The Baltic states and Europe
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Europa; Baltijos valstybės; Didžioji Britanija (Great Britain); Prancūzija (France); Vokietija (Germany); Europe; Baltic States; Great Britain; France; Germany.
ENThe First World War fundamentally altered the map of Europe, bringing entirely new political forces to the continent. Emerging from the conflict, Europe ceased to be dominated by great dynasties, instead hosting political forces competing against each other as well as for the support of the masses. However, it remained a place where traditional concepts of a closed system based on the balance of power between the Great Powers coexisted with newer thinking about cooperation between states and nations through the League of Nations and other international organisations. The end of the First World War can also be seen as a triumph of idealism, particularly for small countries, in so far as after that conflict small states seeking sovereignty breached the international system dominated by the Great Powers. The wave of idealism did not last long. The workings of the League of Nations set up in 1920 suggested that, despite the good intentions behind it, the Great Powers were finding it difficult to abandon traditional power politics. Before 1914, Eastern Europe was divided into three big empires – Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian. Small nations, considered at the time to be sources of potential conflict, were subordinated to the big power centres. Events in the Balkans had served as a warning; the one region where the Great Powers had sanctioned small nations’ striving for independence had eventually turned into the "powder keg of Europe". The Balkan wars of 1913–1914, the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo in 1914, as well as other conflicts, served to reinforce the opinion that too many small states provoked international unrest. The term "Balkanisation" carried negative connotations, signifying the apparent inability of small states to develop mutual relationships and to avoid conflicts in the absence of control by the Great Powers. [Extract, p. 7-8]
