League of Nations: Upper Silesia

League of Nations: What is it? 

Semi official emblem of the league (10)

The League of Nations was founded at the end of the first world war. It was the first international organization whose primary goal was to maintain world peace and prevent a second world war. The League did have other aims, which were to Improve the Lives and Jobs of people, Enforce the Treaty of Versailles, and global Disarmament. The League was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.(5)

The person who ultimately came up with the idea of creating the League was the American president during the first world war, Woodrow Wilson. Unfortunately the United States never joined the League. Today it is debatable on if the United States could have given the League the power that it needed, and had prevented the second world war.

Depending on how you want to look at the evidence at hand, the League did have successes. It was able to successfully solve some territorial disputes fairly, it helped return 400,000 prisoners of war back home, freed approximately 200,000 slaves, was able to eradicate diseases such as malaria and leprosy in certain regions of the world, and so on. Although in the end, it was unable to live up to its original purpose, which was to maintain world peace and prevent a second world war. This lead to the creation of the United Nations, and was the demise of the League.(5)

If the league seemed like such a great idea and only had the best intentions of its creators at hand, why did it ultimately fail? The most common answer today is because the leading countries in the league and the league itself were too afraid to take action when it was needed.

Key Dates

 Lifespan of the league (from its first meeting)

16th January 1920 - 20th April 1946

Treaty of Versailles (which lead to its creation)

26th June 1919

Italian Dictator Mussolini's invasion of Corfu(it really exposed the weaknesses of the league)

27th August 1923 - September 27th 1923

Adolf Hitler Becomes German Chancellor (this was one of the main reasons Disarmament didn't work - nearly every country felt they would be too vulnerable to an attack if they disarmed, especially with Germany gaining more power)

1933

World Disarmament Conference (one of the goals of the league which was unrealistic at the time)
1932 - 1934

 Upper Silesia 

What happened in Upper Silesia?

The aftermath of the first world war  and the new borders drawn by the Treaty of Versailles left a number of countries in Europe fighting over territory, claiming it belonged to their country. One such territorial dispute was with Upper Silesia, between Weimar Germany and Poland. Under the rule of the German empire the Polish residents in Upper Silesia were treated discrimination and racism, making them second class citizens. After Allied powers failed to successfully solve the situation, they turned to the league for help. (2)(6)

The league decided to hold a plebiscite (vote) on March 20th 1921. Until then, the area would remain under German administrative rule. Between the Years 1919 and 1921, the Polish residents of Upper Silesia would create a total of three uprisings.(4)

Polish propaganda poster (11)

            

German propaganda poster (12)

The two images above are propaganda posters set up by both German and Polish residents to try and persuade people to vote in favor of their country of origin. The poster on the top is for Poland, which reads "Vote for Poland and you will be free..." While the poster for Germany below reads "Don't let yourself be fooled, stay in Deutschland!" After reading both posters, I personally found the Polish poster more appealing for a number of reasons. The main reason being, is that its a bi-lingual poster not just targeted for for its own citizens like the German one, but targeted for both Polish and German residents, which would help German residents feel safe if they in fact voted in favor of Poland.




Map of Upper Silesia

A map of Upper Silesia

                

Map of Upper Silesia and nearby countries(14)

The map on top shows the plebiscite area of Upper Silesia, or the area that would hold a vote as to which country it wanted to join. The map on the bottom shows Germany in beige, Prussia in blue, and Upper Silesia in red. Poland is to the right, while Czechoslovakia is beneath it.


First Silesian Uprising

The first Silesian Uprising started on August 15th 1919. The German border guards called the Grenzshutz massacred 10 Polish civilians at the Myslowice mine. The Polish residents who took part in the uprising held protests which lead to a general strike of approximately 140,000 workers. Their goal was to not only create a new government, but one that was ethnically mixed with Germans and Polish participants. Unfortunately for the Polish protestors, German soldiers numbering at approximately 21,000 with an additional 40,000 in reserve were able to suppress their uprising. At least 2,500 Polish residents who had taken part were killed by hanging or firing squad. 22,000 polish residents sought refuge in the Second Polish Republic until Allied forces came in to restore order.(2)(1)(7)

Six months later in February 1920 the Allies finally send a Plebiscite Commission to Upper Silesia, consisting of contingents from France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. They came their to ease tensions, but were unable to as the British and Italians favored the Germans, while the French favored the Polish.


