On this day, exactly a 100 years ago the Paris peace treaty of Saint Germain dealing with
the breakup of the Austrian part of the Austro-Hungairan empire came into effect.
Before watching this video I suggest you go watch my previous video about the final days
of Austria-Hungary.
Anyways.
As you know the Austro-Hungarian empire was divided into two main parts, the Austrian
and the Hungarian.
As such at the end of WW1 there were two separate Paris Peace Treaties dealing with the two
separate parts of the empire.
Today we’re going to look at the immediate post war history of the Austrian part of the
Empire and the peace treaty dealing with it, the Treaty of Saint Germain.
However before we look at anything specific, this map needs to be addressed.
It is a map showing the ethnic makeup of the Austrian half of the empire and therefore
it is very important to understand because many of the underlying issues talked about
in this video revolve around ethnic issues.
The problem is this map which is oftentimes shown when talking about post war Austria
Hungary does not necessarily show the ethnic makeup of the Empire.
Let me explain.
This map and others like it are based off of the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census.
Side note here this census was conducted a bit differently by the two separate political
entities of the empire and today I will talk only about the Austrian census not the Hungarian
one.
The first thing that needs to be addressed about this census is that just because a province
on the map is showing let's say Polish as a majority that doesn’t mean it was the
only ethnicity living there.
A more accurate representation would be this, and yes I made the map myself and i know it’s
not perfect but it will have to do as it took me like a week to make.
Anyways so whenever you see a map like this keep in mind it only shows the majority ethnicity
of a province not the whole population.
Second, the Austrian census never asked for a person's ethnicity outright; it only asked
for a person's “Umgangssprache” which translates into something like everyday spoken
language.
Meaning what the census actually recorded was a person's most spoken everyday language.
Therefore this map does not show ethnic divisions but language divisions, which even though
are very heavily correlated with ethnic divisions aren’t the same thing.
For example it was completely common for people who lived in the border regions and identified
as Czechs to use mainly German as that was the language at work or even at large social
gatherings.
And these kinds of people would be identified as Austrian-Germans in the census and on this
map.
Therefore it has to be stated that due to this reason Austrian-Germans are over-reported
in the 1910 census and subsequently also in the map created from the census.
However, this is not to say the census and the map is completely wrong, specially because
when adjusted for post war migrations it is very similar to the censuses conducted after
the war.
But also from these comparisons it becomes clear that Austrian-Germans were in fact over
reported in the 1910 census but not by some huge margin as some nationalists would have
you believe.
So when looking at this map keep in mind it is a map showing the most spoken self identified
language in an area not the majority ethnicity in an area even though those two things are
very heavily correlated.
Now when it came to the Paris peace conference in 1919 Austria was for the most part at the
start completely ignored.
With the entente being heavily preoccupied drafting a peace treaty for Germany as it
was seen by the allies as the largest future threat.
Therefore the Austrian delegates at the start of the peace talks struggled to even get a
meeting with the allied council.
Eventually they were assigned their own council and a draft of a peace treaty was made for
Austria, a draft in which Austria had very little say in but such were the peace negotiation
for any losing power in the Paris Peace Conference.
As it stood the main points of what was to become the Treaty of Saint Germain where.
Austria losing all of its non-core land including the German majority in Bohemia.
Austria having to pay war reparations but these were actually never truly defined and
later kind of forgotten about on purpose because Austria didn’t really have the post war
economy to pay for them anyways.
The successor states had the right to seize all state property of the former Empire which
lies within their border.
All succer states will be held accountable to hold a percentage of the former Empires
debt as defined by the allies.
There will be a plebiscite held in the province of Carinthia which got taken over by Yugoslav
forces during the confusing mess which was the breakup of Austria-Hungary.
The German majority Burgenland which is currently held by Hungary will be given to Austria.
German Austria is to renounce all claims to the German majority lands of the former Empire
and to symbolize this change its name to just Austria, also it is not allowed under any
circumstances to unite with Germany at any point in the future.
Of course there were many more points of the Saint Germain treaty than I have stated, 376
more points to be exact but there’s no time to mention them all.
The Peace Treaty of Saint Germain was concluded and begrudgingly signed by the Austrians 10th
of September 1919.
However while all these negotiations were happening in Paris life didn’t just stop
in the former lands of the Empire and in fact it became in many ways even more chaotic than
it already was.
