We have three groups of minor nations in Central and Eastern Europe:
those whose emancipation or extension of frontiers is at the expense of
the Central Empires; those whose emancipation or extension of frontiers
is at the expense of Russia; and the Balkan States, completing their
emancipation from Turkey and establishing new frontiers at the expense
of each other. Czechoslovakia belongs to the first category; Poland
and Lithuania to the first and second categories; Finland and the
Baltic States to the second category; the Ukraine also to the second
category, although her claim to Eastern Galicia, denied by the Supreme
Council, would put her in the first category as well; Jugoslavia to
the first and third categories; Greece and Bulgaria and Albania to the
third category. Rumania has the unique distinction of being in all
three groups. And the factors and conditions in the creation of Greater
Rumania are different from those that attend the resurrection or
enlargement of the other minor states. Our small Allies (and Austria,
Hungary, and Bulgaria) face the general problems of the groups to which
they belong. Rumania faces all the problems of all the groups.
Like Greece and Serbia, Rumania is confronted with a complete and
radical remolding of the old political organism and a transformation
of her social and economic life by the incorporation of “unredeemed”
elements too large and too different culturally to assimilate; her
agrarian and electoral problems are similar to those of Hungary; with
Poland, she must face Bolshevism or make concessions to the irredentism
of Russian subject races or find herself later forced to choose between
Russia and Germany; she has frontier aspirations in common with
Bulgaria and Italy against Serbia; she must resist the conspiracy of
Great Britain and France to substitute themselves for Germany as her
economic suzerain; and, as her only outlet is through the Dardanelles,
she cannot remain indifferent to the disposition of Constantinople.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account