Second Silesian Uprising

Five days after marking a full year since the first Uprising, the second Silesian Uprising began on August 19th. Their isn't a period in history where misinformation has lead to conflicts, which coincidentally is how the second uprising began. A German newspaper in Upper Silesia gave out information that the capitol of Poland, Warsaw, fell to the Red Army in the Polish-Soviet War.(15) Marches were organized to celebrate by pro-German activists. Soon after theese marches turned violent. It was made clear to these activists that Warsaw had not fallen, yet the violence did not end.

In the districts of Kattowitz, Pless, Beuthen, Konigshutte, Tarnowitz, Rybink, Lublinitz, and Gross Strehlitz government buildings came under control of the Polish. They would have continued their conquest if their advance had not been stopped in September by allied military operations, along with negotiations between the Polish and the Germans.(2)(1)

This time, the Polish did benefit from the Uprising. The Sipo police was disbanded which lead to the creation of a new police force called the Abstimmungspolizei which would be 50% Polish. The Polish were also admitted into the local administration.

The British representatives which helped ease the violence held the French responsible for the spread of the uprising in the region.


Third Silesian Uprising

The third and final uprising in the region was by far the longest and largest of the three. When Polish activists learned in April of 1921 that the British position in the situation would prevail, they began to carefully plan out and organize their would be last uprising under Wojciech Korfanty (they learned from the other two, and spent more time in planning this one out). Officially the Uprising began on the May 2nd to 3rd in 1921. As evidence of the time they spent planning, they destroyed German rail bridges to slow down the advance of German reinforcement.(7)

This probably wasn't a surprise to anyone at the time or today, but the French troops favored the insurrection made by the Polish, while the British and German contingents cooperated with the Germans. The only action taken by the Inter Allied Military control Commission along with the cooperation of the French government was to prohibit the recruitment of German volunteers outside Upper Silesia.

In the end, The German Grenzshutz on multiple occasions were able to resist the Polish attacks (although not without the cooperation of British and Italian troops). The Polish were able to keep most of the territory they had won, and were able to  have the Grenzshutz withdrawn from Upper Silesia and disbanded.(2)(1)

In November 1921, an agreement was finally reached. If one was looking at land percentage, Germany came out on top. They ended up gaining most of the land in Upper Silesia, but the League had given major industrial areas to Poland. 

Plebiscite Cartoon (13)

 The cartoon to the left depicts the League of Nations splitting up Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland. Although both sides got what the British, French, and Italians contingents thought was fair division of the area, both sides complained stating that although they an equal share of the land, the other side benefited more from the plebiscite.





The Leagues role here and final thoughts (with opinion)

Overall the League played vital role in Upper Silesia, and from the information at hand League intervention left the area better off than it would have been, even if the Leagues decision in the end was a bit one sided.

From the first Uprising if Allied forces hadn't eventually came in to restore order, the mistreatment of the Polish residents most likely would have continued. Not only would this affect the Polish residents there, but it could have caused an increasing number of Polish refugees seeking protection in Poland which would strain local governments near the border as they would have to relocate a number of incoming refugees. Because the Allies did intervene, Polish residents felt safer, leave a smaller number of people to seek refuge in Poland.

What the Polish were not able to achieve in the first uprising, they were able to in the second. This time the Allies disbanded the Sipo police, allowing the creation of the Abstimmungspolizei, which was 50% German and 50% Polish. They were also allowed to take part in the Local administration.

In the Third Uprising, the results greatly benefited the Polish population and created more balance in the region. The Grenzshutz was disbanded, and they were allowed to keep most of the territory they had won until the plebiscite took place.

