NEUILLY TREATISE: CAUSES, POINTS AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The Neuilly Treaty was an agreement signed between representatives of Bulgaria and the allied nations that had been victorious in the First World War. The treaty consisted mainly of the cession of Bulgarian territory to the nations damaged by the 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 to the German allies. This meant the significant loss of Bulgarian lands, including territory adjoining the Aegean Sea.

Causes

First World War

Bulgaria's participation in the First World War is part of the German movement. The Bulgarians allied 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 carried out by the Bulgarians, an armistice had to be agreed to prevent Bulgaria from being occupied by its enemies.

This happened on September 29, 1918. On that day, the Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I left his post to leave office to Boris III, his eldest son.

This led to traditional political parties losing popularity, a common phenomenon in Europe in the countries that lost the war.

Furthermore, support for left-wing movements such as communism and socialism increased exponentially. However, the biggest increase in popularity in Bulgaria happened to the People's Agrarian Union, as its leader had been against the war during its course.

Paris treaty

The Treaty of Paris was the peace conference that was held 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 reduce the size of their army and pay for postwar damage.

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 rather humiliating task 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 seek 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 Neuilly Treaty were agreed.

Important points

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

Under the terms of the treaty, Bulgaria had to give part of its territory to Greece, which cost it its direct access to the Aegean Sea, which they had 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 2.25 billion gold francs, in addition to 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 supervise the payments. Furthermore, Bulgaria was obliged 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 3,000.

Furthermore, the civil 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 military ships and aircraft were divided 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 various political sectors in the country and the new leftist tendency were the first political consequences that this treaty brought with it.

Many members of the parts of society that were most affected by the treaty leaned toward communism and socialism.

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

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

Who were the beneficiaries?

The Neuilly Treaty had three main beneficiaries. The first was Greece, as the region of Thrace was ceded 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 came to possess important territory in this part of Europe.

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

Romania also made profits after signing this agreement, as the South Dobruja region was ceded to them by Bulgaria.

References

1. Treaty of Neuilly - 1919, The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, (nd). 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 archive). Taken from lib.byu.edu