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[Veles]

1920 04 I think I can provide some pieces of information about the second Silesian Uprising.

The main goal of the Uprising was to get rid of the German Selbstschutz. In Upper Silesia, the Selbstschutz militia attacked Poles and Silesian activists that were in favour of joining Silesia to Poland, the headquarters of Polish-language newspapers and persecuting local population.

The cruelty of so-called “Sipo” raised tensions and lead to public demonstrations in Bytom, Gliwice, Katowice, Chorzów, Mysłowice, Pszczyna, Radzionków, Ruda, Rybnik, Wirku, Wodzisław, Zaborze and Zabrze on April 25, 1920. Protesters were demanding a delegalization and dissolution of the Selbstschutz

Germans answered by attacking Poles during the celebrations of the anniversary of the Third May Constitution.The tensions only continued to rise, as the polish children began a strike. The youth demanded equality for the Polish language in schools in Upper Silesia.

Between 27-28 May German militias attacked the Polish Plebiscite Commission located in the Lomnitz Hotel in Bytom. The poviat venues of the Polish Plebiscite Committees were demolished in few cities.

Later that year, on August 17 German newspapers spread false news about the fall of Warsaw to the Red Army. In reaction to this news, German militias in Katowice (Kattowitz) attacked the seat of the district inspector of the Inter-allied Commission - Colonel Blanchard. French soldiers were forced to use force, killing 10 attackers. In retaliation well-known Polish doctor Dr Andrzej Mielecki, who provided wounded was lynched. Then the Germans moved on to demolish the seat of the Polish plebiscite committee in Katowice located in “Deutsches Haus” hotel.

The uprising started during the night of 19/20 September 1920. It was proclaimed by Wojciech Konfratry, a leader of the Polish community in Upper Silesia. In the same time, Polish workers in a sign of support started a general strike.
The Uprising was coordinated by “Polska Organizacja Wojskowa Górnego Śląska” - Polish Military Organization of Upper Silesia with Alfons “Rakoczy” Zgrzebniok as it’s komendant (commander). His first order was to immediately destroy communication networks in order to order to prevent the quick reaction from German forces. This operation was a total success.

The overall strategy of the insurgents formulated by PMOofUS was to launch attacks in the countryside and small towns and to leave the larger towns as they were protected by allied garrisons. Still, insurgent forces would still try to inflict panic among the Germans living in the larger cities by waging skirmishes near them.

But back to the fighting:
Between 20 and 21 August 1920 more than two thousand insurgents under the command of lieutenant Stanisław Krzyżowski, has taken over the entire Pszczyna (Pless) poviat (with exception of Pszczyna itself because of the reasons I mentioned above)

During the following days, insurgents took over large parts of Upper Silesia including many towns. (I can post a more detailed list of towns as well as more details about the fights if you want)

On August 24 Inter-governmental and Plebiscite Commission for Upper Silesia ordered to dissolve the German Sicherheitspolizei. With this information, Polish command decided that the insurgent actions should be ended, which took place day after on August 25th.

After the uprising, the Commision introduced in place of the German police, mixed Polish-German units called Abstimmungspolizei. Commission also promised to punish German militias for attacking Poles. In return Polish side officially disbanded the Polish Military Organization of Upper Silesia which in reality continued to exist under a new name “Headquarters of Physical Education”.

Overall the Uprising was a big success.

If you want any specific information (what I have posted here is a very streamlined depition of the II Urpising) let me know.

Here are sources I used:
T. Jędruszczak, Górny Śląsk w 1920 r. Drugie powstanie Śląskie (Upper Silesia during 1920, Second Silesian Uprising)
Encyklopedia Powstań Śląskich Opole 1982 (Encyclopedia of Silesian Uprisings)

[Spartacus]

@Veles Awesome! That’s perfect - as you know we can’t get into too much detail for time constraints. I would be hugely grateful if you could look over the script when I’m done (especially since I know that we have slightly different views on the rise of the Polish nation)

[Veles]

Sure, no problem. I’m glad I can help. As for the differences, well without them, we couldn’t have interesting discussions, could we?

[al-Srouji]

1920 03
Just signed up at this very moment to help you out! Middle Eastern History is my thing, So here’s a quick writeup on your topics. The Egyptian Uprisings are mostly a 1919 thing, but since you havent covered it yet, I suppose 1920 is better than never!

At the outbreak of the Great War, the few remaining ties to the Ottomans had been cut, and the Khedive of Egypt declared a Sultan, under a british protectorate - which many Egyptians expected to be a wartime measure, to be resolved following the conflict. With the war ending, the people of Egypt, as so many others, pinned their hopes on the wilsonian self-determination. Saad Zaghlul, a lawyer from a poor family, that had worked his wat up and served as minister of justice under the Khedive, started putting together an Egyptian delegation to Versailles, to represent the country and ask for a peaceful end to the protectorate. It soon became clear he wouldn’t be allowed to go by the British. So, he started organizing a popular movement to shore up support and force the British into letting him go. on the 8th of march 1919 he and his associates in the Wafd party(Arabic for ‘Delegate’) were arrested, and exiled to Malta - The following day, in response Egyptian cities exploded in strikes, protests and civil disobedience, with some violent attacks in the countryside. The British cracked down, and at least 800 egyptians were killed before the end of the month.

