Changes Since War in The Map of Europe

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 286, 2 December 1938, Page 7

Changes Since War in The Map of Europe

A CONTINENT IN TURMOIL Far more intricate than the map of 1914 is the map of Europe to-day (says a writer in the Chicago Tribune). On it are outlined the little nations, born of war and treaties since 1918, whose struggles for life keep a whole continent on the verge of renewed conflict. Five of the six great pre-war Powers, still great, appear. In European holdings two have suffered largo territorial losses; two are larger than before; the fifth is unchanged. Another, Austria-Hungary, is missing. Its sprawling lands have been split seven ways. Most of the redrawing of the map of Europe was done at the Versailles j Peace Conference. But not all. Some of the readjustments the conferences made were unworkable. Determined peoples have changed the lines assigned them. Sometimes they did it by armed force (there was a series of little wars after the big one), and sometimes by negotiation. Jn a few instances the Peace Conference lines have been changed by plebiscites. Four new nations were carved from tho ruins of Austria-Hungary; four from tho western lands of Russia; ono from Russian, German and Austrian territory. Several other pre-war nations have much altered borders. Spain, Portugal and the British Isles remain as they were 24 years ago except that Ireland has attained a measure of freedom. Sweden and Norway and the Netherlands are unchanged. Belgium, at the close of the World War, annexed two cities, Malmedy and Eupen. By plebiscite the Danes received a small amount of territory in north Schleswig. This area was taken from Germany. France Gets Alsace Back Franco in 1919 got back the two lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. French after 1789, they were seized by Germany when France was defeated in 1870. One of the causes of the war in 1914 was the determination of the French to take these provinces. Territorial changes were greatest in. Central and Eastern Europe. Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia sprang from old AustriaHungary. Austria no longer exists. It was absorbed last spring by Adolf Hitler’s army. There seems little doubt that the great majority of Austrians desired this. They had battled for years against an impossible economic situation. Austria had a city of 2,00,000, Vienna, and an outside population of only 5,000,000. It had few industries and the best mineral lands of the old empire had been incorporated in Czechoslovakia.

That new nation, recently the world’s storm centre, was an excellent unit economically. Defensively it was strong against Germany so long as the . Germans had to throw their strength against the fortified Sudeten and Bohemian mountains. Racially the mixture was bad. Germans formed at least 25 per cent, of tho whole population and were predominant in the Sudeten region. Hungary was born to trouble. In March, 1919, its first republican Government Was overthrown by Communists, led by the Moscow-trained Bela Kuu. The Communists coniiscated property, made all business a Government monopoly. Then Rumanians invaded and wasted the fertile Danube plain. When their army withdrew a stable Government was installed under Horthy as Regent, a post he still holds. Was the Old Serbia Yugoslavia is an enlargement of old Serbia. Versailles gave to the Serbians extensive Balkan territories north of Greece and Albania, as well as parts of old Hungary. Tho Yugoslavs in 1920 went to war with Rumanians over Hungarian lands, but negotiated peace a little later—dividing the territory. From 1919 to 1924 Yugoslavia threatened war with Italy. The point of contention was tho port of Fiume on the Adriatic. Its inhabitants were Yugoslavs, but the Italians disregarded a Peace Conference order and seized it. This dispute ended at last with an agreement that Italy would hold tho port but permit Yugoslavia to use it freely. Italy took, besides this old Austrian territory, a considerable area in the Tyrol. Premier Mussolini now is an apostle of self-determination, but he retains several hundred thousand Ger-man-speaking inhabitants there. Poland, largest of the new States, was carved mainly from old Russia, with accessions from Germany and Austria. Poland was an old kingdom, dismembered in 1772 by tho Prussians, Russians and Austrians. Its people underwent much persecution. In 1916 the Germans, then occupying it, declared it an independent kingdom, but after tho Armistice the Poles declarod for a republic. After 1918 the Poles fought three wars. Those with Czechoslovakia and the short-lived Ukrainian Republic were brief. The third, with the Russian Bolsheviks, was long and bitter, but successful.

For a long time the new Poland quarrelled with its neighbours. The Versailles map drawers had cut a Polish Corridor to the Baltic that isolated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. They also made the city of Danzig a Free State, although it was predominantly German. The tense situation between Germany and Poland continued until 1934, when a 10-year pact for peace and tolerance was signed. Poles and Lithuanians With the new Lithuania the Poles have been on bad terms. Lithuania was established in 1920, and in that year the Poles seized tho city of Vilna, which the Liths regarded as their natural capital. The League of Nations was unable to settle the dispute, and Poland still holds Vilna. By military force tho Lithuanians in 1923 seized the port of Memel and sur rounding territory. Most of the inhabitants were Germans, but the League of Nations sanctioned the conquest. Memel still is a point of pos sible conflict. Latvia and Estonia are two other small countries set on old Russian soli. Their soldiers fought with tho Bolsheviks up to 1920. These countries have a customs union with Lithuania. Finland, north of Estonia, has had

au interesting history. A Swedish dependency, it was seized by Russia in 1809. Repressive measures were inaugurated by the Russians in 1899, and the Finns’ Constitution was abrogated. Bad feeling arose and during tho World War the country was kept under martial law by Russia.

Independence was proclaimed in 1917. Revolution broke out and in early 1918 German soldiers aided Conservatives in putting down radical elements. General Mannerlieim, the Conservative leader, established a stable Government after the Germans bowed to the Allied will. The Finns, however, had to tight Russian armies until 1920.

Rumania expanded greatly at the end of the World War, seizing Russian and Hungarian lands. Bulgaria, which embraced the Austro-German side, had to cede some territory to Greece and Yugoslavia. Albania wa<s shrunk by the Peace Conference.

Greece made elaborate claims at Versailles and was granted more than its forces could handle. In 1921 and 1922 Greeks and Turks fought for lands in Asia Minor and tho Turks, supposedly supplied by the Italians and French, won. Much of Thrace was ceded to Turkey, and the Greek claims to Asia Minor were withdrawn.

Plebiscites have made some changes in the European map. In Upper Silesia a large area voted in 1921. Germany recoived more votes than Poland, but the League of Nations gave the Poles the rich mineral resources of tho region. The Germans, who got poorer lands, were sullen. The Saar Basin, from 1920 to 1935, was under an international commission. Its inhabitants voted overwhelmingly for a return to Germany and tho League granted their wishes. A fruitful cause of dissension were the mandates given the big Allied nations through tho Versailles peace. These nations were to govern subject peoples and report regularly to the League of Nations on progress. French and British In the east Syria and Lebanon were French mandates. Palestine and Mesopotamia were British mandates. Egypt was made a Protectorate of Britain. The French have had difficulty in Syria, where the Druse tribes have carried on a fair-sized war against them. The British had their troubles with the JewishArab question in Palestine, and with Nationalists in Egypt. The former German possessions in Africa, with a population of 8,000,000, were given as mandates to Britain and France. Togoland and the Cameroon* were divided between them. Tanganyika went to Britain. German Southwest Africa to the Union of South Africa. France was forced to fight for several years to hold its Moroccan colonies. Abd El Krim, a Riffian tribal leader, battled France and Spain in 1925 and 1926. A combination of forces brought

about his defeat and he was exiled to Madagascar. The number of French troops engaged in the final campaign was 160,000. Italy, smarting because her leaders got so little from Versailles, determined several years ago to seize Abyssinia. In defiance of the League of Nations, Mussolini sent Italian armies into that backward African country, and in 1935 and early 1936 conquered it. The Versailles Treaty, father of Europe’s map to-day, failed in its ob* ject—a lasting peace.