Territorial Changes After WW1

0:02 the aftermath of world war one brought several territorial political economic and social changes across europe asia and africa as far as i know america as a continent had none empires collapsed old countries were abolished new ones were formed boundaries were redrawn and international organizations were established in this video i'm going to go over these territorial changes and i think along the way understanding why and how they happened will also get a good idea of the political changes 27 countries gain territory with the peace deals some even as new countries others regaining independence and others simply gaining new land while nine countries lost territory oddly enough there are common cases in both lists some countries gained land in some places while losing it in others but we'll get to that in a minute most of the changes occurred in europe so i'll start here and then take a look at the other continents given that there were also significant changes

1:01 taking place there the biggest change in europe in my opinion was the dissolution of the austro-hungarian empire several new countries gained full independence austria hungary czechoslovakia yugoslavia originally called the kingdom of serbs croats and slovenes the boundaries of romania were also expanded at the cost of the habsburg's hungarian lands the reasoning behind it being to include as many romanians as possible within its borders the southern half of the county of tyrol and trieste were granted to italy too and austria and hungary themselves were separated into two distinct fully independent countries worth mentioning that austria actually gained a small territory from hungary or v-deck since while being united in the empire before there were already demarcation lines between the two i would say the dissolution of this empire is the most significant event when it comes to a political and territorial change between

1:57 before and after world war 1 because it was absolutely permanent a previously gigantic and strong empire was completely gone while germany eventually recovered its land as did russia the habsburg empire having lasted for centuries was gone the new austrian and hungarian republics were small shadows of what the empire had been the only example that might be comparable is the ottomans which we'll get to soon further north there were also other changes the german empire came to an end and the new german republic saw its territory significantly diminished all cess lorraine was given to the french the sarland was temporarily occupied as well as the rhineland and the roar border region northern schleswig went to denmark upper silesia divided between czechoslovakia and poland and open malmedy to belgium in the east poland was created from parts of germany austria-hungary and russia and german lands were given to poland so that they would have access to the baltic sea as a result

2:54 the german province of east prussia was divided from the rest of the country danzig was also created as a semi-autonomous free city danzig was not poland's only access to the baltic sea they had more land to the west of it that allowed them to reach it the free city included the city of danzig and other nearby towns villages and settlements that were primarily inhabited by germans as the treaty stated the region was to remain separated from germany and from the newly independent poland but it was not an independent state the free city was under league of nations protection and was put into a binding customs union with poland to the northeast three other baltic nations were created estonia latvia and lithuania previous territories of the russian empire as was poland which were created as a consequence of both the russian revolution and the russian separate peace deal against the germans in the war given that the two events are directly related the germans had other plans for

3:49 this region should they have won the war but since they lost it it was the antan that ensured these three along with poland got their full independence although it was about to be again interrupted before fully achieved this independence from the russians also took place in finland who gained a lasting independence but these weren't the only territories that the russian empire lost romania gained basarabia from them and all the way in the east the russian concession in tianjin was occupied by the chinese armenia georgia and azerbaijan were established as independent states in the caucasus region however after the withdrawal of the russian army in 1917 turkey captured a part of the armenian territory and these territorial losses became permanent eventually the russian red army arrived and all three countries were proclaimed as soviet republics in 1920 and over time were absorbed into the soviet union france got the territory gains we saw in

4:47 alsace lorraine a territory that had historically been theirs but was ceded to prussia in 1871 after the franco-prussian war also extremely important was the participation of french colonial troops in the war when these soldiers returned to their homelands they felt like they had not been properly rewarded and so they became the basis of some pro-independence movements in these regions paving the way for future territorial changes with decolonization so an indirect territorial change consequence of the war not exactly as a consequence of the peace deals but coinciding in the same time sort of the british lost most of ireland as the irish free state gained independence greece gained western thrace from bulgaria which had sided with the defeated central powers in the war this way bulgaria lost its direct access to the agency and the mediterranean only accessing the black sea and forcing them to go through the turkish straits

5:42 in order to reach it they also lost some other minor territories about 2 500 square kilometers of their border with the new yugoslavia and returning dobruja to romania as well italy also got a few territories and we saw the ones they got from austria but also some in the balkans and adriatic sea let's sum them all up tyrol istria the port of trieste the cresce las zegnier archipelago and the hungarian port of riyeka northern dalmatia part of the austrian duchies of carniola and corinthia the dotikanese islands held by italy since 1912 the port of lord in albania a protectorate over all of albania and small border gains in africa and most of all in the event of the partition of the ottoman empire italy was supposed to obtain a just share of the mediterranean regions adjacent to the province of adelia this is a key aspect because this particular partition of the ottoman empire didn't happen the treaty of severus was a 1920 treaty

6:43 signed between the allies of world war one and the ottoman empire the treaty ceded a large part of ottoman territory to france the united kingdom greece and italy we can see it here on this map essentially turkey would be reduced to this area in yellow slash gold completely destroyed and occupied even istanbul and the zone of the straits would have international government apparently this treaty obviously didn't happen being replaced by the treaty of lausanne which assured west thrace and anatolia remained entirely turkish and simply divided the middle eastern areas between france and the united kingdom as we can see here the french were granted a mandate over lebanon and syria while the british were granted mandates over iraq jordan and palestine these borders still caused trouble to this day because they didn't entirely account for religious tribal community and other types of important differences between local populations and so understanding the territorial

7:39 changes in the middle east we arrive in asia let's take a look at which other territorial changes took place in the continent we already mentioned how russia and austria lost their concessions in china but what else changed germany had a sphere of influence on the eastern coast of china the shandong province both china and japan were members of the allies opposing the germans but the treaty of versailles awarded shandong to the japanese even though it was a part of mainland china which obviously angered the chinese the logic behind it was that it had been the japanese who aiding the allies invaded german possessions since the germans had surrendered to them they thought it was fair that they were the ones who kept the territories the japanese navy also succeeded in seizing several of germany's island possessions in the western pacific the marianas caroline and marshall islands which also became japanese domains they gained what was called the south

8:35 seas mandate a league of nations mandate given to the empire of japan consisting of these previously german islands the remaining german colonies in the pacific also became league of nations mandates but administered by the united kingdom new zealand and australia australia got the bismarck archipelago and aodo and new zealand got german samoa essentially all pacific colonies of the germans above the equator went to japan and below the equator to the united kingdom and its domains finally africa here the most important if not only change was the complete end of the german colonial empire all territories that had been previously part of the german colonies were distributed amongst some of the winners of the war the united kingdom and france divided german cameroon and togoland belgium gained rwanda urundi in northwestern german east africa the uk obtained by far the greatest landmass of the colony thus gaining the missing link

9:32 in the chain of british possessions stretching from south africa to egypt cape to cairo portugal which mostly entered the war to defend their african colonies from the germans who bordered them in the african continent simply retained what they had and gained control of the kiyonga triangle essentially just a port in german east africa south africa gained control of german southwest africa which eventually became namibia so with all these cases we are able to understand how world war one through its peace deals reshaped a big part of the world not only did it change territorial organization at the time but also determined the basis upon which many of our current borders exist today for instance portugal gaining control of that port of kyonga made it so that today the now duly independent country of mozambique has that land as a part of its territory we understand that the peace deals allowed for the destroying of empires that had been around for several

10:28 centuries the forming of new countries returning independence to others and conquering land for those who seek to grow and consolidate their power after victory thanks so much for watching this video subscribe if you want and leave a comment with your opinions i will see you next time for more general knowledge