The Czechs versus the Slovaks: Bilateral Relations, 1944–1948

Author(s):  
Jiří Kocian

After the new Czechoslovak Republic emerged in 1918, the relations between Czechoslovakia and Slovakia immediately became one of the crucial domestic problems it had to cope with. The success of the new Republic largely depended on whether the issue of bilateral relations would become a stabilizing factor or not. Czech politicians, however, followed the pre-war Czechoslovakian concepts even after the war. By the end of World War II, problems about the reunification of Bohemia and Moravia with Slovakia reemerged, as the issue of the legal settlement of relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks was raised. There was a continuation of centralism immediately after 1948, justified ideologically by the ‘necessity to struggle against bourgeois nationalism’. Nationally oriented Communists, such as Gustáv Husák, Vladimir Clementis, or Ladislav Novomeský, were accused of plotting to separate Slovakia from the Republic.

Author(s):  
Yury TAVROVSKIY

The relations between Russia and China were recorded in numerous documents, among which treaties were of particular value. Some of them were gradually becoming outdated, others were denounced after several years, but some remained quite relevant for decades. As documents of the highest international legal level leaving an indelible mark on the bilateral relations, treaties are the most suitable tool to track and perceive clearly their dynamics. Part I of the article reviews treaty relations between the two countries from the beginning of diplomatic contacts in the early seventeenth century to World War II. While Russian-Chinese relations expanded especially rapidly since the middle of the 19th century the Non-Aggression Treaty of 1937 is especially noteworthy as it proved to be of great value for the interests of both the USSR and the Republic of China at a critical juncture in their history.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-254
Author(s):  
Andreu Espasa

De forma un tanto paradójica, a finales de los años treinta, las relaciones entre México y Estados Unidos sufrieron uno de los momentos de máxima tensión, para pasar, a continuación, a experimentar una notable mejoría, alcanzando el cénit en la alianza política y militar sellada durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El episodio catalizador de la tensión y posterior reconciliación fue, sin duda, el conflicto diplomático planteado tras la nacionalización petrolera de 1938. De entre los factores que propiciaron la solución pacífica y negociada al conflicto petrolero, el presente artículo se centra en analizar dos fenómenos del momento. En primer lugar, siguiendo un orden de relevancia, se examina el papel que tuvo la Guerra Civil Española. Aunque las posturas de ambos gobiernos ante el conflicto español fueron sustancialmente distintas, las interpretaciones y las lecciones sobre sus posibles consecuencias permitieron un mayor entendimiento entre los dos países vecinos. En segundo lugar, también se analizarán las afinidades ideológicas entre el New Deal y el cardenismo en el contexto de la crisis mundial económica y política de los años treinta, con el fin de entender su papel lubricante en las relaciones bilaterales de la época. Somewhat paradoxically, at the end of the 1930s, the relationship between Mexico and the United States experienced one of its tensest moments, after which it dramatically improved, reaching its zenith in the political and military alliance cemented during World War II. The catalyst for this tension and subsequent reconciliation was, without doubt, the diplomatic conflict that arose after the oil nationalization of 1938. Of the various factors that led to a peaceful negotiated solution to the oil conflict, this article focuses on analyzing two phenomena. Firstly—in order of importance—this article examines the role that the Spanish Civil War played. Although the positions of both governments in relation to the Spanish war were significantly different, the interpretations and lessons concerning potential consequences enabled a greater understanding between the two neighboring countries. Secondly, this article also analyzes the ideological affinities between the New Deal and Cardenismo in the context of the global economic and political crisis of the thirties, seeking to understand their role in facilitating bilateral relations during that period.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-135
Author(s):  
Shuge Wei

ABSTRACTThis article examines China’s efforts to restore cable telegraph rights from the establishment of the Republic of China to the end of World War II. Challenging the conventional dichotomy of “Chinese” and “Western” actors in rights recovery issues, this article explores the intricate power relations between foreign cable companies, international interests groups and various political factions in China. It analyses China’s reclaim of cable sovereignty in three phases, each characterised by a particular controversy—the intra-clique struggle of the Communications Clique during the early Republic and the warlord era; the rivalry between the Nationalist Party, military and the state during the Nanjing decade; and the direct Sino-Japanese conflict during wartime. The article presents the argument that for the various interest groups, ideologies such as imperialism and nationalism served as rhetoric in their respective pursuits. It was the daily political tensions that played a crucial role in shaping how cable policies were devised.


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-152
Author(s):  
Danijel Vojak

The Roma population has been living in Croatian territories for more than six centuries and during that period was mostly persecuted by state and local authorities who sought to assimilate them. Such antigypsyism political practice was not unique only for the Croatian territory but was practiced in most other European countries. After World War II there was no commemoration and recognition of Roma victims in most European countries, including socialist Croatia (Yugoslavia). Such marginalization of the culture of remembrance of Roma war victims was reflected in the lack of education on this subject in the Croatian education system, where it is mostly mentioned in only a few words. The paper focuses on the analysis of how the issue of Roma suffering in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and Europe is (un)integrated into the Croatian education system.


