Treaty of Neuilly - A National Catastrophe for Bulgaria? I THE GREAT WAR 1919

it's november 1919 and in the paris suburb of new year the third peace treaty that would end the war of 1914 to 1918 is about to be signed the treaty will end the war with bulgaria and remake the map of the balkan powder keg where it all started more than five years earlier but where will the lines be drawn [Applause] [Music] hi i'm jesse alexander and welcome to the great war bulgaria had joined the war on the site of the central powers in 1915 to recover the territories that had lost to its neighbors in the second balkan war but bulgaria had been defeated and now its fate would be determined by the paris peace conference as with the other treaties the treaty of ngc would be named for the paris suburb in which it was signed but before we get to the terms of the piece let's take a look at the situation in bulgaria and why the new balkan map ended up being the way it was now back in 1918 bulgaria had been the first central power to ask for an armistice the country was exhausted and impoverished after six years of fighting from the first balkan war until september 1918 and though the army had stopped the british attack at deuran the french serbs and greeks had broken the line at dobro pogle at the same time soldiers angry with wartime hardships rose up in the radamere rebellion and marched on the capital sofia the desperate government turned to agrarian socialist politician alexander stamboliski to quell the uprising and calm the men stamboliski had been imprisoned for his anti-war views but was released but instead of dispersing the rebellious peasant soldiers he led them onwards towards sofia there they were defeated by loyalist forces and stamboliski fled the rebellion did however lead to the abdication of tsar ferdinand who was replaced by his young son boris and the government of prime minister vasil radislav also collapsed the political chaos added to the suffering of the population in a country now in economic ruin and which had seen around 90 000 soldiers killed and 39 of the total male population conscripted during the war the terms of the armistice ordered the evacuation of lands the bulgarian army had entered during the war and several port cities were to be occupied by british and french troops but not by greeks or serbs bulgaria's balkan rivals this was important since the bulgarian occupation forces in serbia had committed atrocities and the bulgarians now feared reprisals relations between the civilian government of the new prime minister alexander malinov and the army were not good and the generals later accused the government of not informing them of the full terms of the armistice the fate of bulgarian speakers now outside bulgaria was of utmost concern up to 100 000 bulgarians living in the disputed regions fled into bulgaria adding a refugee crisis to the already desperate situation malinov tried to organize a plebiscite in the region of south debruja into which the romanians had moved with french support in november but this failed and he resigned the tsar then appointed teodor teodorov prime minister of a coalition government which managed to survive until the following summer in august 1919 general elections were held and alexander stamboliski's socialist bulgarian national agrarian union was the clear winner now given the impending peace settlement stamboliski formed a coalition government with the broad socialist party and the people's party teodoro stayed on as prime minister and stamboliski joined his cabinet but at the time of the elections both men were already in paris awaiting the terms of the peace so bulgaria had lost the war and plunged into a political crisis awaiting the peace settlement but before we get to the actual peace terms let's have a look at what all sides wanted from the coming settlement the bulgarians placed their hopes in wilson's principle of self-determination given the large bulgarian populations in the border territories that were now up for grabs they hoped that the fact that the us and bulgaria had never formally been at war would help their cause and they argued bulgaria was forced into the war by germany and austria the prime minister put this message to the allies bulgaria would never have gone into the war if it had realized that it would have come into conflict with england and the great powers central to bulgarian claims were the disputed border regions they hoped to recover southern debruja and retain much of thrace they also wanted to keep the old border with serbia except most controversially of all they also claimed a part of macedonia often referred to as vardar macedonia and for today when i say macedonia or macedonians i mean vardar macedonia and its people now in some areas of these regions bulgarians were in a majority but in others it was harder for the allied leaders to tell bulgaria considered the majority of people in vardar macedonia to be bulgarian and several prominent officers and politicians were from there two of them generals alexandrov and protogerov were the de facto heads of the union of macedonian refugee associations the umra provided support for macedonian refugees in bulgaria and also had a strong political stance favoring the incorporation of vardar macedonia into bulgaria they wrote the