For example when Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on October 28th, the German population living
in the lands of the Bohemian crown declared their own independence.
Quickly establishing their own governing bodies and proclaiming loyalty to the Austrian German
government in Vienna not the Czechoslovak government in Prague.
Austria however was in no military position to defend these lands and since Czechoslovakia
declared possession over all the lands of the Bohemian crown regardless of the German
population they started occupying these lands by force.
With Czechoslovakia being in control of all the land later to be called the Sudetenland
by the start of 1919.
Just in time to begin a war with Poland.
Remember Tesin in Silesia and how two different governing Polish and Czech bodies were established
and then came together in a tenues demarcation agreement.
Part of that agreement was that no sovereign rule was to be conducted in the area until
a concrete border was agreed upon in Paris.
Well that was the Czechoslovak interpretation of the agreement anyways.
But this agreement was then broken by the Poles who started preparing for parliamentary
elections in the area which was seen by Czechoslovakia as a motion of “sovereign rule” over Tesin.
Therefore Czechoslovakia protested to this, the Poles disagreed on the interpretation
of the agreement saying this didn’t apply and so the stage was set for a war in late
January 1919.
Why was Tesin so important to both sides, well because not only was it a very important
train hub in central Europe which was a big deal in 1919 but it also had very large coal
mines and steel industry that both of the infant countries needed to strengthen their
economic position.
On top of that Czechoslovakia had a further reason why not to give up Tesin and that was
because it was part of the Bohemian crown lands with a Polish majority.
This meant that if part of the Bohemian Crown lands with a Polish majority was to be given
to Poland who’s to say that the Bohemian Crown lands with German majority can’t be
given to Austria.
It would set a dangerous precedent that Czechoslovakia was actively trying to avoid.
This is why on January 23rd when Czechoslovakia knew it had the upper military hand since
Poland was fighting German, and West Ukraninan border disputes invaded the Polish side of
Tesin.
After 7 days of mostly very one-sided fighting and strong diplomatic pressure from the Allies
a ceasefire was reached, with Czechoslovakia now in control of almost all of Tesin economic
production.
What followed next was more than a year of negotiations during which Czechoslovakia dragged
their feet at every possible moment, this was begrudgingly tolerated by the allies mostly
due to their more negative view of Poland after certain events in Lviv that we will
get to soon.
However eventually an agreement was reached in July 1920 where Czechoslovakia was allowed
to retain control of the economica/strategically important areas of Tesin, and Poland was given
Polish majority lands in Spis and Orava.
This was later accompanied by another agreement in 1924 that exchanged yet again a few towns
between the two countries.
Skipping from that to probably the most chaotic area of the former Empire, the now self proclaimed
West Ukranians People’s Republic.
When this republic was proclaimed on the first of November 1918 it was done so because the
majority Ukranian population of Eastern Galicia feared that they would become subject to the
New Polish Republic and these fears were not unfounded as both the Polish Liquidation committee
and the Polish republic made their intentions of annexing whole of Austrian Galicia very
clear.
The WUPR early on saw a lot of support from the local population and was able to raise
an army of almost 100 thousands man which thanks to raiding of abandoned weapons warehouses
left behind by the Austro-Hungarian military was very well equipped.
The army also included a lot of veterans of the great war so by November 1918 WUPR had
a large, well equipped, and well trained army to be able to withstand not just Poland but
also conduct its own expeditions into Bukovina and Ruthenia, these were however meat with
very little success.
The WUPR also symbolically unified with their sister country in the former Russian Empire
and somewhat helped with fighting against the bolsheviks and white Russians but this
unification was only on paper as both countries continued acting as independent political
entities.
Plus WUPR was actually very different to the Ukraninan People’s Republic as unlike them
they had an actively well working bureaucratic system even during this chaotic time which
they inherited from Austria-Hungary not to mention the WUPR’s much better trained and
equipped army.
But coming back to the conflict at hand to understand the Polish interests in Eastern
Galicia we have to look at the primary language map, as you can see even though Ukranian is
the majority language in the lands claimed by the WUPR there is a very sizable polish
presence with Lviv and the surrounding area even having a Polish majority, and so when
West Ukranian troops took over Lviv in early November it was meat with a strong Polish
resistance that along with the help from Poland itself managed to retake Lviv by the end of
the month.
After that the Polish troops in the city along with its Polish inhabitants attacked much
of the jewish community of Lviv blaming them for many of the unfortunate events currently
happening in central Europe.
