Word: war
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...problem of disarmament. Just because of the fact that the European nationalities merge gradually into one another, and because of the fact that there are, in various localities of eastern Europe, isolated racial islands embedded in the larger national blocks it was inevitable that even before the war there should have been a minorities question, of which the acute phase developed from the growing national consciousness of the nineteenth century. Effects had been made to meet the problem prior to 1918, and in several of the peace treaties of the past century, notably in those which established the independence...
...War Proved Disruptive...
...great war led to the disruption, in some measure, of most of the states which possessed minorities. The Hapsburg Empire disappeared entirely, while Germany and Russia lost large areas on their frontiers and the Turk was all but driven out of Europe. In the peace settlements of 1919 the principle of national self-determination was applied in an imperfect way to the problem of territorial readjustment. In view of the vagueness of national frontiers a settlement of entirely satisfactory character was out of the question. Clearly defined national frontiers could have been established only if the principle of deportation...
...self-determination as far as possible. In the desire to weaken the defeated central powers and to strengthen the smaller or newly-created succession states considerations of strategy, of communications and of geography were allowed to play into the settlement of the frontiers, with the result that since the war there have been more submerged minorities and more irredentas than before. Add to this the fact that these minorities have become nationally more and more conscious and there should be no difficulty in understanding the seriousness of the question at the present...
...interests of minorities. Practically all the states of eastern Europe, except Russia, are bound by agreements to accord these subject peoples equality of treatment, education in their own language and religious freedom, and in general to abstain from oppressive measures. But in 1919 as in the period before the war, it was thought impossible to apply similar regulations to the larger powers because such provisions obviously amount to an infringment of sovereignty. Consequently there is no legal remedy for the people of southern Tyrol who are the most systematically oppressed of all the submerged peoples in Europe today. Far from...