antante leaders to make their case the slav population of macedonia continues to suffer under the foreign yoke and is subjected to untold privations humiliations and cruelties because it has never ceased to feel itself bulgarian notwithstanding the disastrous end of this war for bulgaria the hopes of the macedonian bulgarians are yet great that the heavy sacrifices have not been in vain chiefly because of the happy fact that the conquering powers of the antante have repeatedly proclaimed that they carried on this war for the liberation of the oppressed nations so bulgarian hopes rested on self-determination to keep the territory that they had previously won and then lost plus add more of macedonia and thrace but the allies had a very different approach bulgaria's neighbors were keen to keep what they had gained in 1913 and in some cases acquire more territory as well romania wanted to keep both northern and southern debruja and the romanians in paris skillfully used their importance to the allies as a bulwark against bolshevism in hungary and russia to press their case greece saw an opportunity to expand its territory as part of the megali idea of greater greece some greeks dreamed of acquiring large territories with ancient greek connections but the delegation in paris focused on thrace but it was yugoslavia that had the most expansive claims the experienced serb politician nikola pasich led the yugoslav delegation at the paris peace conference and he knew bulgaria well having spent six years there in exile in the 1880s yugoslav arguments were based on both strategic and ethnicity claims they hoped to receive several border districts up to and including vedin on the danube and strumitsa in the south these they argued would secure vital railway lines and mountain passes to protect them from future bulgarian attacks as for macedonia passage sent a letter to clemenzo stating simply that the population there was serbian one of his advisors the geographer jovan zvic argued more subtly all impartial educated people in macedonia whether they've been raised as serbs or bulgarians know that the macedonian slavs do not possess a fixed serb or bulgarian nationality in light of this we can safely read the chauvinistic authors who wish to prove that macedonians are purely serbs or on the contrary pure-blooded bulgarians zvich also claimed that the people of vardar macedonia were closer to serbia based on the number of folk songs they had in fact the yugoslavs and greeks even floated the idea of continuing the war against bulgaria to achieve their goals but this was immediately vetoed by monsol for france the priority was strengthening romania and yugoslavia as a part of accordance sanitary to hold back bolshevism and in yugoslavia's case to keep italy in check as well for this reason they'd allowed romanian troops to march into southern debruja before the peace conference had even begun as far as macedonia was concerned the french decided that it was better not to touch the 1914 border and this suited their policy of supporting yugoslavia on the other hand the british weren't as firm on the macedonian question and proposed a special inspector to look into the matter but when the french objected they were content to let the question drop some bulgarian historians have explained the french and british attitudes as being the result of serbian and greek influence italy was sympathetic to the bulgarian position vis-a-vis yugoslavia but only because the italians and yugoslavs had become bitter rivals in the adriatic the real support for bulgaria amongst the allies came from the united states before the terms were drawn up american experts had carried out a study of the region and its recommendations were relatively favorable for bulgaria they dismissed the yugoslav claims about the ethnicity of the western border districts and recommended that southern debruja and much of thrace be included within bulgarian borders this essentially corresponded to the borders after the first balkan war as for the thorny macedonian question the american experts simply said more study was needed but the bulgarian settlement was not a high priority for the u.s and by late 1919 the country was slowly beginning to disengage from european affairs in the end the french and british positions would carry the day so the french and british were determined to strengthen their allies in the balkans at bulgaria's expense with this in mind let's take a look at the terms as they drew them up the bulgarian delegation had arrived in paris on july 27 after an eight day train ride but the treaty was not yet ready for 10 weeks they waited in their hotel under police guard while the allies drafted the terms and as with the previous treaties there were to be no face-to-face negotiations the bulgarians received the terms on september 19th which consisted of 296 articles and they had 25 days to respond in writing as usual the versailles treaty provided the basis and the draft had been prepared in haste resulting in some fascinating clauses being added such as bulgaria renouncing all claims to the french protectorate of morocco and the british protectorate of egypt in addition the army was to be reduced to twenty thousand men the air force disbanded and the navy was to give up its only submarine reparations in