Peace Treaties after World War 1

Central Europe: Austria and Hungary

Evaluation of the Map of Europe

Pre War: 1872

Beginning of the War: 1914

End of World War 1: 1918

During the Peace Conferences: 1919

Finally: 1920

How did the Peace Treaties (Saint-Germain) affect Austria?

• Czechoslovakia was given Sudetenland • Yugoslavia was given Bosnia-Herzegovina • Lost 1/3 of her population• Became land-locked • Army reduced to 30,000 men • Not allowed to unite with Germany (no

Anschluss)

• Czechoslovakia was given Slovakia & Ruthenia • Yugoslavia was given Croatia • Romania was given Transylvania • Lost 1/3 of her population• Became land-locked • Army reduced to 35,000 men

How did the Peace Treaties (Trianon) affect Hungary?

Austro-Hungarian Empire before 1918

• The Empire of Austria-Hungary was a constitutional monarchic union between the empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary in 1867

• This was called a Dual Monarchy• After the union, the empire began to grow gradually,

and became one of the great powers of Europe• There was a rapid industrialization but the economy

had not been modernized completely compared to the western powers

• Rapid development thus led to a wide disparity between different ethnic groups, classes, etc.

Break-up of the people in Austria-Hungary

• Germans 24%• Croats 5%• Hungarians 20%• Serbs 4%• Czechs 13%• Slovaks 4%

• Poles 10%• Slovenes 3%• Ukrainians 8%• Italians 3%.• Rumanians 6%

What kept the Empire together?• Loyalty to the Emperor• The Catholic religion: - 90% of the population of the

Austrian half of the Empire were Catholic and 60% of the Hungarian half were

• The civil service and the army, both of which were dominated by Germans (the Germans at that time, were also the empire’s largest trading partners)

• Mutual suspicion towards the Allied powers among the subjects

Why did the Empire fall apart?During WW1, conflicts slowly began arising in the Austro-Hungarian empire, and by 1918 the different people wanted independent states:• For example in 1903 and 1906 there was a serious row over

Hungarian demands for increased control over Hungarian units of the army. They wanted to replace German as the language of command in these regiments. Such conflicts grew during the war.

• After most of the ports had been blockaded, food shortages began to grow. People’s morale decreased and there was civil tension

• External pressure from military defeat that the culturally unstable economy could not withstand

• Members of various ethnic groups alike demanded more reorganization in various forms like food and railways

• The war was the last straw that made the government give in to the demands for independence