Upper Silesia plebiscite
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Upper Silesia plebiscite was the form of self-determination for Upper Silesia on demand of one of the clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. The German government had already declared during the negotiations in London, and indeed at an earlier period, that the possession of Upper Silesia was indispensable to Germany if she was to fulfil her obligations in regard to reparations. After some negotiation the plebiscite was fixed for March 20, and resulted in 717,122 votes being cast for Germany against 483,514 for Poland. All the towns in the plebiscite territory and most of the villages gave German majorities. Of the Kreise (districts) only those of Pless and Rybnik in the southeast, Tarnowitz in the east, and Tost-Gleiwitz in the interior showed considerable Polish majorities, while in Lublinitz and Gross Strelitz the votes cast on either side were practically equal. All the Kreise of the industrial district in a narrower sense - Beuthen, Hindenburg, Kattowitz, and Königshütte - had slight German majorities, though in Beuthen and Kattowitz this was due entirely to the town vote, as the country parishes had given Polish majorities. However, most of area of Upper Silesia voted for Poland. The Polish side pointed to the fact, that German majority was achieved artificially by the votes of Silesian emigrants from Western Germany. Without their votes, the vote count was almost 1:1.
The situation led to the outbreak of Third Silesian Uprising.