On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 06:53 -0700, Pat McBride wrote: > Yes, unfortunately, Yugoslavia was looked on as the 'spoils of war' when the > Austro-Hungarian empire was defeated. Same in Europe when Germany had to > give up land, money, material and equipment; leading indirectly to the 2nd > World War. 'If we knew then.....', too bad world history, true world > history, isn't a required subject in all schools, so we don't keep repeating > the same mistakes.
The Austria-Hungarian Empire basically dissolved on its own at the end of WW I. The Allies did not intend for this to happen, but the empire was in decay for a long time. Into that power vacuum entered all the latent nationalistic and ethnic feelings of the groups which made up the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The big loser was Hungary which shrank to less than 1/2 its original size. Yugoslavia is an interesting story, since the nation was created from competing interests of the South (Yugo) Slavs. Unfortunately. Serbia wanted what amounted to a Greater Serbia, while the Croats and others wanted a Pan Slavic federation with autonomy for the various ethnic groups, but the economic and military security of a larger nation state. Needless to say, it did not work out very well. We saw all the issue of 1919 play out in the 1990s all over again. I, of course, blame the Ottoman Turks. At least when that part of the world was part of their empire, they tolerated the ethnic differences and kept the underlying hatreds in check. How dare they give up southeastern Europe! Think of all the troubles that would have been avoided. :-) -- Smoot Carl-Mitchell System/Network Architect [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1 480 922 7313 cell: +1 602 421 9005 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
