Minorities at the death of the continental European empires, 1918–1923

This chapter examines the fate of minorities in the immediate aftermath of the Great War. It outlines the different types of outsiders, their plight during the conflict and developments at the conclusion of peace. During the reign of continental empires and until the nineteenth-century rise of nationalism, most ethnic outsiders remained relatively invisible. Thereafter they represent key players in helping us to understand the First World War. The collapse of continental empires and the post-War settlement meant a reconfiguration of minorities and short term solutions which the Second World War and the events which followed resolved in a more thorough and far more brutal manner.