Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference known as Versailles Peace Conference, was the meeting of the victorious Allied Powers following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Involving diplomats from 32 countries and nationalities, the major or main decisions were the creation of the League of Nations, as well as the five peace treaties with the defeated states; the main result was the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, which in section 231 laid the guilt for the war on "the aggression of Germany and her allies". This provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for the expensive reparations Germany was intended to pay; the five major powers controlled the Conference. The "Big Four" were French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, US President Woodrow Wilson, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, they met together informally 145 times and made all the major decisions, which in turn were ratified by the others.
The conference began on 18 January 1919, with respect to its end date Professor Michael Neiberg has noted: Although the senior statesmen stopped working on the conference in June 1919, the formal peace process did not end until July 1923, when the Treaty of Lausanne was signed". The Conference opened on 18 January 1919; this date was symbolic, as it was the anniversary of the proclamation of William I as German Emperor in 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, shortly before the end of the Siege of Paris - a day itself imbued with significance in its turn in Germany as the anniversary of the establishment of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. The Delegates from 27 nations were assigned to 52 commissions, which held 1,646 sessions to prepare reports, with the help of many experts, on topics ranging from prisoners of war to undersea cables, to international aviation, to responsibility for the war. Key recommendations were folded into the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, which had 15 chapters and 440 clauses, as well as treaties for the other defeated nations.
The five major powers controlled the Conference. Amongst the "Big Five", in practice Japan only sent a former prime minister and played a small role; the four met together informally 145 times and made all the major decisions, which in turn were ratified by other attendees. The open meetings of all the delegations approved; the conference came to an end on 21 January 1920 with the inaugural General Assembly of the League of Nations. Five major peace treaties were prepared at the Paris Peace Conference: the Treaty of Versailles, 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Saint-Germain, 10 September 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly, 27 November 1919, the Treaty of Trianon, 4 June 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres, 10 August 1920; the major decisions were the establishment of the League of Nations. The main result was the Treaty of Versailles, with Germany, which in section 231 laid the guilt for the war on "the aggression of Germany and her allies"; this provision proved humiliating for Germany and set the stage for high reparations Germany was supposed to pay.
As the conference's decisions were enacted unilaterally, on the whims of the Big Four, for its duration Paris was the center of a world government, which deliberated over and implemented the sweeping changes to the political geography of Europe. Most famously, the Treaty of Versailles itself weakened Germany's military and placed full blame for the war and costly reparations on Germany's shoulders – the humiliation and resentment in Germany is sometimes considered one of the causes of Nazi electoral successes and indirectly a cause of World War II; the League of Nations proved controversial in the United States as critics said it subverted the powers of Congress to declare war. S. Senate did not ratify any of the peace treaties and the U. S. never joined the League – instead, the Harding administration of 1921-1923 concluded new treaties with Germany and Hungary. Republican Germany was not invited to attend the conference at Versailles. Representatives of White Russia were present. Numerous other nations did send delegations in order to appeal for various unsuccessful additions to the treaties.
A central issue of the Conference was the disposition of the overseas colonies of Germany. The British dominions wanted their reward for their sacrifice. Australia wanted New Guinea, New Zealand wanted Samoa, South Africa w
Turkish National Movement
The Turkish National Movement encompasses the political and military activities of the Turkish revolutionaries that resulted in the creation and shaping of the modern Republic of Turkey, as a consequence of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the subsequent occupation of Constantinople and partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies under the terms of the Armistice of Mudros. The Ottomans saw the movement as part of an international conspiracy against them; the Turkish revolutionaries rebelled against this partitioning and against the Treaty of Sèvres, signed in 1920 by the Ottoman government, which partitioned portions of Anatolia itself. This establishment of an alliance of Turkish revolutionaries during the partitioning resulted in the Turkish War of Independence, the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate on 1 November 1922 and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923; the movement declared that the only source of governance for the Turkish people would be the democratic Grand National Assembly of Turkey.