In my opinion, it probably would have been best if contingents from other countries and not just Italy, France, and Britain. Their decisions seemed to be biased as a result from the first world war. Italy had been allies with Germany, while Britain was afraid of Germany seeking revenge in the future. France, on the other hand resented Germany after the war as they had suffered the most. Any harsh treatment towards Germany, they were in favor of. This can even be seen in the third uprising - French troops favored the moves made by the Polish, while the British and Italian troops gave their cooperation and attention to the Germans. In the end I think that the resolution before and after the plebiscite were justified and relatively fair, yet it could have possibly been done better if more contingents from other countries had been involved, whom did not hold a grudge or feat either country.

Evaluation of Sources

One of the sources I used the most to gather information on this topic was Wikipedia. I found it difficult to find decent amount if information on other websites except for two online articles which helped verify the information I originally found. I also tried out another site called Encyclopedia Britannica. Again, I found it difficult to find specific information about the plebiscite. 

I found the overall information gathered to be reliable. Some could argue that Wikipedia is a bad source to gather information from for a number of reasons, ranging from anyone can edit an article, it could be potentially biased if written by a citizen from one side of an argument, etc. In this case I would disagree. If multiple people can edit an article new information that wasn't there before could show up in the future, making it more in depth and relevant. The only aspect that most likely would be the lease reliable would be dates. The information I found from the sites I used backed each other up, but the dates were occasionally one year different from one another.

The other two main sources I used were online Pdfs submitted by the Wroclaw University, while the second was submitted by F. Gregory Campbell by the University of Chicago press. Both sources are from different countries across the world from each other. Instead of the information being different from each other, they were for the most part the same in both articles.

Sources 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Uprisings (1)

http://sobotka.uni.wroc.pl/12.pdf (2)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia_plebiscite(3)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia#Plebiscite_and_partition(4)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations(5)

http://www.ovguide.com/upper-silesia-plebiscite-9202a8c04000641f80000000002849cc#(6)

http://piotrwroblewski.us.edu.pl/rudy/F_Gregory_Campbell.pdf(7)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Upper_Silesia(8)

http://acienciala.faculty.ku.edu/hist557/lect11.htm(9)

http://www.fotw.net/flags/league.html(10)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plakat_plebiscyt.jpg(11)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DHM_-_German_poster,_Upper_Silesia_1921.jpg(12)

http://punch.photoshelter.com/image/I00009swbubfWC4w(13)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map-Prussia-UpperSilesia.svg(14)

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/466681/Poland(15)

"Province of Upper Silesia." Wikipedia. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_Upper_Silesia>.

"Upper Silesia Plebiscite." Wikipedia. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia_plebiscite>.

"League of Nations." Wikipedia. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations#Upper_Silesia>.

"Silesian Uprisings." Wikipedia. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesian_Uprisings>.

"Upper Silesia." Wikipedia. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_Silesia>.

"Versailles and Peacemaking." BBC History. N.p., 10 Mar. 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/versailles_01.shtml>.

"E nglish - language comparative studies of Silesia and Ulster, 1918 to 1922." n,d,. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://sobotka.uni.wroc.pl/12.pdf>.

Campbell, Gregory F. "The Struggle for Upper Silesia, 1919 - 1922." Chicago Journals. 25 Aug. 2012. Web. 1 Jan. 
 <http://piotrwroblewski.us.edu.pl/rudy/F_Gregory_Campbell.pdf>.

Cienciala, Anna M. "The Rebirth of Poland." N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://acienciala.faculty.ku.edu/hist557/lect11.htm>.

Szala, Marcin.2011. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin. Wikipedia. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DHM_-_German_poster,_Upper_Silesia_1921.jpg>.

Plebiscite in Upper Silesia. 2013. Wikipedia. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plakat_plebiscyt.jpg>.

Plebiscite in Upper Silesia. 2007. Wikipedia. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map-Prussia-UpperSilesia.svgipedia.org/wiki/File:Plakat_plebiscyt.jpg>.

Martins, Antonio. League of Nations. 1999. Flags of the World Website. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. <http://en.wikhttp://en.wikipedia.orhttp://www.fotw.net/flags/league.htmlg/wiki/File:Map-Prussia-UpperSilesia.svgipedia.org/wiki/File:Plakat_plebiscyt.jpg>.

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