Wwi

[Dachs]

And the fact that all the states, and then some, created after WWI are still around is in no way an indicator of their viability and the reasonableness of creating them? (Including the Alsatians and Lothringians who whenever asked about their preferences have gone French.)

No, it's mainly a sign of the democratic and generally "nice" sensibilities of the powers in the world. ("These people should have a homeland...let's put it into the treaty!") Honestly, if, say, the sensibilities of the public and leadership were completely eliminated, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia could steamroll all of those Balkan countries.

The existence of the EU helps in keeping that from happening as well. Besides, after about two centuries of French influence after about a millennium and a few centuries of being German, the Alsatians and Lothringians were just more French than anything else - we have the Sun King to blame for that.

 

[Verbose]

No, it's mainly a sign of the democratic and generally "nice" sensibilities of the powers in the world. ("These people should have a homeland...let's put it into the treaty!") Honestly, if, say, the sensibilities of the public and leadership were completely eliminated, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia could steamroll all of those Balkan countries.

Well, you've got a classic case of political "realism" I'd say.

The great powers would still be fought, and as you know, fighting popular nationalist uprisings even in considerably smaller nations is usually a losing game, even for superpowers. Imagine, say... Ireland, but all over Europe...

You might still like to try it on a continent wide scale of course, but it seems the political leadership of the great powers back in the 19th c. for the most part had more sense. What payoff do you expect for them except a world of hurt?

 

[Dachs]

Well, you've got a classic case of political "realism" I'd say.

The quotes show what your opinion is, hmmm?

The great powers would still be fought, and as you know, fighting popular nationalist uprisings even in considerably smaller nations is usually a losing game, even for superpowers. Imagine, say... Ireland, but all over Europe...

Though in a world that has been completely desensitized, genocide is possible and even feasible in some cases. The point I was trying to make was that if these countries had never been created due to Versailles, they wouldn't exist.

You might still like to try it on a continent wide scale of course, but it seems the political leadership of the great powers back in the 19th c. for the most part had more sense. What payoff do you expect for them except a world of hurt?

My original point, that those countries are too weak to stand on their own, had nothing whatsoever to do with this.