The Role of Nationalism and Empire Collapse in Eastern Europe during World War I, Study notes of History

Download The Role of Nationalism and Empire Collapse in Eastern Europe during World War I and more Study notes History in PDF only on Docsity! Arjuna Valli – In Search of an Alternative Modernity: Russia and Socialist Eastern Europe – 09/09/2019 Break up of Empires: WW I and the Consequences At the dawn of World War I (hereafter WWI), nobody could have predicted the collapse of the Central Empires. Their existence had not been questioned by any member of the Allied Powers, since neither France, nor Great Britain, nor Italy entered the WWI with the intention of dissolving the Habsburg, Ottoman, or Tsarist Empire. Nor did the coexistence of different ethnic groups within those empires appeared as a lethal threat to their survival. Although WWI has been partially triggered by strong Serbian nationalist feelings against Habsburg imperialism, the latter had already begun a slow process of transformation from a dual monarchy empire into a federation of states, even before the conflict, in order to meet the expectations of national minorities, craving for more sovereignty and autonomy (Johnson, 174). Moreover, despite the widespread fact that the Ottoman Empire did not enjoy good health, no European power aimed at its complete dissolution, but rather argued for a redistribution of the peripheral territories. Finally, in 1914, nobody would have imagined the fall and murder of the Romanov dynasty. The two Russian revolutions in February and October 1917, in conjunction with the United States’ involvement in the conflict, completely altered this understanding. Both Lenin, leader of the Bolshevik force, and Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, managed to transform WWI into an ideological battle for national self-determination and democracy against the tyranny of the ancient Empires (Johnson, 172). Certainly, the promises of Italian territorial reunification made by the Allied Powers towards Italy in 1915, attempting to convince Italy to join the war on their side in exchange for the regions of Friuli and Trentino, have helped to legitimize the national claims of other ethnic groups. Valid examples are the Serbian nationalist movement, who sought the realization of a Greater Serbian state (Johnson, 175) or Romania, who, despite its declaration of neutrality, saw the opportunity to annex Transylvania from the Kingdom of Hungary (Johnson, 177). Furthermore, political leaders of other minorities within the Hapsburg empire, such as the Czechs, Slovaks, Polish and Croats, took the chance to flee to the West shortly after the war in order to spread their nationalist propaganda from abroad (Johnson, 178), while some decided to remain, trying to push their nationalist agenda within the imperial institutions (Johnson, 179). However, most of WWI preceded the February Revolution in Russia, the declaration of war by the United States, and the Arjuna Valli – In Search of an Alternative Modernity: Russia and Socialist Eastern Europe – 09/09/2019 Bolshevik October Revolution – therefore, these nationalist movements were more interested in a federal reorganization of the empires, rather than their complete dismemberment. The first chronological event that caused a shift was the February Revolution of 1917, which led to the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, the Russian Empire, and autocracy. With the end of the Russian Empire, the Slavic minorities of the Habsburg Empire no longer had to fear the Pan-Slavic expansionist ambitions of the Tsar and therefore, they no longer needed to seek the protection of Emperor Charles I of Austria. This gave legitimacy to the Entente Alliance propaganda of other countries, such as the United States, who justified their involvement in the conflict in April 1917 by presenting themselves as paladins of democracy and freedom, fighting against the tyranny of the Empires, which were depriving smaller nations of their freedom and independence. Along on the same lines, Lenin, who since 1914 has promulgated the right of self-determination for national minorities in Russia, saw Eastern European nationalism as a means to both weaken the Tsarist Empire and to publicize the socialist ideology. Having gained control of Russia after the successful October Revolution in 1917, with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918, the Bolsheviks did not hesitate to recognize the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in exchange for ceasing fire with the Central Powers (Johnson, 180). On the other hand, the “Congress of Oppressed nationalities of Austria-Hungary” held in Rome in April 1918 by Czecho- Slovak and Yugoslav delegations, finally convinced the remaining Allied Powers that the only feasible path for a new balance of power in post-war Europe was the complete dissolution of the Habsburg Empire (Johnson, 181), which occurred in October of the same year, one month before the armistice of November 11th 1918, which marked the end of WW I, followed by the Treaty of Versailles June 28th 1919. Although the Treaty of Versailles marks the beginning of a period of relative peace in Western Europe, it has not been able to guarantee the end of conflicts in the Eastern regions (Johnson, 185). Many factors destabilized the attempts made by the Allied Powers to recreate a new peaceful order in the European continent after the end of the First World War. For instance, the application of the principle of self-determination with the intention to create ethnically homogeneous nation-states could have hardly been applied in Eastern Europe, where no clear