Quote:
Originally Posted by
Asega
They were doing exactly the same as the Russians were doing in Asia (and previously in Central Europe, including Poland) and the Western Allies in Africa. Your point being?
I do not know what's your point to begin with. For decades Germany had been keeping the balacne in the Balkans. Then suddenly it started supporting Austria despite all the consequences and went head on against Russia, using terror, issuing one ultimatum in 1908 and another one in 1914. Russia had dealt with Bosnian annexations, but annexation of Serbia would mean elimination of Russian influences over the Balkans, a disaster which Russia could never afford to happen. Bismarck understood it well and prevented it from hapenning. Bethman-Hollweg understood it perfectly too, but purposefuly allowed the Austrians to do whatever they pleased, so Germany could gain the pretext to declare war on France and Russia and go for a world war.
Quote:
Of course. The Germans had met the French before in 1870 and they knew what they were up against. When it came to Belgium they really messed up- but they seem to have counted on the wishful thinking that Belgium (and the Netherlands through Limburg) would let them pass.
The French btw have been stealing Flemish (Netherlandic) and German lands for centuries as Flanders once reached as far as the river Somme (and that area was medieval Flemish-speaking) and the Alsace and Lorraine were once German-speaking and belonging to the Holy Roman Empire.
The Germans simply knew what they were up against and decided to act quickly.
But what are you talking about? This does not change the fact that Germany did not have to give carte-blanche to Austria, she did not have to accept Bosnian annexation in 1908, and war against Serbia in 1914. It does not change the fact Germany used Serbian crisis as her excuse to wage total war on... Russia and France.
Quote:
It was Serbia that pulled the trigger. Actually people all over Europe were disgusted over what was then considered to be a terrorist activity. Serbia's reputation by then was just as piss poor as Iran's is today. It's only real friend was Russia.
The French had been investing in Russia's railways and industry in order to make a quick franc and also surround Germany. The French hawks wanted the Alsace and Lorraine back under their control.
And of course the Germans gave Austria-Hungary a blank check to deal with Serbia. Serbia had after all assassinated the heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne.
This is nonsense. Assasination of Ferdinand was an excuse for annexation of Serbia, which the Austrians had been planning right after annexation of Bosnia in 1908. Nothing excuses Germany's decision to invade Russia, Belgium and France in response to... Serbian hostility. Only a German nationalist could pardon that crime.
Quote:
t gave the Germans the chance to make sure that the French would not invade them-- or so they thought..
This is no excuse. There was no necessity to declare war on France and Russia, to invade Belgium. Germany knew that if she supported Austria all the way in the Serbian conflict it would lead to a total war, a world war. And she made her choice.
Quote:
Which is in essence the same logic as the Mafia uses. "Innocent" little Belgium also had already received some German-speaking areas from the Allies (and controls those to this very day). And it was the Allies that started the war- not the Germans (or even Austria-Hungary for that matter).
Again. Incomprehensible German nationalist POV. Please translate.
Quote:
Remilitarise what ? 100.000 men.. ? The German Army only became rebuild in full after 1933. In 1936 they reoccupied the Rhineland.
...so??? The treaty was on paper - like I said
Quote:
Most areas were never Polish to begin with. Silezia was. Pommerania sure as hell wasn't and hasn't been since at least the Early Middle Ages.
Yes we took out a lot of Saxons as well- or Frisians. And they are still there.. If I remember correctly Silezian is only now dying out and so is Kashubian. Most of those languages and ethnicities are now in the verge of extinction in the modern Polish nation state.
So are Kurpie, Łowiczanie, Lesniacy and dozens of other dialects and local groups. Kashubians and Silesians were Poles. Vast majority of Silesians and Kashubians have always considered themselves as Polish.
Quote:
Sure. There was colonization but the Poles too had taken territories in the Middle Ages that belonged to ethnic Germans (take the Danzig area for instance.. your own area (if I remember correctly you were living along the coast). You're living on stolen land).
I don't know what you're talking about. Danzig, Culmerland, and all other lands belonged to the Polish state. Germans were invited in as burgher colonists by the Polish monarchs. Eastern Pomerania has never been "ethnically German". You are totally mistaken.
Quote:
Ethnic Germans were expelled from Poland as early as 1919 after the creation of the new independent Poland- the majority of those were kicked out from the area that was later known as the Polish Corridor (your own area). That was nothing short of genocide. But of course their rights to self-determination didn't matter...
This is an insult. A lie. A ridiculous bullshit, which I am not even going to comment.
Quote:
Hitler was no saint.
:rolleyes:
Quote:
But Hitler was created by the cruel victors of WW1. Yes that's right..
No. That is not right. That is another German nationalist, apologetic bullshit.
Quote:
...it were France, Britain, Italy, the USA, Poland and Czechoslovakia (or perhaps better put.. the international bankers that made an awful lot of money killing their own countrymen and their neighbors) that created Hitler (or Stalin, Lenin or Mussolini for that matter).
Yes. Everyone created Hitler. Hitler symbolises the unjustice inflicted upon poor Germans...
That becomes interesting... please go on...
Quote:
No they had sought the protection of the Polish King but later on became absorbed into the Polish Kingdom. They even had their own laws and customs.
No. They asked explicitly to be incorporated into the Crown of Poland. And so they were in 1466.
Quote:
Perhaps that's why it was proposed in 1939 to let the Corridor remain Polish while establishing transportation links with East Prussia and letting the Poles use the port of Danzig. Danzig itself would have become part of Germany.
That proposal came from.. the Germans.
The war did not break out over the the Prussian motorway and I am really not going to waste my time upon discussing reasons behind WW II with someone who believes poor Germany waged war on Benelux, France, England, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Balkans, Greece and the USA because of... the Danzig corridor. This is elementary.