Author(s):  
Tetiana Yelova

The new geopolitical realities after the World War II saw the revival of the Polish state in a new form. The Republic of Poland appeared on the map of Central Europe, with about half of its territory being the so-called Recovered Territories, while the state borders moved west. The new eastern border of the post-war Poland ran along the Curzon line. The new post-war eastern border of Poland was being negotiated and agreed upon by the Soviet and the Polish authorities starting from 1944 on an annual basis, up to 1948. The last exchange of territories took place in 1951. The debates about the political map of Europe and the new eastern border of Poland, which became a new reality after the World War II, were held both at politicians’ offices and in various media outlets. The most prominent debate about the new Polish eastern border could be found on the pages of the Kultura immigrant periodical. The Polish immigrant public intellectuals Jerzy Giedroyc, Juliusz Mieroszewski, Josef Czapski and other members of the Kultura periodical editorial board were adamant about the need to recognize the Polish borders drawn after the World War II. Such a stance was unacceptable for the Polish Governmentin-Exile based in London and some immigrant circles in the USA. Starting from 1952, the Kultura editorial staff is consistent in its efforts to defend the principle of inviolability of borders drawn after the World War II, urging the Poles to give up on the so-called Polish Kresy (Kresy Wschodnie) and to reconcile with the neighbours on the other side of the new eastern border.


2006 ◽  
pp. 253-270
Author(s):  
Jovan Ilic

The Serbs are first mentioned in the west part of the Balkan peninsula in 822. They populated the regions east of the river Cetina, mountain Pljesevica and the area between the rivers Una and Kupa. It means that the significant part of the present Republic of Croatia had been populated by the Serbs since the settlement of the Slavs. The main regions mostly populated by the Serbs were north-west Dalmatia, the larger part of Lika and Kordun, Banija, west Slavonia and smaller sections in east Slavonia, west Srem and Baranya. Social-political circumstances for the life of the Serbs in Croatia were mostly very unfavorable. Extremely unfavourable circumstances were during World War II in The Independent State of Croatia, when the Croatian ustasha fighters carried out an extensive, systematic, comprehensive and bestial genocide, that is ethnocide over the Serbs. The second genocide, that is ethnocide over the Serbs in Croatia was carried out in the civil ethnic-religious war 1991-1995, specially in 1995. In these years, the nationalist- chauvinist, antiserbian movement and war suddenly flared up in Croatia. The Serbs living there were forced to defend, so on December 19 1991 they proclaimed The Republic of Srpska Krajina. However, the Croatian armed forces were military stronger. The Serbs were defeated and punished by the total destruction of their property and mass expulsion. In that cruel civil-ethnic war, about 276.000 Serbs were expelled from Croatia, several thousand of them were killed. About 40.000 Serbian houses were destroyed and 380 Serbian villages were burnt. Hundreds of Serbian-Orthodox religious edifices were burnt or destroyed. The value of the destroyed or plundered Serbian property in Croatia was estimated at about 30 billion euros. According to the official Croatian data, in the last several years about 60.000 Serbs-refugees returned from Serbia to their native land, mostly older persons or those who returned to sell their property and leave Croatia again. About 40.000 of them went to live abroad. However, the Serbs-returnees still live in very difficult conditions, discriminated in all segments of life primarily when it comes to employment.


Author(s):  
Ivan A. Tsvetkov ◽  

This article explores how the memory of World War II affects contemporary US-China relations. Despite the fact that both of these coun- tries were in the camp of the victorious powers, actively cooperated in the fight against a common enemy – Japan, and seemed to have retained the warmest memories of their “fighting brotherhood”, the study of their memorial prac- tices leads to much less optimistic conclusions. In the PRC, the memory of the Second World War up to the 1990s was deliberately removed from the socio-political discourse. Then, as part of the transition from the communist to the nationalist ideology, the interest in the events of the war years increased, but they were interpreted in a spirit of victimization, with an emphasis on the sufferings endured by the Chinese people as a result of external aggression. To- day, the memory of World War II is being used in China to underpin an active foreign policy, which is considered to be aimed at preventing the repetition of the terrible tragedies of the past. For Americans, victory in World War II was originally a symbol of the transformation of the United States into a Pacific power, a rationale for regional leadership. Until China claimed the same role, the memory of US-Chinese military cooperation could be used as a diplomatic tool; it was also possible to talk about the “foundation of friendship” on which bilateral relations were based. Today, this technique no longer works, a com - mon victory does not bring the United States and China closer, but drives them apart dragging the countries to the opposite sides of the barricades.


2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yufeng Mao

In the late 1930s, three groups of Sino-Muslims went on hajj trips to Mecca. Two of them represented the Republic of China, while one represented the puppet government in Japanese-occupied North China. Reflecting the political importance of the Muslim population in the Sino-Japanese struggle, each group engaged in propaganda efforts for its government. However the Sino-Muslims who participated in these missions were not merely the passive pawns of Chinese authorities. Rather, archival material and published sources in Chinese and Arabic show that Sino-Muslims actively used these missions to advance a vision of the Chinese nation in which Muslims would play an important role in domestic and foreign affairs. This vision was based on a particular understanding of global politics which allowed Sino-Muslim elites to reconcile the transnational characteristic of Islam with loyalty to the territorially bound “Chinese nation.”


Author(s):  
Ruben Gowricharn

This chapter outlines the major forces that have shaped the constitutional development of the Republic of Suriname. These forces include the transplant of population and legal institutions during the colonial era; the post-World War II shift of the international power balance in favour of decolonizing colonies as manifested in the right to self-determination; and domestic forces, including trade unions and media, that protected the constitution from being suspended or undermined in periods of political turmoil. Based on the experience of Suriname, it is argued that constitutional development in small postcolonial societies is highly constrained due to the transplant of European legal institutions and corresponding expertise.


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