If War Comes to Europe
by Prof. Emeka Aniagolu
For a long time, I pondered why the two European general wars — 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 — were called World Wars I & II? The obvious reason is, of course, that they engulfed virtually the whole world — directly and indirectly. After all, the world did not get together, have a meeting and decide that those two periods were good times to slaughter several million people. The origins of both wars, had their roots firmly in the soil of Europe and other far flung peoples and places, dragged into them for one reason or another, some of which, I outline in this essay.
WWI, also known as the Great War, besides having festered amidst the geopolitical context of European alliance systems, rampant nationalism, militarism and imperialism, began in 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria; triggering a war that spread across Europe and lasted until 1918. The powers arrayed against each other were: Germany, Austria-Hungry, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire — the so-called “Central Powers;” ranged against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States — the so-called “Allied Powers.” By the time that war ended and the Allied Powers claimed victory, over 16 million people — combatants and non-combatants alike — were dead.
Similarly, while the most proximate causes of WWII were a bit more international than WWI, they still simmered and got done in the European hopper. Classically, there are five factors attributed as the main causes of WWII: (1) the impact of the Treaty of Versailles following WWI; (2) the Great Depression; (3) the failure of Appeasement; (4) the rise of militarism/Nazism in Germany; and (5) the failure of the League of Nations. By the time WWII ended, an estimated “. . . 70–85 million people perished, or about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion). Deaths directly caused by the war (including military and civilian fatalities) are estimated at 50–56 million, with an additional estimated 19–28 million deaths from war-related disease and famine.”[1]
There is simply not enough time and space to get into the dot-connecting details of those factors in a think-piece such as this. Suffice it to say that all those factors/causes sprouted, if not from Europe proper, then from “the West” writ large.
· The Treaty of Versailles drawn up by the Allied Powers, especially the United States, punished Germany with such burdensome war reparations, that it set the stage for the rise of Adolf Hitler, Nazism, German militarism and ultra-nationalism.
· The Great Depression had its origins in the United States, and eventually, spread to Europe and the rest of the world.
· Appeasement was a foreign policy initiative spearheaded by Great Britain — a major colonial/global power at the time. It attempted to sate Adolf Hitler’s territorial ambitions in Europe and Mussolini’s colonial ambitions in Africa — Ethiopia; by conceding their initial claims as a way of stopping any further aggression on their part. It failed because the aggressive powers got away with what they claimed, then, reached for more.
· The rise of militarism and Nazism in Germany were thought by their exponents and adherents, to be a way of restoring the power, national pride, and glory of Germany. It produced the most militarized, ideologically racist and nationalistic national security state in modern human history.
· The fifth factor/cause was the failure of the League of Nations, on two main counts; one had its origins in the United States and the other, had its consequences in Africa. Despite the fact that the United States President at the time, Woodrow Wilson, was the chief architect and champion of the League of Nations, it failed to garner two-thirds majority in the United States Congress, and hence, arguably the most powerful Western power at the time and for quite some time to come — the United States — did not become a member of the League of Nations, because its Congress failed to ratify the treaty.
The African angle of the selfsame fifth factor/cause was that one of the only two independent African countries at the time — the Empire-state Ethiopia (the other being the tiny West African country Liberia); got the short end of the stick, even as a bona fide member of the League of Nations. The League of Nations failed to live up to one of its cardinal principles, namely: “collective security,” when Mussolini’s Italy launched an unprovoked attack against Ethiopia — a member of the League — with the intention of turning it into its colony. The only discernable reason from that unfortunate turn of events was that: European nations, regardless of the League Covenant, were averse to coming to the military and/or diplomatic aid of an African state against a European state. It was European racism mixed with European imperialism, serving up a rich cocktail of foreign policy immorality, and hence, paralysis.
At any rate, the big European powers, who should and could have been the ones to come to the collective aid of Ethiopia, were themselves colonial powers: Great Britain and France. And Belgium, a non-permanent member of the League of Nations, was itself one of the worst offenders in its African colony of Congo.
It is observable that except for the foregoing example in the League of Nations, of Italy and Ethiopia; Africans were not involved in any of the root factors/causes that brought about World Wars I & II. How, then, did Africans and a good number of Asians, with the exception of Japan; get caught up in those two wars, thereby making them world wars? The one-word answer is: Colonialism.
Virtually, all of Africa, especially south of the Great Sahara, a good part of Asia and several island-nations; were colonies of one European power of the other, especially, Great Britain and France. So, as they got caught up in those two wars, they dragged Africans and Asians into what started out as and should have remained a European quarrel and eventual war. They not only dragged able-bodied African and Asian men to fight as combatants in their armies; they pressed hundreds of thousands of them into labor gangs of potters, cooks, scouts, etc. Hundreds of thousands died in combat, from overwork, malnutrition and diseases of various kinds.
Many Africans believed that after fighting and dying to free the so-called “Allied Powers” from Fascism and Nazism, their independence would be granted to them as a matter of cause. Yet, it took the first African country — south of the Great Sahara — twelve years to regain its independence, following the end of World War II in 1945. And that African country was Ghana in 1957. Most other African countries regained their independence in the Great Decade of the 1960s. All had to struggle mightily to regain their independence. Many were forced to do so by force of arms — armed struggle. Africans that got caught up in the aegis of colonial/apartheid South Africa, will not know freedom until as late as 1994 — nearly a half-century after the end of WWII!
The lesson from the past ought to be clear enough: if war comes to Europe — not just to Ukraine — though war coming to any people is already tragedy enough; now that African countries are independent; they need not throw themselves into a fight that is not theirs to fight. If during the Administration of President Bill Clinton, the United States could stand askance and watch the genocide that took place in Rwanda; despite its disproportionate military, diplomatic and economic clout, not seeing the tragedy unfolding there in real time as having any connection to its “national interest;” Africans must do likewise over the current conflict between Russia and the West, through the proxy or pawn of Ukraine.
Africans, as fellow human beings with Ukrainians and all other human beings the world over; must be concerned about the humanitarian consequences of that conflict. But taking geopolitical sides, championing the causes of Manichean forces arrayed against each other in that conflict; is foolish and displays a great deal of historical ignorance, geopolitical and foreign policy infantilism.
[1] En.m.wikipedia.org
