Treaty of Neuilly: Causes, Important Points, Consequences and Benefits

He Treaty of Neuilly It was an agreement signed between representatives of Bulgaria and the allied nations that had emerged victorious in the First World War. The treaty consisted mainly in the cession of Bulgarian territory to nations harmed by German attacks during the war.

Bulgaria was part of the conflict after having allied with Germany, and at the end of the war the victorious countries had little interest in showing condescension with the German allies. This meant the significant loss of Bulgarian lands, including territory adjacent to the Aegean Sea.

The Treaty of Neuilly is considered one of the consequences of the First World War. Although Bulgaria did not pay in full the reparations that corresponded to it under the treaty, the reduction of its army and the loss of territory negatively affected the administrative situation of the country.

Causes

First World War

The participation of Bulgaria in the First World War is part of the German movement. The Bulgarians allied themselves with the Germans to fight in the war, but little by little their armies were eliminated by the countries that eventually emerged victorious from the conflict.

After the advance of the allied forces and despite the good defense that the Bulgarians carried out, an armistice had to be agreed to prevent Bulgaria from being occupied by its enemies.

This happened on September 29, 1918. That day, the Bulgarian tsar Ferdinand I left his post to leave the post to Boris III, his eldest son. This led to traditional political parties losing popularity, a common phenomenon in Europe in countries that lost the war.

In addition, support for leftist movements such as communism and socialism increased exponentially. However, the greatest increase in popularity in Bulgaria happened to the Agrarian Union of the People, because its leader had been against the war during its course.

Paris treaty

The Treaty of Paris was the peace conference that took place in France to end the First World War. All participating countries sent delegations to agree on the terms of peace. In general, the defeated nations were forced to decrease the size of their army and to pay for the post-war damages.

Bulgaria participated in this conference, but in a very exclusive way. It was his new prime minister who had to go to sign the peace treaty, a very humiliating job for the country.

However, the Bulgarian delegation was not allowed access to almost any area of ​​the conference, to the point where they had to look for other sources of information to find out what was happening.

It was during the development of this conference that the terms that were presented to Bulgaria in the Treaty of Neuilly were agreed upon.

Important points

The treaty that was proposed to the Bulgarians was very similar to that which was offered to the Germans. As a result of this, many of the sanctions could not be fulfilled by Bulgaria (a much less economically powerful country) or simply did not apply.

Under the terms of the treaty, Bulgaria had to deliver part of its territory to Greece, which cost it its direct access to the Aegean Sea, which had been won in the Balkan War in 1913.

The Yugoslav nation, which was recently formed, also received part of the Bulgarian territory, according to the treaty.

Payments

Bulgaria was forced to pay 2250 million francs of gold, besides having to send cattle and coal as payment to the countries affected in the war. This led to the implementation of an international committee in Bulgaria to monitor payments. In addition, Bulgaria was forced to pay for the stay of this committee.

Demilitarization

As with Germany, Bulgaria was forced to reduce its military power significantly as punishment for participating in the war. Its army was reduced to 20,000 troops, its military police to 10,000 and its border patrol to only 3000.

In addition, the civilian military movement had to be replaced by a professional army. Many of the members became part of political movements that altered the course of Bulgarian politics.

The ships and military aircraft were distributed among the nations of the Entente (the alliance that won the war). Those artifacts that had no use for these nations were destroyed.

Consequences

The radicalization of several political sectors of the country and the new leftist tendency were the first political consequences brought about by this treaty. Many members of the parts of society that were most affected by the treaty leaned towards communism and socialism.

The communist sentiment was reinforced by the propaganda that the Bolsheviks introduced in Bulgaria, but the economic crisis that the post-war economy brought with it was the main reason for this new trend.

In addition, one of the regions that Bulgaria had lost after the war was Thrace. More than 200,000 Bulgarian immigrants left the region to return to Bulgaria, which led to a much stronger accentuation of the economic crisis that the country already had thanks to the treaty.

All this caused great suffering in the population of the country, a significant decrease in life expectancy and a systematic outbreak of diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis.

Who were the beneficiaries?

The Treaty of Neuilly had three main beneficiaries. The first was Greece, because the region of Thrace was given to this country, which was the one that gave access to the Aegean Sea. Although this region was later disputed by the Turks (and even Bulgaria retains a part of it), Greece went on to own important territory in this part of Europe.

Croats, Slavs and Serbs also benefited. Yugoslavia was just forming and the treaty caused them to receive more territory, which allowed them to expand their border borders.

Romania also made a profit after the signing of this agreement, as the region of Dobruja del Sur was ceded to them by Bulgaria.

References

1. Treaty of Neuilly - 1919, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, (n.d.). Taken from Britannica.com
2. Neuilly-sur-Seine, Treaty of, S. Marinov in International Encyclopedia of the First World War, February 20, 2017. Taken from 1914-1918-online.net
3. The Treaty of Neuilly, The History Learning Site, March 17, 2015. Taken from historylearningsite.co.uk
4. Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Wikipedia in English, February 28, 2018. Taken from wikipedia.org
5. Treaty of Neuilly, World War I Document Archive Online, November 27, 1919 (original file). Taken from lib.byu.edu