The Paris Peace Settlement Essay Example

of that year, Prince Maximilian of Baden relinquished his chancellorship to Socialist leader Friedrich Ebert. In turn, Ebert founded a "Council of People's Commissars" in Berlin, modeled after Russia's revolutionary administration.

Even though Ebert and other Socialists in Germany were open to using the terminology of the Russian Bolsheviks, they never intended to implement their strategies.

The Catholic Center party, led by Matthias Erzberger, along with the Progressives and left-wing National Liberals, who had recently merged to form a Democratic party, supported the Socialists' "moderate" stance. This resulted in the three political groups - Progressive, Centrist, and Social Democratic - that had previously joined forces to oppose the authoritarian policies of the Hohenzollern Empire to unite once again to replace the Empire with a liberal democratic Republic. The Royalist "Right" and the Communist "Left" stood against this Republican bloc.

Prior to the elections of January 1919, the Spartacans held a revolutionary demonstration in Berlin. Despite their leaders' skill in rhetoric, they lacked action, and the attempted insurrection was suppressed. The following month, Bavaria's radical Socialist president Kurt Eisner was assassinated, sparking further disorder. Nevertheless, the central government swiftly and resolutely quelled the unrest.

Despite differences in aim and policy among the groups that formed the victorious coalition, Germany operated under the principles of liberal and democratic republicanism. However, the revolution of 1918-1919 in the imperial Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was both democratic and disruptive. Emperor-King Charles I's conciliatory manifesto promising to reorganize the monarchy on a federal basis with democratic autonomy for each nationality was published on October 16, 1918, but proved futile.

Compromise was no longer possible at this point.

In

1918, the Croatian Diet announced the deposition of Charles of Habsburg and the separation of the "kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia" from Hungary. The authority was then transferred to a revolutionary Yugoslav Congress which accepted representatives from Bosnia-Herzegovina and its 23 states. In accordance with the Declaration of Corfu, the Congress voted to unite all the Yugoslav territories of Austria-Hungary with the independent state of Serbia forming a "Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes". The new kingdom was led by King Peter of Serbia with his son Alexander as the Regent. They established a ministry that was headed by Nicholas Pasic, a veteran Serbian politician. The formation of the Greater Serbia was an obstacle for Austria-Hungary as it lacked power to oppose it. King Nicholas of Montenegro resisted the union but his country was occupied by Serbian troops and put under the jurisdiction of the new regime.

The military reverses of Austria, Germany, and Russia surprisingly aided the Polish patriots. Initially, there was a divide in tactics among the patriots during the early stages of WWI. Ignace Paderewski, a notable musician, hoped for an Allied victory, believing it would lead to Austria and Germany surrendering their Polish provinces. Moreover, victorious France and Britain would persuade their Russian ally to grant autonomy, if not compete independence, to the reunited Poland.

There were two groups with different beliefs during the war. The first group believed in the success of the Allies and the kindness of Russia and the Franco-British, following the view of a soldier known as Joseph Pilsudski. The second group, led by General Pilsudski himself, held a different view. They believed that Austria treated Polish

subjects better than Russia and thought it was necessary to support the Central Powers in taking control of Russian Poland and merging it with Austrian Poland. Consequently, while Paderewski was promoting Allied views and gaining favor with French and British leaders, General Pilsudski organized a Polish legion and fought on the side of the Central Powers.

Pilsudski and Paderewski's opposing efforts were both successful, bringing good fortune to the Polish nation.

After a "regency" was established in Warsaw, Russia officially abandoned all claims to Poland through the treaty of Brest-litovsk in March 1918. Despite this, Pilsudski began to lose faith in the Central Powers' generosity as it became apparent that they had no plans to grant actual independence to Russian Poland or merge their Polish provinces with it during their conquest over Russia.

After Pilsudski switched sides and opposed the Germans, they imprisoned him. Meanwhile, Paderewski was pleased that his efforts to ally with the Allied forces were now supported by all of the Polish people. In 1918, Polish rebellion was rampant in both Austrian Galicia and Prussian Posen, and Polish volunteers joined the Allied armies in greater numbers.