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Allies (France, England, Italy, and the United States) and the Paris Peace Conference transformed the map of Europe. The map of Eastern Europe was always subject to dip- lomatic alterations from afar, and borders in the region E were considered to exist only if accepted by Western powers. The new international borders after World War Earth, Size and Shape of the. See Figure of the Earth I marked the culmination of this standard practice. The fundamental imbalance in Paris was best demonstrated by the decisions of the Great Powers and by the exclu- Eastern Europe, Boundary Changes in. Eastern sion of the Soviet Union, a power in Eastern Europe. Europe is a loosely defi ned geographical region in the Nationality was a key concept for the peacemakers, al- eastern part of the continent. Western domination—po- though it was realized that different nations were based litical, military, and cultural—was not only refl ected on on different grounds. The historical nations were not the maps of the region, but cartography was also effec- like the nations based on common language or political tive in creating imperial ideologies and distributing the interest. In this respect, early maps were extensively used geographical labels for the divided Europe. as national propaganda and as evidence for territorial At the end of the century, Eastern Europe included claims. different groups of countries: Eastern, Central-Eastern, The activities of earlier historians of cartography and Southern European states, geographically covering (e.g., Joachim Lelewel and Manuel Francisco de Barros the region west from the Urals, the mountain range that e Sousa, Visconde de Santarém) were related to the con- separates Europe from Asia. The extension of the region cept of historical nation and territorial state. In 1916 the into the West was not well defi ned, and its borders were Geografi czno-statystyczny atlas Polski, by the Polish ge- always drawn according to different historical and cul- ographer and cartographer Eugeniusz Romer, was pub- tural factors like religion, language, or the type of al- lished to make Polish political claims. After 1848 eth- phabet. In modern historiography the transitional zone, nic mapping in the region became an explicitly political Zwischeneuropa (Europe in-between), dynamically sep- instrument and served different nationalist movements arated and connected Western and Eastern powers. The in the region. However, this practice was based on the nineteenth century had brought much political change imperial cartography of the Great Powers. Ethnographi- in the southern part of the region and—after Serbia— cal mapping in Europe developed out of early modern other independent states (Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) European state statistics and military and colonial map- were formed in Southeastern Europe. ping traditions. The role of ethnic maps during the ne- The situation changed dramatically in the twentieth gotiations in Paris was evidence for this imperial policy. century and, due to political fragmentation, borders not The ethnographical maps produced in the region were, only proliferated, but remained geographically vola- in the end, presented to imperial decision makers, who tile (fi g. 215). Typically, the continuous change was a put them into geopolitical context when international product of wars and division by power. World War I be- borders were demarcated. gan symbolically in 1914 with the assassination of the In 1919 the goal of the Paris negotiations was to cre- Habsburg heir to the throne in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The ate peace and stability in Europe and prevent future military events centered in Europe ended in late 1918, confl icts generally associated with nationalism. But the but the war evolved into a global political confl ict. The Eastern European issues were considered unresolved Central Powers (the German Empire, Austro-Hungarian by people living in the region. Instead of applying the monarchy, and Ottoman Empire) were defeated by the Wilsonian doctrine of national self-determination, the 336 Eastern Europe, Boundary Changes in 1900 1939 1914 1947 1920 2000 Fig. 215. BOUNDARY CHANGES IN EUROPE, 1900, 1914, 1920, 1939, 1947, AND 2000. Allied global powers drew new international borders on lems of the nature of the statistical data and maps that maps. The claims of the formerly suppressed nationalist were available. The U.S. expert group of geographers groups representing Eastern European regions were not and cartographers, the Inquiry, could draw upon the always considered, and arguments from the formerly American Geographical Society’s extensive collection of dominating nations of the defeated countries were ig- maps and geographical material, while the Royal Geo- nored. The postwar treaties created as many problems as graphical Society and military geographical institutions they solved. The newly created national states actually provided geographical intelligence for the British com- remained multiethnic, due partly to the inherent prob- mission. The French academic committee, the Commis- Eastern Europe, Boundary Changes in 337 sion de