Why did Denmark gain land after WW1 despite being neutral? (Short Animated Documentary)

in the wake of the first world war Denmark was given this territory at Germany's expense which is interesting because during the war Denmark didn't do anything it maintained its neutrality throughout the entirety of the conflict and never so much as fired a shot in anger and given that generally speaking territorial gains in Warfare are for Nations that you know took part it seems a bit odd so what gives why did Denmark gain territory despite being neutral so in order to understand why Denmark received these lands in 1920 we have to go back to the mid-19th century at this time King Frederick VII of Denmark was also the Duke of sleshvig Holstein and laoenberg which the further south you went became less Danish and more German Frederick was childless and he did the only thing that childless Kings aren't supposed to do he died this led to a succession crisis in the duchies and Frederick's successor Christian the knife passed a new Constitution which began the slow process of unifying the duchies with Denmark proper this upset the prussians and austrians since they alongside laoenberg and Holstein were part of the German Confederation and neither wanted to see two members ripped away leaving them with only one option discussion with each other about how they were going to crush Denmark in a war long story short Denmark lost and Prussia in Austria took these lands Austria had previously agreed to hold a referendum about the Danish majority areas joining Denmark but it never got to do that this was because Prussia soon went to war with Austria taking its previous gains from Denmark before going on to form Germany five years later soon World War one and German defeat so how did Denmark get these lands well during the war Denmark had maintained its neutrality whilst trying to appease some German demands as they really didn't feel like getting invaded the Anton didn't mind this since the neutral Denmark was more useful than a Danish front being opened that said the Anton powers specifically France wanted to give Denmark sizable territorial concessions after the war officially this was because of their commitment to self-determination the actual reason was because they wanted to make sure that Germany could never wage war on such a scale ever again in fact after the war was won the Anton's desire to punish Germany caused tensions with Denmark Danish delegates arrived at the Versailles conference to ask for these lands the ones which Austria had promised to ref referendum on 50 years prior this upset Britain and France who pushed Denmark to take more the British government demanded that Denmark take all of schless fig whereas France wanted the Danish border to stop here at the kill Canal as you can guess this had absolutely nothing to do with what Denmark wanted or needed instead it was to make sure that any future war against Germany would be easier the Danish government refused to Annex these lands because the vast majority of the people who lived there were German and thus it thought that it would only cause issues down the road with the new Germany there was a lot of pressure on Denmark to take these extra lands and it was only after the Americans intervened on Denmark's behalf that Britain and France backed down in the end it was agreed that these two areas would hold referenda on joining Denmark Northern schleswig agreed to join Denmark with three to one voting for Union and Central freshvig voted overwhelmingly to stay with Germany and so with the voting done Denmark Annex Northern later on in 1920 giving Denmark its current borders with Germany much to the annoyance of France and Britain I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons James bisonet Kelly moneymaker corshow wolf Jordan Longman Adam's daughter Jerry lambdin Marcus Arsenal why in hockey Spencer Lightfoot words about books podcast Gustav Swann Captain psydog rod D Martin commune boogly Wiggly Mrs ET Marvin cassau Aaron the white Matthew Shipley Alex Schwinn Maggie pasgowski Anthony Beckett Max and flaudio the Macaw Corey Turner spinning three plates Coppertone Winston cayward Charles the first and Scottish Trekkie

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,719,298

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Id: RZTBnlAVfnQ

Length: 3min 22sec (202 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 25 2022