The War and DemocracySeton-Watson, R. W. (Robert William)
History
The War and Democracy
Seton-Watson, R. W. (Robert William)
Europe -- Politics and government -- 1871-1918; Nationalism -- Europe; World War, 1914-1918
After 1871 the national movement moved farther east. In 1878 Roumania and
Serbia, both national States, were declared sovereign powers independent
of Turkey; Bulgaria achieved its recognition as a principality; and
Montenegro, a small mountain community, which had never submitted to the
Turks, increased its territory and became a recognised European State.
In 1908 and 1910 Bulgaria and Montenegro became kingdoms like their
neighbours; and in 1913, after the two Balkan Wars, all the five Balkan
States--Roumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegro--obtained
accession of territory, and the principality of Albania was constituted
out of the Albanian portion of the old Turkish dominion. Finally, in quite
another region of Europe, Norway, which had been joined in an anomalous
union with Sweden since 1814, satisfied her national aspirations unopposed
by becoming an independent Constitutional Monarchy in 1905.
All this represents a considerable clearing up of the Central European
problem. Nevertheless, much still remains to be done. Poland is as she was
in 1814, a dismembered nation. The Czechs of Bohemia, the Roumanians of
Transylvania, and the Southern Slavs, not to mention other and smaller
subject races, continue to demand their freedom from the joint tyranny of
Vienna and Budapest. Russia has not yet solved the problem of Finland, nor
England the problem of Ireland. The Turk still occupies Constantinople. And
finally, the Prussianised nationalism of Germany has created new questions
of nationality in Alsace-Lorraine and Schleswig. All these problems
together were as so much tinder ready to take fire directly the spark fell.
They were the cause of the "armed peace" of the past forty-three years;
they are the cause of the war to-day. The conflagration of 1914 is a proof
of a profound dissatisfaction among civilised nations with the existing
political structure of the Continent. Alsatians, Poles, Czechs, Finns,
Serbo-Croats, Roumanians, and the rest "still struggle for country and
liberty; for a word inscribed upon a banner, proclaiming to the world
that they also live, think, love, and labour for the benefit of all." The
framework of society does not fit the facts of nationality, and so the
framework has gone to pieces. "The map of Europe has to be re-made. That is
the key to the present movement."
BOOKS
I. NATIONALITY
MAZZINI. _Essays_. The Scott Library. 1s.
MAZZINI. _Duties of Man_, etc. Everyman Library. 1s.
Anything written by Mazzini, the prophet of the national idea, can be
recommended.
LORD ACTON. _History of Freedom and other Essays_. 1907. 10s. net.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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