By
Areha Kazuya
E-mail:Arehakauya1@gmail.com
Chapter 1 Wave
of nationalism and socialism (1945-1956)
1. Atlantic Charter
It is common that immediately after the
beginning of the war, both parties in the war devise a concept on the postwar new
order. In case of a war by two neighboring countries, it usually the annexation
of the enemy's land to their own country or monetary compensation burdened by
the defeated country. But as for the World War I and II, the concept of a
global new order was added to them.
In case of World War II, when the
whereabouts of victory or defeat was not yet clear, both the Allied Powers led
by US and the Axis countries led by Germany had simultaneously considered
postwar global new order. However, it was the Allied Powers that wrote the
world order. The postwar idea by the Axis of Japan, Germany and Italy was
buried and never exploited to the light. The Allied side, the victorious countries,
erased completely the Axis’s idea.
The "Atlantic Charter" declared
by the United States and the United Kingdom was made up of eight articles in
total. In Article 1 to Article 3, it was written as follows.
“First, their countries seek no aggrandizement,
territorial or others;
Second, they desire to see no territorial
changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples
concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all
peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they
wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have
been forcibly deprived of them;”
The eight principal points of the Charter
were:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United
Kingdom;
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples
concerned;
3. All people had a right to self-determination;
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered;
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
6. The participants would work for a world free of want and fear;
7. The participants would work for freedom of the seas;
8. There was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a common disarmament
after the war.
The Versailles regime (Paris Peace
Conference) after World War I showed traditional characters such as colonialism,
imperialism and punishment which imposed sanctions and huge compensation to the
losers. The current Syria and Lebanon - so-called Levant region - were
dominated by France. Jordan, Palestine and Iraq were colonized by the UK. This was
based on the Sykes- Picot Agreement signed by both countries during the World
War I in 1916 (Please refer to “Triple tongue diplomacy” of Prologue 4, 5 &
6). Germany was also subject to severe disarmament along with territorial
disposition. The fierce punishment, however, against Germany caused Nazism and
resulted in World War II 20 years later. The Atlantic charter was a lesson of
this failure, and was the fruits of US’s idealism which continues up till now.
For the realization of ideals, independent
movement of the nation state started in the postwar Middle East. The Kingdom of
Jordan and the Republic of Syria were established in 1946. The background of
the formation of the two countries involves complicated circumstances and could
not simplified as nation-state. The Kingdom of Jordan was a product of the McMahon-Hussein
Correspondence between the UK and prestigious Hassim royal family. And the
Syrian Republic was a very vulnerable republic, and was a dummy country of
France. France wanted to continue as imperialistic ruler.
Following Jordan and Syria, new nation countries
were born one after another in the Middle East. But the Middle East was a world
prevailing the struggle of ethnicity, religion and political ideology without harmony.
It was a battle fields of proxy war of the East-West conflict between the US
and the Soviet Union.
(To be continued ----)
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