Stories of the Forgotten Heroes

1919-1923

The war ended and the face of Europe was forever changed by the subsequent treaties signed in France by both sides. The Treaty of Versailles is synonymous with the First World War. One of the reasons is due to the political arguments and policies of the German government from 1932 until 1945, aimed at constructing an image of its unjust character. For the Entente it represented the guarantee that a war of such brutality would never happen again. The Treaty of Saint-Germain officially dissolved the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and from its ashes rose the countries of Czechoslovakia, the Austrian Republic, and Hungary. What remained of its territory was incorporated into the Kingdoms of Italy and Romania and the newly-formed Yugoslav Kingdom. By the Treaty of Neuilly, Yugoslavia received the border regions that Serbia claimed from the Tsardom of Bulgaria, with the latter also losing access to the Aegean Sea in favor of the Greeks. One of the last treaties to be signed was the Treaty of Trianon, highly disputed by various Hungarian Governments, which imposed the same policy of disarmament that Austria and Germany suffered from. The issue of the Ottoman Empire proved a thorn for the victors since the Treaty of Sevres, officially dismembering the Ottoman Empire in favor of the British and the French was recognized by the Sultan but not by Mustafa Kemal.

Important during this period is also the List called the 14 Points of Woodrow Wilson. Containing the vision of the US President on the subject of peace and border redrawing on an ethnic basis solely. A flawed document from its conception due to the extreme diversity that Europe hosts, it attempted to prevent a second war as best it could, whilst setting the stage for it unknowingly. This led to the partial unification of Italy with its population to their detriment, since Yugoslavia received regions that Italians had been promised earlier in the war, creating evident friction during the peace talks. The Kingdom of Romania was also forced to settle the border to its detriment despite reaching almost a complete unification of its historical peoples due to the land grants which the Yugoslavs received, and Western implication. Attacked by the Red Hungarians (Bolsheviks) Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia defended their borders with the Romanians even occupying Budapest. Threatened by the British and the Americans that all their claims in Transylvania will be invalidated if they would not retreat, the Romanians complied.

The Greeks which had entered in 1917 in the War are still fighting the newly emergent Turkish Republic led by Mustafa Kemal, one of the successor states of the former Ottoman Empire. Dethroning the Sultan and defending his country with a zeal and courage reminiscent of the early history of the Ottoman Empire, Kemal will see initially few victories. This was mostly due to the support from the Italian, French, and British economies, to which Greece had ready access as an ally. As such, the Greek Royal Army will see tremendous initial success, almost causing the collapse of the new state. One of the factors that changed the tide was the death of the King, an excellent military commander, and the repression against the Turkish population even in the regions where they were a majority. This does not mean that the Turkish forces did not employ the same tactics, but Greece could ill-afford it, with the Entente reticent in supporting an ally with questionable warfare practices. By sheer power of will and charisma, Mustafa Kemal rallied his people and despite all odds managed to reach Constantinople. Intent on changing the old, the old capital will have its name changed to Istanbul, with the new capital built in Ankara. This was not only for symbolism, for it was there that Ataturk saw one of his illustrious victories in his hour of need, but also for more prosaic reasons. His main aim was to create a secular Turkey and this was the first step. With the defeat of the Greeks in the War, the Treaty of Laussane was finally signed in 1923, the last one to be signed. A population exchange between the two nations was made, thus removing any cause of discord between the two nations.

The Russian Empire is no longer the vast nation it once was. The aftermath of the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk saw the independence of a Ukrainian state, subservient to the German Empire which had started to increasingly rely on the grain they produced due to the blockade of the British Navy, whilst in the Baltics, three new countries arose which would remain independent until their occupation by the Soviets in the 1940s. Poland is but a fraction of what it will become, but Congress Poland is once again on the map, ready to liberate all the lands which Poles live. In its Russian core, a fractured state exists, which is split in two: the Reds and the Whites. Both fight to the last bullet, hoping to defeat their ideological enemy. With scant support from the Allies, the Whites also have the disadvantage of being fractured themselves, each General hoping to become the new ruler of Russia. The Bolsheviks on the other side, led politically by Vladimir Lenin and militarily by Leon Trotsky, have been the underdog for most of the conflict but cohesive internally, and results have started to appear. To make matters worse, none of its former allies recognized the Soviet government as the legitimate successors of the Tsars. By employing opportunistic and capable leaders, the Soviets will claim victory with the few remaining survivors of the White Movement fleeing to France and the British Empire. The conquest of most of the territory does not satiate the universalist view that Lenin, but especially Trotsky has. Thus, the new state will not be recognized by its former allies until well into the Second World War. More importantly for their neighbors though, the Soviets refused to recognize the lands which they lost to the detriment of Romania and Finland, causing constant friction between them. The disastrous war with Poland will spell doom for the Trotskyist cause thus setting the scene for the rise of Stalin. As such, there are no official treaties between the successor states of the Russian Empire and the newly formed Soviet state.