, because it also made impact on the attitude of British diplomats to the Ukrainian question at the Paris Peace Conference. To achieve that goal, the article will analyze the attempts of the UPR Directory to establish contacts with British diplomats, the works of the famous British geographer and geopolitician Gelford Mackinder, the views of a prominent British statesman of the 20th century, and during 1919–1920s the Minister of War Winston Churchill, a booklet on Ukraine, issued by the Foreign Office in 1920, as well as the position of the then first man in the UK, British Prime Minister David Lloyd-George. Such a comprehensive view will provide a better understanding of the British vision of the Central and Eastern Europe region in general, and Ukraine in particular, in the context of that time.

Контексты литературной критики Теодора Драйзера с точки зрения издательской практики

Theodore Dreiser published over fifty items of literary criticism between 1900 and 1945 on a wide variety of subjects, while additional discussion of literary matters is scattered through his correspondence, memoirs, unpublished speeches, and cultural and philosophical essays. Hitherto this work has proved useful piecemeal, in its illumination of Dreiser’s fiction, while a few outstanding pieces have served to define Dreiser’s version of realism or literary naturalism. This essay takes the literary criticism seriously as a body of work in itself, sketching out some categories and topics, and providing detailed historical contexts for several items, which reveal under-appreciated nuances and engagements in even better-known pieces such as “True Art speaks Plainly” and “Life, Art and America.” The essay sees coherence across the diverse foci of Dreiser’s literary criticism via the concept of the “occasions of literary criticism,” by which is meant the historical and cultural contexts into which he was writing. It charts the roots of Dreiser’s literary criticism in his need to respond to charges of “literary immorality,” its growth through his very particular response to censorship, and its maturity in his suggestion, in a speech given as part of the peace conference in Paris in 1938, of an American literary tradition dedicated to social justice, taking in Mark Twain and H. D. Thoreau as well as the expected cohort of realists and naturalists. The essay concludes by relating these contexts and preoccupations to the history and practice of the Theodore Dreiser Edition.

Fenomen odradzającej się po rozbiorach Rzeczypospolitej, czyli walka Polaków o Galicję Wschodnią w latach 1918–1923

Complicated ethnic relations and the awakening national identity of the Ukrainians, further stimulated by the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spurred the efforts of the Ukrainian population of eastern Galicia to assert their independence. The lands of this province became a disputed area between Poles and Ukrainians. Its capital city of Lviv, overwhelmingly populated by Poles, naturally aspired to reunite with the Polish Republic, which was reborn after more than 120 years. The chaos caused by the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the lack of clear decisions about the future of the disputed lands led to fighting in Lviv and other cities of the province. The end of hostilities in July 1919, which was victorious for the Polish side, did not lead to a final settlement at the peace conference in Paris. At that time, Polish diplomacy faced the task of convincing the Entente states to grant the territory of Eastern Galicia to Poland. These efforts were successful, and the province eventually became part of Poland in the first quarter of 1923.

Działalność Victora Cǎdere – posła rumuńskiego w Polsce na tle relacji Warszawa–Bukareszt (1932–1935)

Victor Cădere (born 1891) was a Romanian lawyer, civil servant, diplomat and politician. He participated as an officer in the war with Bulgaria (1913) and in the I-st World War (1916–1918). Then he was at the peace conference in Paris as part of the Romanian delegation. In the years 1919–1921 he was dealing with the repatriation of Romanians from the USA and Russia. After returning to the country, in 1925, he began an academic career, which he continued with interruptions until his death in France in 1981. At that time, he was an activist of the peasant party and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. In the years 1930–1932 he held high official positions in the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior. In 1932, he began his career as a diplomat. His first post was Warsaw, where he was to watch over the matters of the Romanian-Polish alliance securing both countries against the threat from the USSR. Before he actually took office, however, he became the Romanian negotiator on the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, but risked Nicolae Titulescu – an influential diplomat and politician who opposed them and soon became Cădere’s superior, i.e. the minister of foreign affairs. After settling in Warsaw, the new MP tried to work for the development of the alliance. However, he encountered obstacles on the part of Titulescu, who wanted to loosen his ties with the Republic of Poland and bring him closer to Moscow. This affected the fate of Cădere, who was dismissed in July 1935. His diplomatic career slowed down. He took up another post – in Belgrade – only after the fall of Titulescu in 1936, then he was a member of parliament in Lisbon (1941–1944). From 1945 to 1967 he stayed in Romania. In the years 1952- 1956 he was imprisoned by the communist authorities. In 1967 he remained in exile in France.