The movement was created in 1919 through a series of agreements and conferences throughout Anatolia and Thrace. The process was aimed to unite independent movements around the country to build a common voice and is attributed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, as he was the primary spokesperson, public figure, military leader of the movement; the Amasya Agreement was important in many respects. It was the first call to the national movement against the occupying powers, it consisted of talks based on provinces, not race. In this declaration we saw the roots of what constitutes the "Turk" as a political term, there was no distinction or reference to race or religion; the message read as follows: The unity of the motherland and national independence are in danger. The Istanbul government is unable to carry out its responsibilities, it is only through the nation's determination that national independence will be won. It is necessary to establish a national committee, free from all external influences and control, that will review the national situation and make known to the world the peoples desires for justice.
It has been decided to hold a National Congress in Sivas, the most secure place in Anatolia. Three representatives from each province should be sent to the Sivas Congress. To be prepared for every eventuality, this subject should be kept a national secret. There will be a congress for the Eastern Provinces on July 10; the delegation from the Erzurum Congress will depart to join to the general meeting in Sivas. This agreement was signed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Rauf Orbay, Ali Fuat Cebesoy, Refet Bele and Kâzım Karabekir in Erzurum. On American Mandate: On 1 August 1919, the King-Crane Commission tried to contact a large groups of interested parties in Constantinople, to obtain their positions with a view toward reporting them to the Paris Peace Conference. Kazım Karabekir learned that a memorandum was adopted by an amalgamation of political groups in Constantinople and the Erzurum Congress, in session since 23 July sent a memorandum to American President Woodrow Wilson on the same day, it was also meant to remind all other parties of Wilson's 14 Points and the fact that the Nationalists were aware of them.
Among the objectives of the Nationalists was, it appears, to signal the resolve of the Nationalists to the interested parties, display their intent not to tolerate indiscriminate political pressure. What began as a suggestion to the Nationalists to accept the American Mandate at the time of the Erzurum Congress, became a major campaign afterwards. By the time Sivas Congress was convened, no less than three channels were working on the Nationalist leadership to persuade them at least to "consider" the American Mandate, if not outright adopt a resolution in favor of it at the Sivas Congress; the Sivas Congress was the first time the fourteen leaders of the movement united under a single roof. These people formed a plan between 29 October, they agreed that the parliament should meet in Constantinople if it were obvious that this parliament could not function under the occupation. It was a great chance to build the legitimacy, they decided on formalizing a "Representative Committee" that would handle the distribution and implementation, which could be turned into a new government if allies decided to disband the whole Ottoman Governing structure.
Mustafa Kemal established two concepts into this program: integrity. Mustafa Kemal was setting the stage for conditions which would legitimize this organization and illegitimate the Ottoman parliament; these conditions were mentioned in the Wilsonian rules. Mustafa Kemal opened the National Congress at Sivas, with delegates from the entire nation taking part; the Erzurum resolutions were transformed into a national appeal, the name of the organization changed to the Society to Defend the Rights and Interests of the Provinces of Anatolia and Rumeli. The Erzurum resolutions were reaffirmed with minor additions, these included new clauses such as article 3 which states that the formation of an independent Greece on the Aydın, Balıkesir fronts was unacceptable; the Sivas Congress reinforced the stance taken at the Erzurum Congress. All these were performed. Plans were made to organize a new government and parliament in Ankara, the sultan asked to accept its authority. A flood of supporters moved to Ankara just ahead of the Allied dragnets.
Included among them were Halide Edip, her husband, Adnan Adıvar, İsmet İnönü, Kemal’s most important allies in the Ministry of W
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 at the Convention of London by the Great Powers. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where it secured full independence from the Ottoman Empire; this event marked the birth of the first independent Greek state since the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans in the mid-15th century. The Kingdom succeeded from the Greek provisional governments after the Greek War of Independence, lasted until 1924. In 1924 the monarchy was abolished, the Second Hellenic Republic was established, after Greece's defeat by Turkey in the Asia Minor Campaign, it lasted until 1935. The restored Kingdom of Greece lasted from 1935 to 1973; the Kingdom was again dissolved in the aftermath of the seven-year military dictatorship, the Third Republic, the current Greek state, came to be, after a popular referendum. Most of Greece became part of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century; the Eastern Roman, the direct continuation to the ancient Roman Empire who ruled most of the Greek-speaking world for over 1100 years, had been fatally weakened since the sacking of Constantinople by the Latin Crusaders in 1204.