the amount of 2.25 billion gold francs were to be paid a higher per capita amount than had been imposed on germany the borders were to be drawn as follows romania would include northern and southern debruja and western thrace was placed under the control of the allies who had already agreed amongst themselves to award it to greece though greece didn't get quite as much territory as it had claimed bulgaria however was to retain access to the sea via the free port of alexandropolis yugoslavia was to receive several small but strategically important areas along the border but not quite all that they had asked for vardar macedonia previously in serbia would remain in yugoslavia and two more pockets were added to it as well a population exchange was also foreseen to correspond with the new borders fifty thousand bulgarians were to leave greece and forty thousand greeks were to leave bulgaria unlike in the earlier german and later turkish peace treaties bulgarian army atrocities during the occupation of serbia were not specifically dealt with in the treaty of nuyi and there were no war crimes provisions now as with previous peace treaties the defeated central power bulgaria was shocked about the terms when the terms became public a day of mourning was declared across the country and protesters took to the streets many felt that wilson's 14 points were not being honored and there was great anger at lands with bulgarian speakers being lost a popular saying of the day revived from the balkan wars of the late 19th century was that bulgaria would now border itself the bulgarian delegation argued for concessions since ferdinand had been overthrown and the country was now a democracy in line with allied demands theodorov gave a defiant speech i hope the great people of the victorious states that took it upon themselves to reshape our world give us the resources to rebuild our small nation within its legitimate borders handing out lands that hold a predominant bulgarian population to other nations only carries threats for the future if bulgaria must be punished for her sins and her neighbors rewarded her four hundred thousand casualties in the last three wars are punishment enough they died to bring freedom to our one and a half million enslaved brethren in macedonia and dobruja as news spread of the proposed borders more refugees fled their homes and many died of exposure in the cold eventually 250 000 refugees left the disputed regions teodorov who himself had previously been elected in a district now in yugoslavia refused to sign the treaty and return to sofia he resigned and was replaced by stamboliski on october 6th when the captain of bulgaria's lone submarine learned his vessel was to be scrapped he intentionally rammed it into a mine sinking the vessel and killing himself allied reactions were varied the yugoslavs now wanted the extradition of bulgarian generals alexandrov and protoguerov both hailed from macedonia and both had fought along with other bulgarian officers for a separatist group that resisted ottoman and after 1913 serbian rule now during the bulgarian occupation of serbia during the great war thousands of civilians had been killed during a local revolt while the two had been in charge they may have even ordered the killings stamboliski had both arrested and imprisoned on november 4th though it's still debated whether he did this under pressure from the allies or whether he was happy to see the generals who had defeated his rebellion a year earlier fall from grace now despite the general dismay in bulgaria stamboliski ultimately had no choice but to sign and he did so at new year's old town hall on november 27th once he had signed the document he broke his pen in half in a gesture of revolt memorial marches were held in sofia and ivan vassov brother of the famous bulgarian general vladimir vasov spoke to the crowds we all need to believe that we will overcome our misfortune and create a new united and spiritually powerful bulgaria do not despair the bulgarian spirit is alive in athens on the other hand a public holiday was declared marked by the singing of a tedeo so the peace treaty had been signed and the new borders drawn but in the immediate aftermath there were still many open questions with no easy answers the allies did attempt to implement the terms with a view to a stable peace but this proved extremely difficult and some doubted the new borders could bring stability to the balkans lord balfour wrote it might be assumed that the old frontier in the dobruja was maintained though this might be neither equitable nor conducive to peace in the balkans for one thing the reparation scheme soon came in for criticism since bulgaria was simply too poor to pay the totals were lowered and after just a fraction had been paid abolished altogether a few years later a commission including both yugoslavia and bulgaria was set up to draw the exact border between them though this did not address the fundamental bulgarian claim to macedonia as for thrace it was not yet officially greek but bulgarian efforts to negotiate with the greeks failed and the provision for bulgarian access to the aegean was never implemented internally the situation was no easier before they could be extradited to yugoslavia a group of officers helped generals alexandrov and