Century Journey - A Hundred Years of Diplomatic Turbulence in Seven Great Powers

Author: (American) Pasternak, edited by Hu Liping, translated by Yang Yunqin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Sovereign states, especially the UK, France, Germany, Russia, the US, Japan, and China, have consistently been the main players on the international stage throughout the 20th century. According to predictions, sovereign states may likely remain the main players in the next century. The best way to understand the next century is to learn how different countries shaped the contours of the international system in the 20th century.
Excerpt: The resurgence of hegemonic ambitions and like Emperor Wilhelm II, Hitler could not resist the temptation posed by Germany's strategic dilemma: eliminating the nightmare of "alliances with foreign powers" through all-out expansion. If Hitler had been a "normal" German leader as the British appeasers initially believed, he would have expanded the achievements of Stresemann, further improving Germany's favorable strategic position. He would have continued to push for the abolition of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, reclaiming parts or all of the German territory dismantled in 1919, and perhaps once again securing a role in overseeing the relationship between the East and West in Europe. But in Hitler's eyes, the situation in Europe clearly favored Germany. The US no longer belonged to any side in the balance of power. The Soviet Union was the same. It was happy to sit on the sidelines and watch the capitalist powers fight each other. France was at odds with the UK, and was complacent about the Maginot Line it had built. The French believed that building a concrete wall along the French-German border, equipped with cannons, would guarantee their security. The UK, until 1939, had been trying to appease "Hitler's" legitimate grievances. Hitler, of course, was not a revisionist who accepted the basic balance of power in Europe but a revolutionary trying to break it. Hitler was also unlike Charles V or Napoleon I, a "normal" hegemonist. In 1939, he not only launched a world-power struggle but also waged a genocidal war against the "inferior races" of Jews, Poles, and others, unprecedented in European history. However, despite the unmatched madness of Hitler, one could still see the shadow of German strategic concepts that inspired figures like Moltke and Schlieffen. Less than a week before invading Poland in August 1939, Hitler privately revealed the truth: "Everything I do is aimed at the Soviet Union. If the West is foolish enough not to see this, I can only reach an understanding with the Russians first, defeat the West, and then fully turn my attention to the Soviet Union." Hitler did exactly that. On August 24, 1939, just a week before invading Poland, he signed the Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union, securing their neutrality. In May 1940, Hitler invaded France and conquered the country in just six weeks. He then began bombing the UK, preparing for an invasion of the British Isles. In 1914, Moltke quickly transferred two crucial armies to the East Front without completely defeating France. Hitler did the same, launching an invasion of the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 without finishing the war in the West. Hitler's army, like the Kaiser's army, found itself fighting on two fronts. But this was the only similarity between Hitler and the Kaiser. Hitler was different from Wilhelm II. It can be said that he was different from all the dominant figures in Europe since Charles V. He was not fighting a war but two wars—one for strategic hegemony and one for racial hegemony. He had to win the first war before launching the second, the industrialized extermination of races. In May 1939, Hitler openly admitted: "Danzig is not the issue." The great powers still pursuing appeasement believed that Hitler merely wanted to overturn the territorial division clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. This referred to the German-occupied Danzig and East Prussia, but Hitler's true goal was to establish a European empire. German colonizers could carve out living space in the conquered east as far as the Ural Mountains. By seizing African colonies on the periphery of the empire and establishing a naval fleet, the core of the empire would be protected. The Third Reich would thus form a quadrilateral balance with the US, the British Empire, and the Japanese Empire. In another generation, only two countries would compete for global hegemony: Germany and the US. Hitler not only wanted to dominate Europe but ultimately the whole world. "Germany did not just want to seize territory; it also wanted to cleanse the Jews, Poles, and other 'inferior races' living on that territory. The Jews of Europe had to be completely exterminated. After the war turned against Germany in 1942, genocide became the primary goal of Nazi fanaticism. Otherwise, why did Hitler continue to allocate increasingly scarce resources—railway transport vehicles and military personnel—to gas chambers in the East rather than prevent the Red Army's advance? Why did Hitler order prisoners from Auschwitz and other concentration camps to march to Germany in 1945, avoiding the approaching Russians and continuing the massacre in a safer place? Clearly, the goal of genocide was paramount, even above the fundamental strategy of defending the homeland. Only after the Allies occupied every square inch of German territory did this dual war against the entire world and the Jews end. The catastrophic defeat of Nazi Germany reveals the immense appetite of Nazi Germany. One of the first measures taken by the victorious powers of World War II was to abolish the entity that propelled Germany to great power status—the Prussian state—and erase its name. This was followed by the four-power occupation of Germany and then the division of Germany into seven parts. After waging a war that cost 55 million lives, Germany in 1945 faced only prolonged subjugation and punishment.