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The political transformation of the [[Eastern Europe]] after 1918 was a direct result of the collapse of the [[German Second Empire]] and the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] during the last months of 1918, as well as due to the unsettled western borders of the ex-[[Russian Empire]] which collapsed in 1917 and which was the midst of revolution and civil war.  Most of the boundary changes in Eastern Europe after [[World War I]] resulted from decisions reached by the [[Triple Entente]] powers ([[Western Allied]] and Associated Powers during WWI) at the [[Paris Peace Conference]] that began in early 1919 resulting in five peace treaties, which were named after the castles outside Paris where they were finalized and signed.  

The political transformation of the [[Eastern Europe]] after 1918 was a direct result of the collapse of the [[German Second Empire]] and the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]] during the last months of 1918, as well as due to the unsettled western borders of the ex-[[Russian Empire]] which collapsed in 1917 and which was the midst of revolution and civil war.  Most of the boundary changes in Eastern Europe after [[World War I]] resulted from decisions reached by the [[Triple Entente]] powers ([[Western Allied]] and Associated Powers during WWI) at the [[Paris Peace Conference]] that began in early 1919 resulting in five peace treaties, which were named after the castles outside Paris where they were finalized and signed.  

On November 1, 1918, when the rule of Austria-Hungary collapsed in the region of '''East Galicia''', Ukrainian political workers from West Galicia opposed Polish ambitions to unite the whole region of Galicia (Western and Eastern) into a new [[Second Polish Republic]], and organized a [[coup]]. Local Ukrainian [[nationalist]] leaders proclaimed the independence of the West Ukrainian National People’s Republic. Helped by Ukrainian national units, they succeeded in occupying Lvov and other cities in East Galicia. This new state claimed the whole of East Galicia (eastward from the San River with [[Lwów]]) to be Ukrainian followed by [[North Bukovina]] and [[Carpathian Rus']] (Ruthenia). However, these territorial claims immediately were challenged by local [[Pole]]s who fought to unite Galicia with the newly resurrected Polish state. Consequently, the result was a Polish-Ukrainian War that lasted from November 1918 until the summer of 1919, when the Galician-West Ukrainian [[military]] detachments were expelled from East Galicia which finally became a part of the interwar (1919-1939) Polish Second Republic.

On November 1, 1918, when the rule of Austria-Hungary collapsed in the region of '''East Galicia''', Ukrainian political workers from [[West Galicia]] opposed Polish ambitions to unite the whole region of Galicia (Western and Eastern) into a new [[Second Polish Republic]], and organized a [[coup]]. Local Ukrainian [[nationalist]] leaders proclaimed the independence of the West Ukrainian National People’s Republic. Helped by Ukrainian national units, they succeeded in occupying Lvov and other cities in East Galicia. This new state claimed the whole of East Galicia (eastward from the San River with [[Lwów]]) to be Ukrainian followed by [[North Bukovina]] and [[Carpathian Rus']] (Ruthenia). However, these territorial claims immediately were challenged by local [[Pole]]s who fought to unite Galicia with the newly resurrected Polish state. Consequently, the result was a Polish-Ukrainian War that lasted from November 1918 until the summer of 1919, when the Galician-West Ukrainian [[military]] detachments were expelled from East Galicia which finally became a part of the interwar (1919-1939) Polish Second Republic.

 

For the Ukrainian side in the conflict, the crucial problem was that the West Ukrainian political-military leaders did not succeed in mobilizing the biggest part of the Ukrainian peasantry for their course as the [[peasant]]s have been much more involved in their [[economic]] for existence than the [[political]] interests. Another problem/question Was how much they have felt themselves as “Ukrainians” at all in order to fight against the Poles. In such a political situation, in order to attract the peasants for the Ukrainian course, the [[Ukrainian nationalist]]s tried to make use of some [[social]]-economic slogans and, therefore, promised the peasantry an [[agricultural]] reform after the war–distribution of [[land]] (the [[Russian Bolshevik]]s were propagating the same at the same time). Nevertheless, the Ukrainian nationalists used all means of force for the reason to mobilize the peasants of West Ukraine for the Ukrainian military to fight Poles in East Galicia.

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