Author: 140 Project
1945 World War II ended. Faced with the devastated continent of Europe, the two giants of the United States and the Soviet Union began to divide the fruits of the European war. The decaying old imperialist countries were hoarsely defending the last glory of Europe, and the small countries also had their own ulterior motives and fought openly and secretly. What is the way out for Europe?
The execution of Nazi general
Germany: Completely divided
When Hitler was still alive in early 1945, the division of Germany had already begun. In February, the leaders of the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain met at Yalta in Crimea . The core content was how to deal with the defeated Germany. After two world wars in , the three countries expressed great concerns about Germany's war potential: British Prime Minister Churchill is "fearing a unified Germany"; US President Roosevelt advocates "non-centralization" in Germany, trying to split Germany into 5 to 7 small countries; Soviet leader Stalin also agrees to split Germany.
all agreed to split Germany in principle, but there were great differences in specific implementation plans. Therefore, Yalta Conference did not decide on the specific division method for Germany after the war, but first decided that the allies implemented regional military occupation of Germany.
As the war ended, everything that the Nazis had conquered fell into vain. The first thing that jumped out was Germany's neighbors. On the western border, Belgium obtained the Malmedi-Europa region, and the famous Alsace-Lorraine region also returned to the French territory.
In addition to returning the pre-war territory, Luxembourg hopes to restore the territory of Grand Principality . Belgium and Netherlands are also ready to move towards Aachen , and in the end they are left unresolved. France directly seized the Saar region, causing the Saar region to join West Germany until 1957.
In any case, Germany's western border was preserved, but the eastern border was not so lucky. Part of Germany's West Prussia was divided into the newly restored Polish , while East Prussia was completely divided into Germany, causing Germany to lose a total of 119,100 square kilometers of land. Prussian , the birthplace of modern German unification and militarism, no longer belongs to Germany at all.
As the land is divided, people on the land must also be divided. Polish expelled at least six million German back to Germany, where the area was greatly reduced, turning the Poles, who were originally ethnic minorities, into a single nation-state. The Germans of in Sudetenland were also expelled by Czechs and the Soviet Union, forcing them to go to Austria. According to official statistics, racial migration in Sudetenland caused a total of 24,000 deaths and 62,000 missing people.
Soviet Union: Going westward
Since the October Revolution 1917, the Soviet Union has been constantly in conflict with small surrounding countries. During World War II, Finland , Romania and other countries followed Germany to attack the Soviet Union. Therefore, after the end of World War II, they were divided first. The Soviet Union and Finland restored their borders to the 1940 peace treaty, while Finland ceded the Bechamot province to the Soviet Union, leaving it bordering Norway.
Compared with Finland, which can still retain most of its territory, Lithuania , Estonia , Latvia , Latvia were directly annexed by the Soviet Union, and the easternmost part of Czechoslovakia was also divided into 12,600 square kilometers of land by the Soviet Union. At the same time, it directly sent troops to occupy Romania's Bisarabia and the northern Bukovina region and take it for itself.
Compared with the above-mentioned territory that had been disputed before the Soviet Union's war, the new border between the Soviet Union and Poland does not look so glorious.The Soviet government signed an agreement with the Polish National Liberation Committee to establish the " Curzon Line " divided by the British after the war in as the Polish-Soviet border. Although Western countries were extremely dissatisfied, they could only agree by default that the Soviet Union took back 194,100 square kilometers of land in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine as they wished.
At the same time, the Soviet Union did not forget to get a share of the German territory obtained from Poland, annexed the northern part of East Prussia, and changed the key area of East Prussia Konisburg to Kalingrad , becoming an enclave of the Soviet Union. After several annexation, the Soviet Union's land area reached 22.4 million square kilometers, becoming an unprecedented huge country in human history.
Soldiers who returned to the Soviet Union after the war
small countries: each with ulterior motives
Among the servant countries of the Axis powers, Hungary made great profits. During World War II, Hungary grabbed 43,104 square kilometers of land and 2.58 million people from Romania, and also obtained the Bachika region in northern Yugoslavia through Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia. The realization of "Greater Hungary" seems to be right in front of us.
With the defeat of the Axis powers, everything in "Greater Hungary" turned into a bubble, and its territory returned to 100 years ago, which also caused a large number of Hungarians to fall into Yugoslavia and Romania.
Unlike Hungary where the dream was broken, Bulgaria became the only Axis country whose territory was not lost and expanded. Because its people generally tend toward Pan-Slavic sentiment, Bulgaria was basically neutral during the Soviet War . At the same time, it also took advantage of Germany's invasion of the Balkans to obtain the Nandobrokar region from Romania, and also took the opportunity to occupy most of the Aegean Thrace of Greece and Yugoslavia Macedonia, which made the Bulgarian king respected as the "Ununified Tsar" in his country.
