1922 | Political Events
Political Events
New treaties, new violence, political and economic convulsions, and the emergence of new nations and regimes follow in the wake of the Great War—an independent Egyptian monarchy, an Italian Fascist Party dictatorship, and an independent Irish Free State.
The Washington Conference ends February 6 after nearly 3 months with a naval armaments treaty that provides for a 10-year period during which no new ships of more than 10,000 tons with guns larger than eight inches in width are to be built by Britain, France, Italy, Japan, or the United States. Britain and the United States are then to be permitted totals of 525,000 tons each, Japan 315,000 tons, France and Italy 175,000 tons each. Ships now under construction are to be scrapped (but aircraft carriers are exempted, and older ships will be refitted with better anti-aircraft protection). The treaty restricts submarine warfare and use of poison gas. U.S. Navy fleet commander Adm. Henry D. Wiley, now 62, is critical of the concessions made by Washington (see 1930).
Ernst Heinkel Flugzerugfwerke is founded at Warnemünde by aircraft designer Heinkel, now 34, who has been chief designer for the Albatros Aircraft Co. at Berlin that produced fighter planes during the Great War (see 1921; catapult, 1925).
Hipólito Irigoyen ends his 6-year term as president of Argentina and is succeeded by his handpicked successor Marcelo (Torcuato) de Alvear, 53, who cofounded the Radical Civic Union in 1890 and has been serving as ambassador to France (see 1928).
The Permanent Court of International Justice opens February 15 at The Hague.
The last monarch of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Karl I of Austria (Karl IV of Hungary) dies of tuberculosis at Quinta do Monto, Madeira, April 1 at age 34; former German general Erich von Falkenhayn near Potsdam April 8 at age 60; reactionary politician Wolfgang von Kapp at Leipzig June 12 at age 63 while awaiting trial for his 1920 coup attempt.
Germany's No More War (Nie Wieder Krieg) organization is founded by pacifists who include Hamburg-born Carl von Ossietzky, 32, who joined the German Peace Society in 1912, served as a conscript through the Great War, and since 1920 has been secretary of the Peace Society at Berlin (see 1927).
Germany's Weimar Republic recognizes Russia's new regime in the Treaty of Rapallo signed April 16 and resumes normal relations with the Lenin government (see 1926). Diplomat Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin, now 49, has negotiated the treaty with German foreign minister Walter Rathenau. Germany cedes Upper Silesia to Poland May 15. Nationalist reactionaries murder Rathenau while he is en route to work at his native Berlin June 24 at age 55 (see Erzberger, 1921; Hitler, 1923).
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is formally constituted in March "to safeguard the honor and independence of the Irish Republic." Responsible Irish political leaders will disavow the IRA, but the militant arm of the Sinn Fein political party that has stood for a free, undivided Ireland since the Easter Rising of 1916 will continue to employ terrorist tactics in a civil war within the Irish Free State (Eire) and in Ulster. President de Valera has resigned January 9 and organizes a Republican Society, rejecting the dominion status granted last year by London. He begins an insurrection against his erstwhile colleagues Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins, who have formed a new government, and the terrorism used earlier against the British is now used also against Irishmen as well.
Sinn Fein terrorists murder British field marshal Sir Henry Hughes Wilson, 58; the president of the Dail Eireann, Arthur Griffith, dies suddenly August 12; Prime Minister and urban guerrilla terrorist Michael Collins is mortally wounded August 22 at age 31 in an IRA ambush between Bandon and Macroom. William T. Cosgrove is elected September 9 to succeed Griffith, the Dail adopts a constitution for the Irish Free State October 24, the IRA leader Erskine Childers of 1903 Riddle of the Sands fame is court-martialed and executed by a British firing squad November 24, the Irish Free State is officially proclaimed December 6, the parliament of Northern Ireland votes December 7 to remain outside the Free State, and the last British troops leave the Free State December 17 (see 1949).
Turkish general Enver Pasha is killed in action August 4 at age 40 while fighting the Bolshevik Red Army near Baldzhuan in Turkestan (later Tajikistan). He had joined the insurgent Basmache at Bukhara in their revolt against the new Soviet regime.
Moscow incorporates Azerbaijan into the new Soviet Union as part of the Transcaucasian Federative Soviet Socialist Republic (see 1920). Large parts of the country were given to Armenia last year, and Armenian settlers received an autonomous district in the mountainous part of Karabakh province, but the Bolsheviks will improve the Azerbaijani infrastructure through most of the 1920s, building bridges, roads, and such (see 1936).