géographie, played the most important role in sylvania, Bukovina, and Bessarabia) formerly belonging defi ning the future European borders. These groups—of to Austria or Hungary. The new borders appeared more secret research advisors and geographic experts, who objective on paper, but in practice only the roles were re- worked behind the scenes in Paris—drew the new bor- versed as the new nation-states oppressed their minori- ders on the maps. ties. Although both Romania and Yugoslavia had to sign Defeated Germany had to accept responsibility for the minority treaties and guarantee that their nationalities war in the Versailles Peace Treaty. Its territorial bound- would be treated equally, their religions would be tol- aries were redrawn and disputed regions given to coun- erated, and their national languages would be allowed, tries along the former border. As a result, Germany was this remained a formal act only. cut into two, and East Prussia became isolated. Much of The Russian Empire had also collapsed by the end of former Prussia and eastern Upper Silesia became parts World War I, and the Communist revolution in 1917 led of the reestablished Poland. The northern part of East to the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. In 1918 Rus- Prussia, the Memel territory, was placed under French sia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany and control (but later seized by Lithuania). ceded large territories: Finland, Estonia, Poland, Lithua- The Austro-Hungarian monarchy collapsed before nia, and parts of Latvia and Belarus. The Bolshevik gov- the representatives of its former member states could ernment later annulled this treaty, however, and Finland, separately sign their peace treaty in Paris. The monarchy the Baltic States, Poland, and Moldavia remained inde- was a multinational state and the Allied forces divided pendent and did not enter the Soviet Union. The Mol- its territory among smaller national states. Hungary suf- davian Republic joined Romania in 1918 but the Soviet fered territorial losses: 72 percent of the territory of the Union did not recognize the union. From 1924 to 1940 Kingdom of Hungary (without the affi liated Croatia and the eastern part of former Bessarabia was included in Slavonia) was incorporated into Romania and the new the Soviet Union as the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet nation-states of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. The Socialist Republic. In 1920, under the Treaty of Sèvres, borders of the remaining Hungary, a small, landlocked Greece was promised northern Thrace and Ionia and the country in East-Central Europe, were demarcated after surroundings of I˙zmir. The Italo-Yugoslav border dis- the treaty was signed. Although the former Austrian pute ended with the establishment of the Free State of Empire also lost about 60 percent of its territory, the Fiume, which was formally annexed by Italy in March Republic of Austria received the westernmost part of 1924. The modern Turkish state’s borders were settled Hungary with its German-speaking majority. The only in 1923 under the Treaty of Lausanne. plebiscite regarding Hungarian territories took place in The problems of the Paris peace treaty were consid- Sopron, where the German majority voted to remain in ered to be among the causes of the social, political, and Hungary. The former Habsburg territories included Bo- military events leading to an even more devastating war. hemia, Galicia and Bukovina, South Tirol, Carniola and In 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria (Anschluß) the coastal area with Trieste, Dalmatia, and Bosnia and and the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a Herzegovina, where the war had started. largely German population. The territorial restoration of Among the new states on the map of Europe was the the former German and Habsburg empires continued in Triune Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, cre- the following year when Bohemia and Moravia became ated in 1918. Yugoslavia, as it became known, was a protectorates and Lithuania ceded the Memel territory multiethnic state that included groups with different to Germany. The southern part of Slovakia with its Hun- cultural and religious heritages. Czechoslovakia was garian majority was returned to Hungary, and Poland formed out of the northern territories of the former occupied Tesin (Teschen) in northern Moravia. In 1939 monarchy including Czech lands (Bohemia and Mora- the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed between Nazi via, which had been under direct Habsburg control since Germany and the Soviet Union, resulting in the division the seventeenth century), Slovakia and Ruthenia (which of Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany and had been parts of the Kingdom of Hungary), and also the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. During World areas of Polish population. Romania had belonged to War II many boundary changes occurred. The territory what became the Central Powers, but in 1914 declared controlled by Nazi Germany expanded, although only neutrality. In 1916, following promises by the Allies of parts were incorporated into the Reich.