When Czechoslovakia, whose peoples for almost a thousand years had been a part of Germany and/or Austria, became independent after the First World War, it promised to evolve into a new Switzerland, as four different ethnic groups of comparable strength called the new state their home (Czechs, Germans, Slovaks, and Hungarians). Yet, what followed was the sometimes violent suppression by the Czechs of any movement for independence among the other groups. The Germans, who, in the armistice agreement of 1918, had been promised self-determination, suffered most, as they saw their pleas squashed from day one. This ethnic conflict festered in the heart of Europe until 1938, when it came to a showdown…
By John Wear ∙ May 7, 2020
The Treaty of Versailles is sometimes said to have been the beginning of World War II. The Versailles Treaty crushed Germany beneath a burden of shame and reparations, stole vital German territories, and rendered Germany defenseless against enemies from within and without. Britain’s David Lloyd George warned the treaty makers at Versailles: “If peace is made under these conditions, it will be the source of a new war.”
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