A Greek military revolt forces Constantine I to abdicate under pressure for a second time September 27 (see 1920). His 32-year-old son succeeds to the throne, will reign briefly as George II, regain the throne in 1935, and then reign until 1947.
Britain's Lloyd George cabinet resigns October 19 after Conservatives meet at the Carlton Club and vote to quit the coalition government. Canadian-born Scotsman Andrew Bonar Law, 64, heads a new Conservative government.
An Italian Fascist Party dictatorship begins in late November as Victor Emmanuel III summons Benito Mussolini to form a ministry and grants him dictatorial powers so that he may restore order and bring about reforms. Now 39, the journalist-politician has campaigned in his Popolo d'Italia against communism, organized his Fascio di Combattimento in Milan into a political party, won support from business interests fearful of communism, received backing at Naples from the secret criminal organization Camorra, and with help from former general Emilio De Bono has led his black-shirted Fascisti from Naples in a "March on Rome" October 28, but Mussolini's dictatorial powers are to expire at the end of next year. Former minister for foreign affairs Carlo, Conte Sforza, 49, has been appointed ambassador to France in February but refuses to serve under Mussolini, resigns, and will exile himself until 1943 (see 1923).
The kingdom of Egypt is proclaimed March 15 (see 1918); the sultan Ahmed Fuad succeeded his brother Hussein Kamil in 1917 and now assumes the title of king, 2 weeks after the termination by Britain of her protectorate over Egypt. The Sudan remains under joint Anglo-Egyptian sovereignty, and Fuad I begins a reign that will continue until 1936.
The League of Nations gives France a mandate over Syria July 28 (Paris has claimed sovereignty under terms of the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916). Alawite Territory (Latakia) has been incorporated into Syria July 1, French forces enter Damascus, and they expel the Arab leader Feisal (see Druse uprising, 1925).
The League of Nations gives approval July 24 to a British mandate over Palestine and includes the pro-Zionist Balfour Declaration of 1917, which has been endorsed by the leading Allied powers.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) in Iraq bombards Sulaymaniyeh in mid-May, the Kurdish town's 7,000 residents evacuate, and by October the RAF has flown missions that totaled more than 4,000 hours, dropping 97 tons of bombs and firing 183,861 rounds, killing nearly 9,000 Iraqis while sustaining nine deaths, seven wounded, and 11 aircraft destroyed behind enemy lines in an operation that has cost more than the entire British-funded Arab uprising against the Ottoman Turks from 1917 to 1918 but far less than it would have cost with infantry and artillery alone (see 1921). The Anglo-Iraq Treaty signed October 10 by British high commissioner Sir Percy Cox provides for a 20-year alliance, Iraq will ratify the accord in 1924, and the term will later be reduced from 20 years to 4. The British recall a Kurdish sheik from exile and reappoint him as governor of Suleyymaniyeh, but he announces November 18 that he is "king of Kurdistan"; armed confrontations will continue until the early 1930s between British occupation forces and Arab and Kurdish nationalists.
Former Ottoman army officer Ahmed Cemal is assassinated by an Armenian nationalist at Tiflis (later Tblisi), Georgia, July 21 at age 50. The Ottoman sultanate at Constantinople ends November 1 as Turkey's Grand National Assembly votes to abolish it (see 1921). Mustafa Kemal's forces have taken Smyrna from the Greeks in September (but have seen the city largely destroyed by fire), and Kemal has accepted neutralization of the Dardanelles in exchange for the return of Adrianople and Eastern Thrace. The sultan Mehmet VI flees aboard a British warship to Malta, and his cousin Abdul Mejid is proclaimed caliph (see 1923).
The Indian National Congress elects independence leader Chittaranjan Das president for its session at Gaya (see 1920). Das received a 6-month prison sentence last year for his role in leading a boycott against a visit by Britain's Prince of Wales and has been released after serving his time (see 1925).
Former Japanese prime minister Shigenobu Okuma dies at Tokyo January 10 at age 83; former Japanese general Aritomo Yamagata at Tokyo February 1 at age 83. Japan agrees February 4 to return Shandong (Shantung) Province to China, whose rival warlords engage in civil war.
The Dutch integrate their colonial East Indies into the Kingdom of the Netherlands (see 1894; 1945).