#peace terms

October 18 1921, Washington–Despite multiple attempts, the Treaty of Versailles had failed to reach the required two-thirds majority for ratification in the US Senate.  The Harding Administration negotiated and signed new treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary, dropping American participation in the League of Nations or most other international commitments from Treaty of Versailles.  Nonetheless, there was still determined opposition to the new treaties, and it was no means clear that the new treaties would not meet the same fate.  Wilson, now living in DC, attempted to organize Democrats against the treaty, while a few die-hard irreconcilables opposed the treaty as they feared any recognition of any aspect of the Treaty of Versailles would lead to the United States joining the League of Nations in the future.  Ultimately, however, the treaty with Germany was ratified by a wide margin, 66-20, with more than half of the Senate Democrats voting in favor.  The other treaties were ratified by a similar margin.  Wilson, fuming at this final defeat, called the treaty’s supporters “the most partisan, prejudiced, ignorant, and unpatriotic group that ever misled the Senate of the United States.”

August 25 1921, Berlin–Republican objections to the League of Nations had prevented American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and Harding’s election to the presidency in 1920 sealed its fate.  This, however, left the United States still officially at war with Germany.  On July 2, 1921 the United States officially declared that the state of war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary was over, but a formal peace treaty still needed to be signed.  This came on August 25, with a brief treaty signed in Berlin.  This effectively was the United States ratifying the Treaty of Versailles with extreme reservations:

• The United States would not join the League of Nations or the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not concern itself with Germany’s borders or other strictly European matters agreed to in the treaty.
• The United States did not recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles considering German concerns outside Europe (apart from the surrendering of her colonies); in particular, this included the handover of Shantung to the Japanese.
• The United States would not attempt to conduct war crimes trials of the Kaiser or other German war criminals.
• The United States would not join the International Labour Organization.
• The United States would not be compelled to participate in any commission called for by the Treaty of Versailles.

In the same week, similar treaties were signed with Austria and Hungary; the United States never declared war on Bulgaria or the Ottoman Empire.

A Belarusian cartoon lamenting the partition of Belarus between the Soviets and the Poles in the Treaty of Riga; note that the original Soviet proposals would have placed MInsk (center) on the Polish side.

March 18 1921, Riga–The Soviets and Poles had concluded an armistice in October, but a formal peace treaty had proved elusive.  The Soviets, eager to normalize their relations with their neighbors, were fine with drawing the border roughly along the armistice line.  Many of the Polish negotiators, however, did not want to annex so much eastern territory whose inhabitants were mostly Belarusians and Ukrainians, and the Polish delegation rejected the offer, much to Piłsudski’s chagrin.

By March, Lenin, who had other more pressing internal concerns with Kronstadt, strikes, and peasant unrest, pressed for a resolution to the negotiations, and on March 18 a treaty was signed in Riga.  A border was agreed to about 60 miles west of the original Soviet proposal (but still around 150 miles east of the modern Polish frontier).  Most notably, this meant that Minsk would return to Soviet hands.  Poland would also receive 30 million rubles in compensation for Russia’s hundred-year occupation of the country.

Soviet and Turkish signatories of the Treaty of Moscow.

March 16 1921, Moscow–TheSoviet invasion of Georgia brought Soviet Russia into direct contact with Turkey, which soon thereafter invaded the country from the south.  The Soviets had already repudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that had given up large areas to the Ottoman Empire.  Kemal’s government in Ankara wanted to keep these gains, but was also diplomatically isolated and was more worried about the Allies occupying Constantinople and Smyrna.

On March 16, representatives from Kemal’s government and the Soviets signed a treaty in Moscow.  Turkey got to keep most of the gains from Brest-Litovsk, with the exception of Batum [Batumi], while Turkey recognized the Soviet republics in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Both sides repudiated Brest-Litovsk and Sèvres, and the question of navigation of the Straits was deferred to a later time.  Residents of the territories Russia gave up in Brest-Litovsk were to have the right to leave Turkey with their property intact.  Azerbaijan’s control over the Nakhchivan exclave, which continues to this day, was confirmed by both sides.

The treaty brought an end to Turkey’s adventures in the Caucasus (for many decades), and the borders established by the treaty remain largely unchanged to this day.  The last organized Georgian resistance to the Soviet invasion collapsed two days after the treaty, leaving the Soviets free to concentrate on the Dashnaks in Armenia.

Sources include: Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War

Italian gains from the Treaty of Rapallo, shown in light green and yellow.  Not shown are some other Dalmatian and Adriatic islands, and the port of Zara [Zadar].  Fiume is shown in yellow, as it was annexed by Italy in 1924; between 1920 and 1924, however, it was a Free State.

November 12 1920, Rapallo–After the signing of the Treaty of Sèvres, the last major formal loose end was the border between Italy and Yugoslavia.  Italy had substantial claims along her eastern frontier and the Dalmatian coast, dating back to the 1915 Treaty of London under which she joined the war, but many of these areas had Slovene or Croat majorities, which under the Wilsonian principle of self-determination should go to Yugoslavia—which was as much an Allied signatory of the post-war treaties as Italy was.  Wilson frustrated Orlando repeatedly at the peace conference, precipitating the latter’s withdrawal andlater ouster as PM, and the negotiations in Paris broke up before resolving the issue.

In early November, however, the Yugoslavs lost their American backers, as Wilson’s Democrats were defeated in a landslide.  Harding had since disavowed the notion that the war was fought to make the world safe for democracy, and could not be counted on to support Slovene and Croat calls for self-determination.  On November 12, Yugoslavia signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Italy, giving Italy control of Gorizia, Trieste, the entire Istrian peninsula, the western quarter of modern-day Slovenia, most of the islands off the Dalmatian coast (with the main exception of Krk), the small Pelagosa [Palagruža] islands, and the port of Zara [Zadar].  Notably not included was the port of Šibenik, which had been offered to the Italians in a final compromise offer before Orlando was ousted.  Fiume [Rijeka] was to become a free city, like Danzig; before that could come to pass, D’Annunzio, who had occupied the city and demanded Italian annexation, would have to be dealt with.

Sources include: Mark Thompson, The White War.

An Austrian propaganda poster, in Slovenian, reading “Mother, do not vote for Yugoslavia, or I will be drafted for King Peter.”

October 10 1920, Völkermarkt–TheTreaty of Saint-Germain called for a series of plebiscites in Carinthia to resolve the disputed Austrian-Yugoslavian border.  The first one, for the immediate border region, was held, after some delay, on October 10.  Although the region was majority-Slovene, Austria won the plebiscite 22,025 - 15,278.  The region had stronger economic ties to the rest of Austrian Carinthia than to Yugoslavia, many saw Austria as more forward-thinking than Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia, and Austria, unlike Yugoslavia, had no conscription (as a result of the Treaty of Saint-Germain).

The result was something of a surprise to both sides.  In protest, Yugoslav forces briefly moved into the plebiscite area the next week, but quickly withdrew; the government in Belgrade was not greatly concerned with Slovenia’s borders.  Plans for a second plebiscite, for the city of Klagenfurt and its surrounding environs, were cancelled as the results of the first hand rendered them moot.

Sources include: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919.