Now Bulgaria
After the war, the Soviet Union liberated most of the Balkans . Under the leadership of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria retained most of the territory acquired during the war, despite the extreme reluctance of neighboring countries. Of course, there is a reason why the Soviet Union protects Bulgaria. Bulgaria became the first communist country in Eastern Europe. Bulgarians were also grateful to the Soviet Union. It was the most gentle one in the Warsaw Pact group.
Yugoslavia is the only country among Eastern European countries to be liberated by its own strength. At the end of World War II, Yugoslav guerrillas not only liberated their own country, but also penetrated into Italy. On the issue of the Italian border after the war, Yugoslavia and its allies had fierce conflicts over the Italian territory it had captured, and the Soviet Union stood on the side of Britain and France, which made Yugoslavia's leader Tito very dissatisfied, and eventually led to the complete break between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1946.
Former Yugoslavia
United States: Financial hegemony
Before World War II, the world's currency market was mainly divided into the US dollar area, the British pound area and the Franc area. In the 1930s, all countries adopted trade protection policies, while over-issuance of currencies depreciated currencies in search of getting rid of the economic crisis faster. During World War II, the pound area and the francs area were deeply in war, and funds and gold flowed into the United States in large quantities. The U.S. trade surplus grew at an astonishing rate, and the US dollar was very strong. By 1945, the United States' gold reserves reached 59% of the world's gold reserves, and it was also the world's largest creditor.
The Allies began to discuss the post-war world economic order very early. Everyone wanted to stabilize the post-war international monetary relations, try to avoid the pre-war currency war and the trade war, and want to establish an economic world with free trade. Because of this, a "world currency" with stable currency value is needed to circulate among countries.
At this time, the United States' comprehensive national strength is unparalleled in the world. Americans themselves believe that the US dollar is qualified to assume the important responsibility of international currencies, and other currencies are pegged to the US dollar. Americans have also begun to establish the International Fund and the World Bank of in order to completely control the world economy .
Of course, other countries will not watch Americans enjoy their benefits. As the representative of the United Kingdom and even the old capitalist countries, the famous British economist Keynes bargained with the United States with excellent eloquence. However, facing the strong national strength of the United States, he could only concessions continuously, which was in no way possible. In July 1944, the Bretton Woods Agreement was finally reached, and all countries also accepted this established fact, and the US dollar has since ascended the throne of kings.
Europa: United
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1833, Feng Rank, known as Europe's greatest historian, systematically explained the concept of "balance of powers" in his article "On the Great Powers", that is, as long as there is a hegemonic country on the European continent, other countries with slightly worse strength will allege each other and fight together, so that Europe can achieve balance of power and maintain a delicate balance. The industrial revolution in Europe made Europe's production capacity exceed other regions, Europe became the center of the world, and European hegemonic countries are also equivalent to world hegemonic countries.
Throughout European history, hegemonic countries have changed one after another, and this idea of balance of power can be verified again and again. On the eve of World War II, European countries still held the idea of balance of power, believing that Hitler was the second Napoleon, and that as long as Britain and France united, they could maintain a balanced power with it. After the beginning of World War II, especially Germany's huge victory in the early stage, it annexed most of Europe by itself, far surpassing any previous hegemonic country, causing the balance of power to be destroyed suddenly and the traditional balance of power mechanism was greatly weakened.
1946 Nuremberg Trial
With the global promotion of The Second Industrial Revolution and the development in World War II, the two intercontinental countries of the United States and the Soviet Union quickly improved with their scale advantages, production capacity and international status. Their individual national strength has exceeded the total of traditional European industrial countries. Even if there is another hegemonic country in Europe, its national strength is far lower than the United States and the Soviet Union, and it can only be considered a medium-sized power.
Western EuropeCountries face the riddled countries, looking far beyond their own United States and the Soviet Union, urgently need to find an appropriate international status. In the 1945 "The Outline of France" pointed out that a single nation-state is no longer powerful enough, and only the "imperials" joined by several nation-states can occupy a place on the international stage. At the same time, France also recognizes Germany's advantages and economic strength, and should rely on Germany's strength to deeply bind the German economy, which can not only supplement the shortcomings of France's economic structure, but also avoid German aggression. After complex evolution, this plan became the first European economic joint organization - European Coal and Steel Joint Camp . After a large number of evolutions, it eventually evolved, European Union .
European Coal and Steel Joint Camp
Europa, Nirvana rebirth!
