LoN Failure - Upper Silesia
History: OCR A GCSE Cold War & International Relations, topic 1.1.6
Upper Silesia 1921-1925
Both German and Polish people lived in Upper Silesia, so naturally, both countries claimed that they should own it.
Upper Silesia
- Upper Silesia was on the border between Germany and Poland.
- Both German and Polish people thought that they should own the region.
Plebiscite
- Britain and France agreed that there should be a plebiscite (vote) so that the people could decide on what they wanted.
- The League of Nations even sent troops in there to make sure that the plebiscite was run fairly.
Result of the plebiscite
- The result was that 60% of people wanted to be part of Germany.
- This angered the Polish people in Upper Silesia, who complained to the League that this wasn’t fair or that they didn't like the result.
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Result of complaints
- As a result, the League split Silesia into sections:
- Germany got the rural land.
- Poland got the industrial area.
- Both countries wanted the industrial area as it was rich in iron, coal and steel production.
Further complaints
- Although the terms of the partition of Silesia were agreed initially, in the end both Germany and Poland disagreed with it.
- The Polish claimed they lost half a million of the Polish people to the land that now belonged to Germany and the Germans claimed that they lost too many coal mines.
Tensions
- The League of Nations then presided over discussions between Germany and Poland.
- The two countries agreed on trading laws, economic benefits, citizens' rights and border control in the two parts of Silesia.
- On the 15th May 1922, the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia was signed in Geneva.
- As time went on, tensions between these two countries continued to worsen.
Test yourself on LoN Failure - Upper Silesia
What was the result of the plebiscite in Upper Silesia?
Why did Germany and Poland both want the industrial area of Silesia?