 Ratification of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, with signatures ofBoris III of Bulgaria,Aleksandar Stamboliyski, andMihail Madzharov | |
| Signed | 27 November 1919 |
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| Location | Neuilly-sur-Seine,France |
| Condition | Ratification by Bulgaria andfour Principal Allied Powers. |
| Parties | Principal Allied and Associated Powers Allied and Associated Powers
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| Depositary | French Government |
| Languages | French (primary),English,Italian |
| Full text | |
 Treaty of Neuilly atWikisource | |
| Paris Peace Conference |
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Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye |
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine |
TheTreaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (French:Traité de Neuilly-sur-Seine;Bulgarian:Ньойски договор,romanized: Noĭski dogovor) was a treaty between the victoriousAllies of World War I on the one hand, andBulgaria, one of the defeatedCentral Powers inWorld War I, on the other. The treaty required Bulgaria to cede various territories.
The treaty was signed on 27 November 1919, inNeuilly-sur-Seine in theHauts-de-Seine department, just west of Paris in France. The signing ceremony was held in theHôtel de Ville (town hall) at Neuilly.[2][3][4]
The Treaty of Neuilly was one of the series of treaties after World War I, which included theTreaty of Versailles, theTreaty of Saint-Germain, theTreaty of Trianon, and theTreaty of Sèvres, which were intended to diminish the military and political strength of the defeated members of theCentral Powers.
Like those treaties, the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine contained theCovenant of theLeague of Nations. As a result the United States did not ratify the treaty.
The treaty required Bulgaria:
In Bulgaria, the results of the treaty are popularly known as theSecond National Catastrophe. Bulgaria subsequently regainedSouthern Dobruja as a result of theTreaty of Craiova. DuringWorld War II, together withNazi Germany, it temporarily reoccupied most of the other territories ceded under the treaty.[7][8]
Four minor regions (historiographically referred to by Bulgarians as theWestern Outlands) had been part of Bulgaria from its inception asa principality in 1878, except for the region aroundStrumitsa, which became part of Bulgaria in 1912. Bulgaria was internationally recognised as an independent country in 1908 and controlled these territories until 1919 when they were ceded to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the Treaty of Neuilly. The cession of the region was partly a compensation for the occupation of the southern and eastern part ofSerbia by Bulgarian troops between 1915 and 1918, and was partly motivated by strategic reasons. The old political boundary between Bulgaria and Serbia followed a chain of high mountain ridges, whereas the new one gave significant military and strategic advantages to the Serbs: it dangerously exposed the Bulgarian capital ofSofia and significantly reduced the military threat to eastern Serbia in case of a Bulgarian invasion (see alsoBalkan Wars andWorld War I).[9]
Territories ceded by the treaty to the thenKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes cover an area of 1,545 km2 (597 sq mi) in what is nowSerbia and 1,028 km2 (397 sq mi) in what is nowNorth Macedonia.
In Serbia, to which the term generally applies in Bulgaria, the territory ceded is split between the modern SerbianDistrict of Pirot (municipality ofDimitrovgrad and smaller parts of the municipalities ofPirot andBabušnica) andDistrict of Pčinja (municipality ofBosilegrad and a small part of the municipality ofSurdulica). It also includes a small section along theTimok River in the municipality andDistrict of Zaječar, composed by eight localities (seven populated byRomanians and one populated by Bulgarians).[10]
In 1919, the area corresponded to the following parts of the Bulgarianokrugs:Kyustendil, 661 km2 (255 sq mi),Tzaribrod 418 km2 (161 sq mi),Tran 278 km2 (107 sq mi),Kula 172 km2 (66 sq mi) andVidin 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi). Bulgarian sources claim that the Bulgarian population made 98% of the population inBosilegrad and 95% of the population in Tzaribrod at the time. In theYugoslav census of 1931, allSouth Slavs were simply counted asYugoslavs (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bulgarians) so a comparison could not be made. According to the lastCensus in Serbia from 2002, Bulgarians made 50% and 71% of population inDimitrovgrad and Bosilegrad respectively.
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