Paper 1 - Treaties of Neuilly, Saint. Germain and Trianon
Source A:
An extract from Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) by Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Saint-Germain, last modified on 7th July 2011.
An important article of the treaty required Austria to refrain from directly or
indirectly compromising its independence, which meant that Austria could not enter
into political or economic union with Germany without the agreement of the council
of the League of Nations. Accordingly, the new republic's initial self-chosen name of
German Austria (Deutschösterreich) had to be changed to Austria. Many Austrians
would come to find this term harsh, due to Austria's later economic weakness, which
was caused by loss of land. The economic weakness of Austria would later lead to
support for the idea of Anschluss (Political Union) with Nazi Germany.
Source B:
An extract from The Treaty of Trianon by Chris Trueman BA,
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_trianon.htm, last modified on 26th
March 2008.
When compared to its pre-war borders, what was seen as ‘Hungary’ within the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, lost nearly 75% of its territory. This land was redistributed
to the newly created states of Romania, Czechoslovakia and what was to become
Yugoslavia. Nearly 33% of ethnic Hungarians found that they no longer lived in
Hungary with nearly 900,000 living in the new Czechoslovakia, 1.6 million in the
Transylvania region of Romania and 420,000 in Serbia. The Hungarian delegation at
Trianon argued for the case of self-determination as proposed by Woodrow Wilson
but the Allies mainly ignored this plea for the use of plebiscites.
Source C:
A map of Bulgaria after Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine by Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bulgaria_after_Treatry_of_Neuilly-sur-Seine.png,
last modified on 26th September 2008
Source D:
Extract from The peace treaties with Austria Hungary, from Lowe’s Mastering
Modern World History, Forth Edition, published in 2005.
Austria was a small republic, its population reduced from 22 million to 6.5 million;
most of its industrial wealth had been lost to Czechoslovakia and Poland. Vienna,
once the capital city of the huge Habsburg Empire, was left high and dry, surrounded
by farming land which could hardly support it. Not surprisingly, Austria was soon
facing a severe economic crisis and was constantly having to be helped out by loans
from the League of Nations.
Source E:
A cartoon captioned, Springtime In Europe, by David Low, published in the English
newspaper, The Evening Standard, on March 28th 1931.
Austria: But didn’t you ask us all to love one another?
Briand: Oui, mes enfants – But not in the matter so exclusive.
Germany, Austria, Cupid, England, Italy and Czecho-slovakia
Questions:
1. a) Why according to Source D, did Austria suffer economically and need loans
from the League of Nations? (3 marks)
b) What is the message conveyed in Source A? (2 marks)
2. Compare and contrast the views about territorial loss after the treaties in source
B and source C.
3. With reference to the origin and purpose access the value and limitations of
source E for historian studying the treaties of St. Germain, Neuilly and Trianon
4. Using the sources and your own knowledge, comment on to what extent minor
peace treaties, such as treaty of St. Germain, Trianon and Neuilly, had an impact
on international relations in 1919 – 1928.