The Ottoman advance into Greece was preceded by a victory over the Serbs to its north. First, the Ottomans won at 1371 on the Maritsa River – where the Serb forces were led by the King Vukašin of Serbia, the father of Prince Marko and the co-ruler of the last emperor from the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty; this was followed by a draw in the 1389 Battle of Kosovo. With no further threat by the Serbs and the subsequent Byzantine civil wars, the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and advanced southwards into Greece, capturing Athens in 1458; the Greeks held out in the Peloponnese until 1460, the Venetians and Genoese clung to some of the islands, but by 1500 most of the plains and islands of Greece were in Ottoman hands. The mountains of Greece were untouched, were a refuge for Greeks to flee foreign rule and engage in guerrilla warfare. Cyprus fell in 1571, the Venetians retained Crete until 1670; the Ionian Islands were only ruled by the Ottomans, remained under the rule of Venice. In the context of ardent desire for independence from Turkish occupation, with the explicit influence of similar secret societies elsewhere in Europe, three Greeks came together in 1814 in Odessa to decide the constitution for a secret organization in freemasonic fashion.
Its purpose was to unite all Greeks in an armed organization to overthrow Turkish rule. The three founders were Nikolaos Skoufas from the Arta province, Emmanuil Xanthos from Patmos and Athanasios Tsakalov from Ioannina. Soon after they initiated a fourth member, Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos from Andritsaina. Lots of revolts were planned across the Greek region and the first of them was launched on 6 March 1821, in the Danubian principalities, it was put down by the Ottomans, but the torch had been lit and by the end of the same month the Peloponnese was in open revolt. In 1821, the Greeks rose up against the Ottoman Empire. Following a protracted struggle, the autonomy of Greece was first recognized by the Great Powers in 1828. Count Ioannis Kapodistrias became Governor of Greece in 1827, but was assassinated in 1831. At the insistence of the Powers, the 1832 Treaty of London made Greece a monarchy. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the first candidate for the Greek throne. Otto of Wittelsbach, Prince of Bavaria was chosen as its first King.
Otto arrived at Nafplion, in 1833 aboard a British warship. Otto's reign would prove troubled, but managed to last for 30 years before he and his wife, Queen Amalia, left the way they came, aboard a British warship. During the early years of his reign, a group of Bavarian Regents ruled in his name and made themselves unpopular by trying to impose German ideas of rigid hierarchical government on the Greeks, while keeping most significant state offices away from them, they laid the foundations of a Greek administration, justice system and education system. Otto was sincere in his desire to give Greece good government, but he suffered from two great handicaps, his Roman Catholic faith, the fact that his marriage to Queen Amalia remained childless. Furthermore, the new Kingdom tried to eliminate the traditional banditry, something that in many cases meant conflict with some old revolutionary fighters who continued to exercise this practice; the Bavarian Regents ruled until 1837, when at the insistence of Britain and France, they were recalled, Otto after that appointed Greek ministers, although Bavarian officials still ran most of the administration and the army.
