Map Description

Historical Map of WWI: Map of the World in 1919

Political Realignment Following the First World War


Illustrating:

- Area within blue frame: See the map of Europe in 1919.

- Trans-Siberian Railroad



:: Global Boundary Changes ::

Beyond Europe, the Ottoman Empire experienced the most dramatic territorial changes. The Treaty of Sèvres carved up its Middle Eastern territories into British and French mandates: Britain received Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq, while France gained control of Syria and Lebanon.

The Arab regions nominally gained independence but remained under European influence through the mandate system. The subsequent Treaty of Lausanne recognized the boundaries of the modern Turkish state and abandoned plans for an independent Kurdistan and Armenian state.

Germany's colonial empire was entirely dismantled. Under Article 119 of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany renounced all rights to its overseas possessions.

These colonies were redistributed among the Allied powers as "mandates" under League of Nations supervision:

• German East Africa (primarily to Britain as Tanganyika, with portions to Belgium);
• German Southwest Africa, now Namibia, (to South Africa);
• German Cameroon and Togoland (divided between Britain and France);

and in the Asia-Pacific region:

• New Zealand received German Samoa,
• Australia took German New Guinea,
• and Japan was awarded Germany’s former island territories in the Pacific, including the Marshall, Mariana, and Caroline Islands (Micronesian islands).

Especially hairy was the transfer of Germany's concessions in China in Shandong Province to Japan rather than to China, which sparked Chinese outrage.

Credits

Courtesy of the United States Military Academy Department of History.

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