World War Two and Post World War Two inconsistencies that led to conflict

The Europe of Klemens von Metternich was the kind of Europe in which conflicts between countries could be resolved with territorial exchanges. The country that would be unlucky in the first round, could try its luck in the next round and perhaps regain the territories lost. Wars were not supposed to be wars of extermination.

This kind of mentality overrode any other consideration. By the end of World War One, German territories were given to Poland, German cities like Danzig and Memel were taken away and Eastern Germany, including Konisberg (birthplace of German Philosopher Emmanuel Kant), was isolated from the rest of Germany. New countries were born out of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Czechoslovakia was one of them.

In 1938 in Munich, Germany forced the hands of all other contenders by requesting that the Sudetenland, a region of the new Czechoslovakia mainly inhabited by German peoples, had to become part of Germany. Months later, after Poland refused to allow free passage between Western Germany and Eastern Germany through territories that were very much part of Germany before World War One, Europe was faced with yet another war.

The rationality of the Metternich style of territorial distribution had come to an abrupt conclusion and territorial exchanges were no longer a way to secure peace. Moreover, while Britain, France, Italy, Russia and others were happy to give a chunk of Czechoslovakia to Germany (a piece of land that had not belonged to Germany), the same countries were ready to go to war against Germany when Germany reclaimed territories that were actually German territories. Logic or mere irrational and misguided arguments?

Sarajevo, the Serbian city, the place where the heir to the Crown of Austro-Hungary had been assassinated, event that led to World War One, is no longer in Christian Serbian hands but under Muslim control in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The rightful owners of Sarajevo were bombed and Serbia was deprived of Serbian territories. Then again, logic or mere irrational and misguided arguments?

The colonisation of Africa and of the Subcontinent followed the same rules, dividing territories without taking into account ethnic realities and many of the conflicts that followed were the direct consequence of ignoring such ethnic realities.

Flood immigration is bound to lead to conflicts and violence. By ignoring ethnic realities, simply by throwing people together, we are creating ghettos with conflicting interests and conflicting ways of living.