How many people died during this attack depends on who you ask but most historians give the
number of around a 100 people, what was however more devastating in the long run was the looting
that accompanied the killings.
Around 11.4 million crowns (or about 15 to 20 million dollars in today's money) worth
of wealth was destroyed or looted from Jewish business.
This pogrom was widely reported in the western papers including the New York times and was
a very large instigator in Western distrust of the Polish campaigns, remember the Tesin
negotiations, anyways, therefore the Allies became more favorable towards the WUPR the
following months in early 1919.
For the next few months West Ukraniane troops laid siege to Lviv but were never fully able
to retake it, however, they did see some success on the Polish front as a whole, and due to
this and also heavy allied diplomatic involvement a ceasefire was reached between Poland and
the WUPR on the 25th of February 1919.
After that a series of very complicated negotiations took place, the result of which is best described
by an allied ambassador presenting an armistice Treaty to the WUPR on the 30th of February.
"Today, your military situation is good, but it may soon change to your disadvantage.
Poland and Czechoslovakia have signed an armistice, enabling the Poles to transport ammunition
over Czech territory.
An armistice agreement will also be reached soon between Poland and Germany.
The Bolsheviks have not as yet entered Polish territory, and the Poles, therefore, are not
constrained to send an army against them.
Realizing this, the Poles are strengthened and encouraged.
If our proposal is not accepted by you, the whole Entente will hold you responsible.
On one side you will be at war with Poland, which will have the support of General Haller's
well-organized six divisions.
While on your other side, the Bolsheviks, having already taken Kiev and a major portion
of your territories, are advancing relentlessly upon you.
If, however, you accept our proposal, all efforts will be made to recognize your independence.
The very fact that we are negotiating with you by putting forward this proposal, is,
to a certain extent, proof of our recognition of your State; one does not negotiate with
something that does not exist.
With our help, you will defeat the Bolsheviks, regain your lost territories, and will not
come empty-handed to the Peace Conference ... Steps are being taken to include your
representatives at the Peace Conference, and a diplomatic mission will be sent to you which
will keep our countries informed of your needs.
Remember the proverb: 'Heaven helps those who help themselves.'
For you, the Entente represents this heaven.
Your decision could mean the beginning of a new existence and national independence.
Never and nowhere will you have an opportunity such as this again.
It is a great and solemn moment.
The future of your nation is in your hands."
Among other things the armistice treaty defined the division between the two countries with
Poland taking control of Lviv and the very important oil fields south of the city, however,
any oil/revenue gotten from the oil fields will be equally divided between the WUPR and
Poland.
The WUPR commanders after some heavy debating decided they didn’t want to give up the
territory they already controlled nor the very important city of Lviv and so refused
the treaty and canceled the ceasefire the following March.
As pointed out by the allied ambassador Poland was now more than capable of defeating the
WUPR which they did a couple of months later with the WUPR ceasing to exist mid July 1919.
Skipping over from there we’ll now look at the southern lands of Austria.
First Carinthia.
Here Austrians and Slovenians with some support from Serbian volunteers have been in a conflict
since October.
This was because the area of Carinthia had a mixed population with a German majority
as a whole but with southern provinces having a Slovenian majority when taken individually.
Naturally during the break up of the Empire multiple councils were established either
proclaiming loyalty to Vienna or Ljubljana.
The two sides eventually came to a demarcation agreement and in November 1918 the Slovenian
general Rudolf Maister started occupying the towns agreed upon as being under Slovenian
control.
However, disagreements over the interpretation of the demarcation lines came by the end of
the month as Maister captured Völkermarkt, a town that Austrians argued wasn’t included
in the agreement.
As such tensions rose and by the time of January 1919 the simple occupation of their respective
demarcation lines turned into an all out war between the two countries.
Slovenian troops emerged having the upper hand and even started planning an attack on
Klagenfurt in february but by that time a ceasefire was negotiated due to pressure from
the allies.
The allies, after inspecting the situation in the area, decided a plebiscite will be
held which included some of the towns that were agreed to be in Slovenian possession
in the first demarcation agreement.
This was unacceptable for the Slovenians as they knew if a plebiscite was held taking
the entire region as a whole they weren’t going to win.
So at the end of April they broke the ceasefire and launched a full scale offensive.
This proved not so successful and Austrian troops actually managed to push the Slovenian
forces all the way back to Slovenia where they were stopped by Yugoslav forces that
came to reinforce the front.
