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The new empires and Greece

06 April 2013 / 19:04:12  GRReporter
4974 reads

This does not mean that we will get to wars. Nobody, however, can exclude them. Nobody knows how a probable disintegration of the Eurozone will affect this, and what the position of Greece will be if it happens. Most likely, redistribution of powers will be carried out in a diplomatic manner - larger countries have the historical experience to know better what they need to avoid, we will see whether they are wise enough to do so. However, this does not mean that national ambitions will remain in the background. They will be expressed, discussed and become the subject of negotiations. This has already started. And the tragedy of Greece is that it is not among those who discuss, but among those being discussed.

On 8 April 1914, 99 years ago, Britain and France signed the Entente, i.e. the "Entente cordiale" - a contract that opened a new historical chapter in their relations, which was soon supplemented by both countries’ contracts with Russia. This contract soon developed in a western alliance against Germany and Austria-Hungary when they started World War I in August 1914. The United States entered this war later – on 6 April 1917. They entered the Second World War later, too, when Pearl Harbour was bombed.

What is the reason for the forgotten World War I? If we believe what we teach children in school, this is the German imperialism. The second reason, according to the same textbook, is nationalism. Today, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the man who united the country, publicly accuses Angela Merkel precisely of this– that she has returned nationalism in Europe.

Nearly 100 years after the outbreak of the First World War, these reasons for its beginning sound threatening, because they repeat the world in which we live. If somebody had read them five years ago, these would have meant nothing. Today, however, one does not need to reach Hobsbawm and other British and foreign historians of the 20th century, who wrote volumes about Germany's role in "The Great War" - even school textbooks have described things.

Many people will say, "There wasn’t a united Europe at the time." Others will say, "Are there still wars nowadays?" Or they will refer to the relations created by today’s globalised world. We are still trying to understand whether a truly united Europe exists or not. We may not want to believe it, but one has to close their eyes in order not to see the reality, in any case, former Eurogroup’s Chairman Juncker does not do so, since some time ago he talked about the ghosts of war. And it's not just him. And people said "there are no more wars today" many wars ago...

Tags: redistribution of power Germany Greece empires Turkey Balkan Wars
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