Posted on 06/22/2006 4:29:24 PM PDT by Pokey78
Summary:
White people who behave unapologetically are intolerable, even if they've been bending over backwards to appease the professional victim classes for decades.
the Dipstick Chicks
The author is a moron. There were very few European wars between 1815 and 1914.
Lots of posturing and threatening, and massive expenditures on the military, especially towards the end of this period, but only a few actual wars between nations.
Certainly there were a lot fewer European wars than in the 18th or 17th centuries, when warfare was indeed almost continuous, but unfortunately for the writer's theory is generally considered to be pre-nationalism.
And there were only two major European wars in the 20th century, both fought in a 30 year period. To be fair, they were very large wars, but there were only two of them. (If you discount various squabbles that were essentially after-shocks of WWI.)
"Claim"? It's a fact: that word is way too long for those three twits to understand.
Seriously. Three syllables too long.
Even stretching the definition, I can come up with only eight wars between European states between 1815 and 1914.
Every one, with the exception of the Crimean War, grew out of the German and Italian struggles for unification.
There were many wars during this period, but only a few in Europe.
There were many small scale wars in Europe between 1815 and 1914. They mostly had to do with German or Italian unification or nationalism if you prefer. But they didn't last longer than a few months at a time, much unlike previous decade long wars between France and England and Spain.
See post 6.
I come up with:
Three Italian wars of independence against Austria, in the last case allied with France.
Two Danish-German wars over Schleswig. (Not the best idea the Danes ever had!)
The Crimean War: Britain, France and Sardinia vs. Russia.
The Austro-Prussian War.
The Franco-Prussian War.
The Prussians were thus involved in four of the eight wars.
I haven't really compared this to other centuries in detail, but I seriously doubt there is another 100 year period in European history with fewer wars.
Voila, only 8 wars.
Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang
Sollen in der Welt behalten
Ihren schönenalten Klang
Uns zu edler Tat begeistern
Unser ganzes Leben lang
Deutsche Frauen, deutsche Treue
Deutscher Wein und deutscher Sang
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach laßt uns alle streben
Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand!
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Sind des Glückes Unterpfand -
Blüh im Glanze dieses Glückes,
Blühe, deutsches Vaterland
Heinrich Hoffmann, 1841
Yeah, that sounds about right. It depends if you want to classify attempted revolts and revolutions as "wars". I think the Hungarians tried one against the Austrians that the Russians helped put down. The 18th century was much more violent than the 19th, at least as Europe proper is concerned.
I counted only wars that more or less fit the original author's criteria, ones that were, or could have been, "caused" by the plague of nationalism in Europe leading to a war between two or more nationalistic European states.
Wars by submerged nationalities against the Ottoman Empire, a non-nationalistic (and mostly non-European) state for most of this period, didn't seem to fit.
Civil wars, such as in Spain, don't fit the criteria either.
Neither did wars of conquest by Russia against tribes in Caucasia or Central Asia or various revolts against Austria, Russia, etc. These wars weren't caused by nationalistic excesses between conflicting European nation-states. Although some of those revolting (Hungarians, Poles) wanted to get their own nation-states so they could themselves engage in nationalistic enterprises.
FWIW, for most of this period Russia was itself a pre-nationalistic state.
As far as the Balkans being primarily non-European, the Greeks, Serbs, Croats, Albanians and others who live there would certainly dispute you on that!
The only way you can arrive at Europe having only 8 wars in the 19th century is if you count Southern and Eastern European countries as being not quite European!
Almost forgot, France v. Mexico!!!! That's the one behind "Cinco de Mayo".
btxy
It isn't widely remembered, but the Balkans were the "Near East" for most of this period. They were considered only marginally European at the time by "real" Europeans such as the French and British. A famous French saying of the time was that "Africa starts at the Pyrenees." Ahh, for the good old days of true non-PC-ness!
European countries, as you point out, fought a great many wars during the 19th century. Only a few of those were fought on the continent of Europe between nationalistic European states. The original author's contention was that Europe was in almost constant war during this period due to nationalism. I merely pointed out that this is hooey.
Last time I checked the atlas, Mexico isn't in Europe.
The author is a moron. There were very few European wars between 1815 and 1914.
He said up to the mid-20th century. That includes WWI and WWII.
Say what you want about how it embodies 'nationalism,' it is every bit as stirring a song as the Marseillaise, and a hell of a lot less overtly warlike than that song. Which is not at all surprising, since the words were written by a German republican in exile for his ideals.
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