THE EUROPEAN WAR AND OLD GRUDGES
By R. C. P.
Greed for Territorial Advantages in the Balkans at the Bottom of It — Another Outbreak, in Reality, of the Eastern Question DURING the past fifteen years, we have heard much of Hague peace congresses, international arbitration, and the disarmament of nations. There has been much discussion of the question of “Christian nations” and our “Christian age.” Yet fourteen million men are marshaled on the fields of slaughter to-day as a sacrifice to the “Moloch of militarism” and the “alliance system,” because on June 28, Austria’s prince, heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife, were assassinated in the Austrian province of Bosnia by a Servian fanatic. Then in an incredibly short time Germany and Austria-Hungary found themselves arrayed against Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Belgium, and Servia, with other neutral powers preparing to defend their neutrality if invaded. Germany has succeeded in drawing Turkey into the melee, and other nations seem about to declare war. So rapid a mobilization of vast armies, and such a desperate rush of immense forces into war, is unprecedented in the history of the world. HISTORIC CAUSES OF THE WAR
Diplomacy demands justification for the acts of governments. History records cold facts that have influenced governmental relations. While the diplomatic reasons that the various powers have so urgently presented to the public give pretexts, they present no valid reasons for plunging so many nations into deadly combat. There are historical considerations that have affected the relations of European nations for a century, that have influenced their policies. Russia has not been satisfied with the interference of other powers in the settlement of the affairs between Russia and Turkey in the war of 1877, in which Russia was victorious. It was Austria that took the initiative in calling the Berlin congress of 1878, which gave a decision more favorable to Austrian than to Russian interests. Russia and Turkey had agreed upon terms of settlement more favorable to Russian interests, but this agreement was set aside by the congress. One of the articles of the 1878 agreement turned Bosnia and Herzegovina over to Austria to be managed by her temporarily as a trustee, not as an owner. Their blood, language, and sympathies ally them closely with Servia. That country looked to a future union with Bosnia for an outlet on the Adriatic; but after Russia’s defeat in the war with Japan, which for the time lessened her prestige in Europe, and after the Young Turk party had claimed to reform its government, they were prepared to ask for the return of Bosnia to Turkey. But in October, 1908, the powers that had engaged in the Berlin treaty were informed that Austria had decided to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina as a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. This move on the part of Austria greatly embittered the Servians. The Balkan States of Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, and Montenegro joined forces to drive the Turks out of Europe. After they had subdued Turkey, and were in the act of dividing their spoils of territory, Austria again interfered, and through a mediation council of the powers, succeeded in depriving Servia of Albania on the Adriatic, which had been assigned to her in the settlement by the Balkan States. The second Balkan war followed, in which the smaller states opened hostilities upon Bulgaria, because of her claims to territory that was considered by the other states as belonging to them. In this engagement, Servia gained much toward the south, but she was still shut off from her coveted seaport territory. A REVIVAL OF THE EASTERN QUESTION
The settlement by the powers of the Balkan territory question was never acceptable to Servia, and Russia sympathized with Servia in the loss of this outlet to the sea. Germany was a supporter of Austria’s interests. The present outbreak is therefore plainly the result of the dissatisfaction over the settlement of the Turko-Balkan war territorial boundaries. It is thus primarily the renewal of the old issue of attempting to show bitterness against Austria’s interference with territorial plans for seacoast boundaries. It is a revival of the Eastern question. Russia, being on friendly terms with Servia, would naturally profit by such seaport territory in the hands of Servia. France has never forgiven Germany for taking Alsace-Lorraine as an indemnity after the late Franco-German war. While that territory had been previously German, and had been taken from the Germans by the French, it had been so long occupied by the latter that many French people had become the inhabitants of the territory. Naturally they resented being under German rule; hence it was an opportune moment for France to make an effort to recover those provinces. Great Britain has sought to hold the naval supremacy among the nations. She has considered Germany her only serious European rival as a military, naval, and commercial power. She has not been slow to seize the opportunity to aid in a war that offers so much allied strength in breaking the military power of Germany. Japan is displeased that Germany has secured a naval and military base at Kiau-Chau, so near to her military station at Port Arthur, and also with the part that Germany played in thwarting her designs in Manchuria. Such are the cold historic facts involved in opening with such hot haste the great gateways of international strife. From these struggling nations there are swept into untimely graves scholars, scientists, poets, inventors, business and laboring men. Its youth, whose vigor is the asset of the nation for the future, together with its Christians, who are the best safeguard for peace, are sacrificed. The scene is appalling. Was all this sacrifice of human lives to the “Moloch of war” a necessary compensation for the murder of an Austrian prince and his wife by a Servian miscreant? Who is now fighting on the basis of this issue? History’s verdict is that the diplomatic reasons were but a small part of the issues that have swept almost the whole of Europe into the maelstrom of war. R. C. P.