What if Imperial Germany would have been in a more generous mood and decided--for the sake of public relations--to hold free and fair plebiscites in Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasian states as a part of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918?
Specifically, the two choices in such a plebiscite would be independence or joining Bolshevik Russia.
Germany's logic here is that it could bully these newly independent states into making favorable deals with it later on while also looking better in the eyes of the West by allowing these plebiscites to occur.
Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasian states hold plebiscites in early 1918
Re: Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasian states hold plebiscites in early 1918
Germany was exploiting the territories to the hilt trying to increase the odds in France.
The Germans simply couldn't afford any generous mood.
The Germans simply couldn't afford any generous mood.
Re: Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Caucasian states hold plebiscites in early 1918
The Germans could have still tried to loot these territories for grain and other resources while holding these plebiscites, though.