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20 March 1921
- The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and Poland.
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Why was Upper Silesia voted for Germany in 1921?
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Why did Germany split Silesia between Poland and Germany?
When did the league become involved in Upper Silesia?
After World War I, Lower Silesia, having by far a German majority, remained with Germany while Upper Silesia, after a series of insurrections by the Polish inhabitants, was split. Part joined the Second Polish Republic and was administered as the Silesian Voivodeship.
Incorporated into the Prussian Silesia Province from 1815, Upper Silesia became an industrial area taking advantage of its plentiful coal and iron ore. Prussian Upper Silesia became a part of the German Empire in 1871.
In 1921 a plebiscite was organised by the League to decide whether Upper Silesia would become German or Polish territory. Britain and France sent troops to ensure the vote was democratic. Germany won 60% of the votes, but Poland argued that many of those that voted for Germany did not live in Upper Silesia.
After the Nazis' takeover in Germany, anti-Semitic laws were also introduced in German Upper Silesia, against the German-Polish Accord on East Silesia of 1922. Among other stipulations, according to the treaty each contractual party guaranteed in its respective part of Upper Silesia equal civil rights for all the inhabitants.
World War Upper Silesia lay in the midst of dissolving empires; it con-tained a mixed German and Polish population, and it included a vital economic area of Central Europe. Both Germany and Poland laid claim to the area, but Upper Silesia could not remain a matter of purely local concern in 1919. The fate of
May 3, 2024 · Nazi Germany reacquired Upper Silesia with its conquest of Poland in 1939. The Germans killed or deported many educated Silesian Poles during World War II and filled the area with German settlers. But German-held Silesia was overrun in early 1945 by the Soviet Red Army .
Nov 14, 2014 · This followed three Silesian uprisings in 1919-1921 and a 1921 plebiscite organised by the League of Nations. The aim of the uprisings was to win autonomy for Upper Silesia either within the Polish or German state. The uprisings were, however, considered by some Silesians as a civil war.