Development of metadata for historical cartographic resources associated with the Paris Peace Conference (1919−1920)

Abstract In the era of interdisciplinary research supported by IT solutions, a special role is played by digital source repositories. The digital turn has contributed to their considerable development, and the application of new technologies has largely changed the current methods of research work. This facilitates pooling and structuring dispersed collections e.g. as part of thematic repositories, which collect and share thematically related resources. Metadata, which allow effective searching and identification of resources, are an important element of their function. The objective of the article is to present a procedure for the development of metadata aimed at creation of a thematic database of dispersed sources remaining after the Paris Peace Conference ending World War I. Based on the metadata development procedure, the author discusses the diagnosed problems associated with e.g. the specificity of the analyzed sources.

У истоков идеи Кавказской мусульманской конфедерации: о союзе Азербайджана, Дагестана и Горской республики в 1917–1918 гг.

On the basis of a significant amount of documentary and archival material, the article examines the background and development of the idea of creating a political and state association of the territories inhabited by the Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia. It is shown how the idea of cultural and national autonomy of the national outskirts arose in the course of the democratic movement in Russia in 1917, and how after the Bolshevik Coup in Russia, that idea was transformed into plans for the creation of independent political entities in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. The leaders of the Azerbaijani faction of the Transcaucasian governments repeatedly raised at various levels the question of the accession of the North Caucasus Muslim state entities to Transcaucasia, but the unstable political and military situation in the Caucasus made the resolution of this issue impossible. Until the middle of 1918, there were two opposing authorities in Azerbaijan – the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and the Baku Commune. The North Caucasus was even more fragmented, both ethnically and politically. At the same time, the anti-Bolshevik forces of the mountainous peoples received almost no material support from outside but competed with the White movement that had emerged in the South of Russia for influence in the region. The fall of the Baku Commune and the seizure of Baku by the Turkish-Azerbaijani troops revived the ideas of the Caucasian Muslim confederation for a short time. However, being disunited, the forces of the North Caucasus “independent” entities were unable to resist the pro-Bolshevik forces in the region. The defeat of Turkey and Germany in the First World War at the end of 1918 made a serious change in the balance of power in the Caucasus region and marked a new stage in the development of the idea of the Caucasian Muslim confederation, associated with the attempts of the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic to achieve recognition of its sovereignty by the victorious Entente countries at the Paris Peace Conference.

THE BRITISH MANDATE AND THE UPRISING OF 1920 IN IRAQ

The article examines the initial period of the mandate administration of Iraq by Great Britain, the anti-British uprising of 1920. The chronological framework covers the period from May 1916 to October 1921 and includes an analysis of events in the Middle East from May 1916, when the secret agreement on the division of the territories of the Ottoman Empire after the end of World War I (the Sykes-Picot agreement) was concluded before the proclamation of Faisal as king of Iraq and from the formation of the country՚s government. This period is a key one in the Iraqi-British relations at the turn of the 10-20s of the ХХ century. The author focuses on the Anglo-French negotiations during the First World War, on the eve and during the Paris Peace Conference on the division of the territory of the Ottoman Empire and the ownership of the territories in the Arab zone. During these negotiations, it was decided to transfer the mandates for Syria (with Lebanon) to the France, and Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq) to Great Britain. The British in Iraq immediately faced strong opposition from both Sunnis and Shiites, resulting in an anti-English uprising in 1920. The author describes the causes, course and consequences of this uprising.

On the Margins of the Paris Peace Conference: Soviet Russia, France and the Mutual Repatriation of Citizens

On the Margins of the Paris Peace Conference: Soviet Russia, France and the Mutual Repatriation of Citizens