Compensating for Inadequacies

Abstract

The territorial articles of the several peace treaties were often drafted in conscious violation of the principle of national self-determination. In many cases the statesmen, weighing the geographical, economic or strategic considerations, gave these criteria priority over ethnography and, in effect, said ‘so be it’. In some other cases, because of troubled consciences or because different arrangements were easily possible, the peoples of various territories were allowed some protection from arbitrary decisions. These compensations for the imperfect application of the self-determination precept were of three kinds: plebiscites, minorities treaties and mandates. In addition, some use was made of exchange of populations, which made for ethnic tidiness but which may or may not have been in the interests of the affected populations.