THE WORLD TO-DAY 429

'mandatories7. France also received Alsace-Lorraine. The
Saar valley was to be administered under a ' mandate' of
the League of Nations; it reverted to Germany by a ple-
biscite of its people in 1935. On the East, Poland (which
had been partitioned between Prussia, Russia, and Austria
during the eighteenth century) was reconstituted as an in-
dependent state; and a Polish Corridor was created up to
Danzig on the Baltic, which port was handed over to the
League of Nations. Another new state was created in Bohe-
mia, re-christened Czecko-Slovakia, under its famous leader
Mazaryk as first President. Austria and Hungary, consi-
derably reduced in size, became two independent republics;
parts of their territories being shared by Italy in the South
and the new Balkan States in the East. Serbia and Mon-
tenegro combined to form Jugoslavia, and Roumania was
enlarged with the addition of Transylvania. Bulgaria lost
her hold on the Aegean and became one of the smallest ot
Balkan States. By agreement between Russia and Ger-
many, Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—in the Bal-
tic region—were also constituted independent states. Turkey
lost much of her remaining territories in Europe as well as
Asia, and the Aegean islands. Though Constantinople was
left to her, the Straits were demilitarised and interna-
tionalised. ' A dozen independent nations now stretched from
the eastern Baltic to the Aegean, a veritable mosaic of
states from the empires of Germany, Russia, Austria, and
Turkey.'

The Allies had pompously proclaimed during the War that
they were waging ' a war to end war' and * war to vindi-
cate the principle of self-determination.* The League of
Nations, with its head-quarters at Geneva, was therefore
constituted to maintain these ideals. The principle of nation-
ality was largely given effect to in the reconstitution of states