Dependant Independence? Eastern Europe 1918-1956
After the First World War a new Europe of independent states was created from the ruins of the old empires. By 1956 these countries were locked into the Soviet system. L.P. Morris asks how could this have happened?
The Map of Europe was redrawn in 1918. It was a historic moment. The traditional dynastic empires of eastern Europe disappeared and in their place new, independent nation states emerged. In the euphoria of 1919 these seemed to be the embodiment of the idealism and sense of purpose that had animated the peacemakers at Versailles.
The Peace treaty, which was based on the fourteen-point peace proposal of President Wilson of America, was framed to ensure self-determination for the people of the new European nations. It was believed that nationality and democracy assured order, peace and stability. The avowedly democratic nature of the governmental system of the new states of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania seemed to confirm such hopes. The traditional storm center of Europe would be quietened: surely the whole continent would benefit. Twenty years later such hopes seemed ill-conceived.
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