But Greece still had no constitution. Greek discontent grew until a revolt broke out in Athens in September 1843. Otto agreed to grant a constitution, convened a National Assembly which met in November; the new constitution created a bicameral parliament, consisting of a Senate. Power passed into the hands of a group of politicians, most of whom had been commanders in the War of Independence against the Ottomans. Greek politics in the 19th century was dominated by the national question. Greeks dreamed of liberating them all and reconstituting a state embracing all the Greek lands, with Constantinople as its capital; this was called the Great Idea, it was sustained by cont
History of Bulgaria (1878–1946)
After the Russo-Turkish War, an autonomous Bulgarian state was created within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. Although remaining under Ottoman sovereignty, it functioned independently, taking Alexander of Battenberg as its first prince. In 1885 it took control of the still-Ottoman Eastern Rumelia under a personal union. Following the abdication of Alexander, Ferdinand I was elected prince in 1887. Full independence was declared in 1908; the 1912–1913 Balkan Wars, Bulgaria formed an alliance with Greece and Montenegro against the Ottoman Empire, together liberating a great deal of Ottoman territory. Bulgaria was however unhappy with the resulting division of territory, soon went to war against former allies Serbia and Greece, in which it lost territory it had gained in the first war; the First World War saw Bulgaria allied with Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire. Its defeat led to the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Social problems and political instability persisted throughout the interwar years.
In the Second World War, Bulgaria again allied with Germany. Although it attempted to pull out of the war as Soviet Union advanced towards it, it was invaded, a communist government was put into power; the proposed Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878 provided for a self-governing Bulgarian state, which comprised the geographical regions of Moesia and Macedonia. Fearing the establishment of a large Russian client state on the Balkans, the other Great Powers Britain and Austro-Hungary, were not willing to agree to the treaty; the British were concerned over the safety of their routes to India. The Dual Monarchy, the Austria-Hungarian Empire was afraid that establishment of a large independent Slavic state in the Balkans would encourage other Slavs living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to seek an independent break away state. Accordingly, both Britain and Austria-Hungary sought for the treaty to be revised; as a result, the Treaty of Berlin, under the supervision of Otto von Bismarck of Germany and Benjamin Disraeli of Britain, revised the earlier treaty, scaled back the proposed Bulgarian state.
An autonomous Principality of Bulgaria was created, between the Danube and the Stara Planina range, with its seat at the old Bulgarian capital of Veliko Turnovo, including Sofia. This state was to be under nominal Ottoman sovereignty but was to be ruled by a prince elected by a congress of Bulgarian notables meeting in Turnovo as the Bulgarian Principality's Constituent Assembly on February 10, 1879 and approved by the Powers, they insisted that the Prince could not be a Russian, but in a compromise Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of Tsar Alexander II, was chosen. An autonomous Ottoman province under the name of Eastern Rumelia was created south of the Stara Planina range, whereas Macedonia was returned under the sovereignty of the Sultan; the Bulgarians adopted an advanced democratic constitution, power soon passed to the Liberal Party led by Stefan Stambolov. Prince Alexander had conservative leanings, at first opposed Stambolov's policies, but by 1885 he had become sufficiently sympathetic to his new country to change his mind, supported the Liberals.
He supported the Unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, brought about by a coup in Plovdiv in September 1885. The Powers did not intervene because of the power struggles between them. Shortly after, Serbia declared war on Bulgaria in the hope of grabbing territory while the Bulgarians were distracted; the Bulgarians used the momentum to launch a counterattack. The Serbian army was pushed into Serbian territory, but Bulgaria was forced to halt its advance after the Austro-Hungarian Empire threatened to intervene on the Serbian side; the unification was accepted by the Powers in the form of personal union. These events made Alexander popular in Bulgaria, but Russia was dissatisfied with his liberal tendencies. In August 1886 they fomented a coup, in the course of which Alexander was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Russia. Stambolov, however and the participants in the coup were forced to flee the country. Stambolov tried to reinstate Alexander, but strong Russian opposition forced the prince to abdicate again.
In July 1887 the Bulgarians elected Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as their new Prince. Ferdinand was the "Austrian candidate" and the Russians refused to recognize him despite his friendship with Tsar Alexander III. Ferdinand worked with Stambolov, but by 1894 their relationship worsened. Stambolov resigned and was assassinated in July 1895. Ferdinand decided to restore relations with Russia, which meant returning to a conservative policy. There was a substantial Bulgarian population still living under Ottoman rule in Macedonia. To complicate matters and Greece too made claims over parts of Macedonia, thus began the Balkan Wars, a five-sided struggle for control of these areas which lasted through World War I. In 1903 there was a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman Macedonia and war seemed likely. In 1908 Ferdinand used the struggles between the Great Powers to declare Bulgaria a independent kingdom, with himself as Tsar, which he did on 5 October in the St Forty Martyrs Church in Veliko Tarnovo.