protoguerov escape from prison they promptly reorganized their old revolutionary organization in macedonia and began carrying out terror attacks against yugoslavia and greece other revolutionary organizations were formed by bulgarians in thrace and debrucha as well and the future seemed pregnant with more violence the officer class and many others held politicians especially stamboliski responsible for the country's woes prominent writer stoyan mihailovsky wrote draw me a brave man a two meter tall sword-wielding warrior that is the bulgarian soldier next to him draw a pathetic little dwarf a rotten egg a two-foot imp these are the bulgarian politicians and that is the story of bulgaria's recent history the veteran officers of the military union used the partial victory at deuran as an example of how bulgaria wasn't truly defeated but was instead betrayed by her allies and the home front echoing the german stab in the back legend general toshev even published a book called beaten without being defeated bulgaria was now politically isolated and there was strong bitterness with its neighbors mihailovsky reflected a continuation of wartime propaganda messages when he wrote hateful enemies feeding on bulgaria like vultures were able to convince the entire universe that we were a stain on human civilization a tumor in europe and that the day of our destruction would be a day of joy and celebration to the purest and brightest amongst the people stamboliski tried to pursue a moderate foreign policy to repair the damage but this would ultimately fail the treaty of new ye has become known in bulgaria as the second national catastrophe after the second balkan war the bulgarian goal of national unification dating back to the balkan wars of the late 19th century had failed and in late 1919 the future looked anything but promising poverty hunger and sickness stalked the land especially amongst the quarter million refugees radicalized macedonians and army officers became politically active and violent clashes with the agrarian union's paramilitary orange guard soon became the norm stamboliski needed to re-establish relations with bulgaria's neighbors to end its isolation but macedonian nationalists began to assassinate politicians who called for compromise and much worse was still to come so now that we've taken a look at the treaty of new ye it's time for our roundup segment where we have a look at what else is going on in november 1919. on the first american coal miners voted to go on strike for better wages and working hours the strike lasted until the end of the month and saw 425 000 miners down tools the use of federal troops and an agreement to go to arbitration on the 7th the u.s bureau of investigation launched one of the largest palmer raids targeting suspected russian socialists the date was specifically chosen to coincide with the october revolution two years earlier on the 19th the u.s senate voted against the ratification of the treaty of versailles a separate peace agreement between the us and germany was only signed in 1921. in eastern russia on november 14th the red army took the white capital of omsk and captured 30 000 demoralized white soldiers who had surrendered without a fight south of moscow on the 17th the reds captured kursk and nearly cut off the main white army which continued its desperate retreat towards the black sea from the 4th to the eighth elections were held in romania the romanian national party became the largest party under new prime minister alexandro vaidevoyevod a transylvanian the party's origins lay in the representation for romanians in the kingdom of hungary before 1918. on november 11th the first armistice day was marked with two minutes silence at buckingham palace in london on the 14th the romanian army withdrew from budapest and two days later admiral miklossi arrived at the head of the new national army and finally also on the 16th general elections were held in italy nicolo bombacci socialist party received the most votes while benito mussolini's revolutionary fascist party did so poorly some predicted his political demise we want to thank plamen ghana for helping us with the research for this episode and as usual you can find all our sources in the video description below including links to our amazon stores to get access to all our podcast episodes with expert interviews and other perks you can also support us on patreon or by clicking the join button below i'm jesse alexander and this is the great war 1919 a production of real-time history and the only youtube history channel that borders on itself you

Channel: The Great War

Views: 301,094

Keywords: History, World War 1, WW1, First World War, Documentary, Documentary Series, The Great War, Indy Neidell, 1919, Interwar Period, 1920s, Educational, Russian Civil War, Revolution, Interbelum, Treaty of Neuilly, Bulgaria, Paris, Peace Conference, Peace Treaty, Balkans, Macedonia, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Greece, Balkan Wars, Allied Powers

Id: tJGZAkF0x_M

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/-TheProfessor-]

As a Bulgarian this episode hit close to home. I loved seeing the point of view of other nations (which we are learn nothing about in school).

[u/Skobtsov]

It’s sad that the us and Italy couldn’t coordinate on the issue.