For the Egyptians, this was quite the national movement - men & women, Christian and Muslims, landowners and workers all took part, albeit often in different ways. The first women’s demonstration was on march 16th, where the women were met by a row of british machine guns blocking the street. Huda Sha’rawi, the ‘mother’ of Egyptian feminism, marched on - when stopped by another protester, she shouted “Let me die so Egypt shall have an Edith Cavell!” After a long standoff, the protest broke up without any real violence - the British were loath to open fire on unarmed women.

The protests died down as spring became summer. In november 1919 the Milner Commision were sent to Egypt to investigate, and in their report to Lord Curzon they recommended a treaty of alliance rather than protectorate. So Zaghlul and the Wafd were released, and allowed to go to Paris, where they learned that the American delegation recognized Britains protectorate over Egypt. As it wasn’t possible to get Egyptian independence as part of the post-war settlement, they were forced to negotiate directly with the British. From june to august 1920, Zaghlul and the Wafd were in London, where they found agreement, that would be ratified by Parliament in february, the following year, leading to a new round of negotiations, on the exact terms of the treaty. The british terms, considering Egypt and the Suez as vital for the Empire, were too harsh for the Wafd.

1919-1922 had alternating periods of protest and negotiation, ending in the interesting case of Britain unilaterally declaring Egypt independent, february 28th, 1922. Britain did however officially retain their control over: Security of imperial communications, defense of Egypt against outside aggresion, The Sudan, and protection of foreign interests and minority rights. While the following decades were marked by constant negotiations on the British role, in essence they interfered as much as they did in the prewar years. The Wafd however, became the leading party until the 1952 revolution, and the Egyptian feminist movement, born in the fires of 1919, remained an important part of society.

I don’t have my books on hand, so it’s mostly written from memory, while looking up dates and numbers.
The books at my home, which this is (probably?) mostly based on:
Skovgaard-Petersen, Jakob: Moderne Islam: Muslimer i Kairo printed by Gyldendal, 2007

Rogan, Eugene: The Arabs: A History Penguin, 2012

This is all I can give you for now, I gotta get back to work. I’ll try and come back later and write something on San Remo and the imperialist splitting of the Middle East, focused on the french conquest of Faisals Syria, as well as their use of sectarianism in Lebanon - that should fit right into the identity-theme.

If you want me to, I’ll cover the Iraqi uprising as well - that’s the summer of 1920, so very pertinent for the episode, but if you’ve decided to cut it, there’s no point in me writing an essay on it!

[Spartacus]

Guys this is fantastic - loving you all!

[fausztdori]

I would love to cover the ENTIRE topic on the German hyperinflation, Beer Hall Putsch, etc. aka. 1923 01!
How large written content do you have together when producing one episode? Around 5 full A4 pages?

[payneja]

Here’s a little throw away line that you can put at the end of one of your 1920 episodes:

In 1920 then Colonel J.F.C. “Boney” Fuller of the British Army opined on the future of warfare: “…Fleets of aeroplanes will attack the enemy’s great industrial and governing centres. All these attacks will be made, at first, not against the enemy’s army…but against the civil population in order to compel it to accept the will of the attacker. If the enemy will not accept peace terms forthwith, then wars in the air and on the earth will take place between machines to gain superiority.”

Source: Tanks in the Great War by J.F.C. Fuller on page 314. There’s a digital copy of it on Google Books.

I can’t get to work on it right this second, but if you need I could write up a few researched paragraphs about the early history of the aircraft carrier for a 1922 episode. In March of that year the USS Langley was commissioned by the US Navy as their first full-length flat deck aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, in December of that year the first purpose-built aircraft carrier, the Hōshō, was commissioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

[Marlboroking89]

Im a total noob with this sorta thing. I think the best way for me to contribute is to upgrade my membership, was gonna wait til next month but I’ll do it now. Good luck Sparty

[Spartacus]

@Marlboroking89

I think the best way for me to contribute is to upgrade my membership

But that’s a huge help as well - thanks!

[lukebunyip]

I think I may need to register with JSTOR. Apart from that, given geography I might be able to go visit the National Archives of Australia. We didn’t really figure on the world stage until Blighty decided that Aussies needed to visit Greece in early 1941, so (if needs be) I’ve got some leeway for going to Canberra.

[Spartacus]

@veles Kamil, its awesome - don’t worry about going beyond the timeline - since we can’t go back every year to every place, we have to do it like that anyway.

[Spartacus]

Thanks everyone for the great contribution. Sorry for being out of touch for a couple of days, but I’m busy with another project this week (need to pay the bills as well). We already used major contributions for three episodes that we shot last weekend and it was extremely helpful.

So far this is were what we’ve completed shooting on: (I’m working on using all the stuff from all of you, and I’ll be back with more details as soon as I get through my chaos).

@Veles contributed the centre piece of the episode on the borders of Poland coming together and the Silesian Uprisings.

@al-Srouji gave us the major information on the episode about the uprisings and division of the Middle East.

The info from @al-Srouji also inspired me to take a new approach on the women’s rights episode that we also shot on Saturday.

Also many thanks for the fact checking support - saved us from doing some really embarrassing mistakes.

Again, when (if) I get a moment tomorrow I will give you all more detailed feedback on where we stand with each of the scripts.

Based on how successful this is and that it was always our goal to take TimeGhost to the next level of cooperative content I really, really want to find ways for us to work together more. I’m using my walks with my dog to think about how to structure this better, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts as well as getting your feedback and ideas.

It’s an honour to have the privilege to share this community with you all.

Thank you.