The main external political problem confronting Bulgaria throughout the period up to World War I was the fate of Macedonia and Eastern Thrace. At the end of 19th century the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization was founded and began the preparation of an armed uprising in the
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
Thailand
Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand and known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Southeast Asian Indochinese peninsula composed of 76 provinces. At 513,120 km2 and over 68 million people, Thailand is the world's 50th largest country by total area and the 21st-most-populous country; the capital and largest city is a special administrative area. Thailand is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Myanmar, its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. Although nominally a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, the most recent coup in 2014 established a de facto military dictatorship. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Various Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, the Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as Ngoenyang, the Sukhothai Kingdom, Lan Na and the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which rivaled each other.
European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya, one of the great powers in the region. Ayutthaya reached its peak during cosmopolitan Narai's reign declining thereafter until being destroyed in 1767 in a war with Burma. Taksin reunified the fragmented territory and established the short-lived Thonburi Kingdom, he was succeeded in 1782 by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke, the first monarch of the Chakri dynasty and founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom, which lasted into the early 20th century. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, Siam faced pressure from France and the United Kingdom, including forced concessions of territory, but it remained the only Southeast Asian country to avoid direct Western rule. Following a bloodless revolution in 1932, Siam became a constitutional monarchy and changed its official name to "Thailand". While it joined the Allies in World War I, Thailand was an Axis satellite in World War II. In the late 1950s, a military coup revived the monarchy's influential role in politics.
Thailand became a major ally of the United States and played a key anti-communist role in the region. Apart from a brief period of parliamentary democracy in the mid-1970s, Thailand has periodically alternated between democracy and military rule. In the 21st century, Thailand endured a political crisis that culminated in two coups and the establishment of its current and 20th constitution by the military junta. Thailand is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy under a military junta. Thailand is a founding member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations and remains a major ally of the US. Despite its comparatively sporadic changes in leadership, it is considered a regional power in Southeast Asia and a middle power in global affairs. With a high level of human development, the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, the 20th largest by PPP, Thailand is classified as a newly industrialized economy. Thailand the Kingdom of Thailand known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia.
The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens. By outsiders prior to 1949, it was known by the exonym Siam; the word Siam may have originated from Pali or Sanskrit श्याम or Mon ရာမည. The names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word; the word Śyâma is not its origin, but a learned and artificial distortion. Another theory is the name derives from Chinese: "Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century; the Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam." A further possibility is that Mon-speaking peoples migrating south called themselves'syem' as do the autochthonous Mon-Khmer-speaking inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula. The signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut Rex Siamensium, giving the name "Siam" official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed to Siam from 1946 to 1948. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means "free man" in the Thai language, "differentiating the Thai from the natives encompassed in Thai society as serfs".
A famous Thai scholar argued that Thai means "people" or "human being", since his investigation shows that in some rural areas the word "Thai" was used instead of the usual Thai word "khon" for people. According to Michel Ferlus, the ethnonyms Thai/Tai would have evolved from the etymon *kri:'human being' through the following chain: *kəri: > *kəli: > *kədi:/*kədaj > *di:/*daj > *dajA > tʰajA2 or > tajA2. Michel Ferlus' work is based on some simple rules of phonetic change observable in the Sinosphere and studied for t
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement of 1920 that formally ended World War I between most of the Allies of World War I and the Kingdom of Hungary, the latter being one of the successor states to Austria-Hungary. The treaty defined its borders, it left Hungary as a landlocked state that covered 93,073 square kilometres, only 28% of the 325,411 square kilometres that had constituted the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary. Its population was 7.6 million, only 36% of the pre-war kingdom's population of 20.9 million. The areas that were allocated to neighbouring countries in total had a majority of non-Hungarians but 31% of Hungarians were left outside of post-Trianon Hungary. Five of the pre-war kingdom's ten largest cities were drawn into other countries; the treaty limited Hungary's army to 35,000 officers and men, the Austro-Hungarian Navy ceased to exist. The principal beneficiaries of the territorial division of pre-war Kingdom of Hungary were the Kingdom of Romania, the Czechoslovak Republic, the Kingdom of Serbs and Slovenes, the First Austrian Republic.