More Yugoslav troops came the following month and with their help another Slovenian offensive
was launched which by early June captured much of the Klagenfurt basin, this was however
for naught as the Allies now fed up with all the fighting issued an ultimatum to Yugoslavia
to withdraw from the area so a plebiscite can be held or else.
Yugoslav troops reluctantly withdrew and the plebiscite results showed that 60% of the
population wanted to remain with Austria, what is however interesting is that half of
the Sloevnian population in the area voted to remain with Austria as they saw themself
having stronger ties to the Austria than to Yugoslavia.
Therefore, outside of a few border towns that were agreed to be given to Slovenia, Carinthia
as a whole remained in Austrian possession.
Then there's the adriatic question or the adriatic problem which was the struggle between
the newly formed Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Italy over the former Austrian Adriatic
coast.
The allies agreed to give all of this land to Italy during the 1915 London agreement
which brought it into the war.
However, as Austria-Hungary fell apart and minorities within the country started claiming
land, the Adriatic coast was claimed first by the state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
and later Yugoslavia and considering that outside of western Istria all of this land
had a Yugoslav ethnic majority the rest of the allies started to backtrack on their promises
to Italy.
They did give Italy Austrian majority south tyrol but this was different since Austria
was the enemy and it was easier to swallow giving a majority Austrian land away than
Yugoslav land because Yugoslavia was part of the allies.
Not to mention the post war campaign of the USA for self determination.
The Paris peace talks were then further complicated by the fact that Yugoslav forces and civilians
clashed with the Italian army occupying the Adriatic coast, leading mostly America but
also Britain and France to send occupation forces of their own to the area to try to
ease the tensions.
Many proposals and counter proposals were made but none of the two countries could agree
on anything and the rest of the allies became increasingly irritated with the talks going
nowhere considering they had their hands full with other large problems happening all over
the former Empire, plus while the talks where going nowhere the clashes between the two
countries continued to increase.
In the end 12th of November 1920 Treaty of Rapallo was signed between the two countries
ending the dispute over the Adriatic coastline, which now looked like this.
In the treaty the city of Fiume would become independent but it was later given to Italy
under the Treaty of Rome in 1924.
The Italians viewed this entire situation as a backstab by the allies who promised them
everything in the London agreement only to not help them during the actual peace talks,
resulting in Italy having to sign a treaty which didn’t give them as much land as they
wanted.
Lastly we’ll look at Burgenland, this area was part of the Hungarian kingdom but had
a German speaking majority.
Therefore in the treaty of Saint Germain it was decided to be given to Austria, however,
this had to be postponed as Hungary was having a thing which we’ll touch upon in my next
video.
Once Horthy came into power and Hungary was again cooperating with the allies, the transition
of Burgenland was set for August 1921.
But Hungarians and Coratians in the area around Sopron created a militia to fight the Austrians
because they didn’t want to be part of Austria, after repulsing the Austrians they declared
their own republic, the Lajtabánság.
The Hungarian government couldn’t do anything about this as under the allied treaties they
had to withdraw their troops from the area and the Austrians were unable to defeat the
scrapy militia who employed very successful guerilla tactics against them.
So Austrians started negotiations with the Hungarians to figure out what to do next,
all while Lajtabánság acted as its own country.
Trains going through it had to pay dues, they printed their own stamps and even had their
own elections.
From these elections the people decided they wanted to be a monarchy, however, a split
between who should be the monarch happened and the state started to fall apart on its
own.
Meanwhile Austria and Hungary reached an agreement on what to do.
Hungary will help Austria occupy the new country which now was much easier as Lajtabánság
was falling apart, all while a plebiscite will be held in the Sopron area as this was
the main area which had a sizeable Croatian and Hungarian population that didn’t want
to join Austria.
In December 1921 Sopron voted to stay with Hungary while the rest of Burgenland joined
Austria.
This is where I will conclude the video about the Treaty of Saint Germain and the lands
it dealt with.
Obviously I couldn’t talk about everything like for example the post war state of Austria
itself, because this video can’t go on forever.
However, I will give a more general overview ending of the break of the entire Empire in
my treaty of Trianon video coming out on the 31st of July so if you don’t want to miss
that subscribe and hit the bell icon.
This video was made possible thanks to my amazing Patreons, as always my name is M.
Laser, and stick around for History.