One of the main elements of the treaty was the doctrine of "self-determination of peoples", it was an attempt to give the non-Hungarians their own national states. In addition, Hungary had to pay war reparations to its neighbours; the treaty was dictated by the Allies rather than negotiated, the Hungarians had no option but to accept its terms. The Hungarian delegation signed the treaty under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, France; the treaty was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on 24 August 1921. The modern boundaries of Hungary are the same as those defined by the Treaty of Trianon, with some minor modifications until 1924 and the notable exception of three villages that were transferred to Czechoslovakia in 1947; the Hungarian government terminated its union with Austria on 31 October 1918 dissolving the Austro-Hungarian state. The de facto temporary borders of independent Hungary were defined by the ceasefire lines in November–December 1918. Compared with the pre-war Kingdom of Hungary, these temporary borders did not include: Part of Transylvania south of the Mureş river and east of the Someş river, which came under the control of Romania.
On 1 December 1918, the National Assembly of Romanians in Transylvania declared union with the Kingdom of Romania. Slovakia, which became part of Czechoslovakia. Afterwards, the Slovak politician Milan Hodža discussed with the Hungarian Minister of Defence, Albert Bartha, a temporary demarcation line that had not followed the Slovak-Hungarian linguistic border, left more than 900,000 Hungarians in the newly formed Czechoslovakia; that was signed on 6 December 1918. South Slavic lands, after the war, were organised into two political formations – the State of Slovenes and Serbs and Banat, Bačka and Baranja, which both came under control of South Slavs, according to the ceasefire agreement of Belgrade signed on 13 November 1918. On 29 October 1918, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia parliament, an autonomous kingdom within the Transleithania, terminated the union with the Kingdom of Hungary and on 30 October 1918 the Hungarian diet adopted a motion declaring that the constitutional relations between the two states had ended.
Croatia-Slavonia was included in a newly formed State of Slovenes and Serbs on 29 October 1918. This state and the Kingdom of Serbia formed the Kingdom of Serbs and Slovenes on 1 December 1918; the territories of Banat, Bačka and Baranja came under military control by the Kingdom of Serbia and political control by local South Slavs. The Great People's Assembly of Serbs and other Slavs from Banat, Bačkam and Baranja declared union of this region with Serbia on 25 November 1918; the ceasefire line had the character of a temporary international border until the treaty. The central parts of Banat were assigned to Romania, respecting the wishes of Romanians from this area, which, on 1 December 1918, were present in the National Assembly of Romanians in Alba Iulia, which voted for union with the Kingdom of Romania; the city of Fiume was occupied by the Italian nationalists group. Its affiliation was a matter of international dispute between the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Croatian-populated territories in modern Međimurje remained under Hungarian control after the ceasefire agreement of Belgrade from 13 November 1918.
After the military victory of Croatian forces led by Slavko Kvaternik in Međimurje against Hungarian forces, this region voted in the Great Assembly of 9 January 1919 for separation from Hungary and entry into Yugoslavia. After the Romanian Army advanced beyond this cease-fire line, the Entente powers asked Hungary to acknowledge the new Romanian territory gains by a new line set along the Tisza river. Unable to reject these terms and unwilling to accept them, the leaders of the Hungarian Democratic Republic resigned and the Communists seized power. In spite of the country being under Allied blockade, the Hungarian Soviet Republic was formed and the Hungarian Red Army was set up; this army was successful against the Czechoslovak Legions, due to covert food and arms aid from Italy. This made it possible for Hungary to reach nearly the forme
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