Since ancient times, national unity and territorial integrity have been the sacred and inviolable rights of every country, in order to safeguard national interests, from ancient times to the present, I do not know how many good men have served the battlefield, fought for the country, and even sacrificed their lives for the country.
However, due to various historical reasons, countries are also justified in the issue of border lines.
Japan and Russia are also red-faced because of the four northern islands, India and Pakistan have Kashmir disputes, including conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, etc. By looking at the world map, we will find that there are many territorial disputes between East Asian and Central Asian countries, and there are not a few wars and conflicts caused by territorial disputes.
On the contrary, Europe, which has many small countries, can live in peace with each other and has almost no territorial disputes. Today we will unravel this mystery.
Are the European countries not red-eyed for their territories because of Europeans and good people?
At its peak, Europe had frantically colonized the whole world, slaughtered Indians like crazy, and bullied the Qing Dynasty madly, and they were not kind at all in their bones. The Europe we see is only after the establishment of the European Union to "enjoy the harmony" of Europe, in fact, before the end of the Second World War, the European countries for the territory of the real red eye, otherwise you think the First World War and the Second World War came from?
When the British in the British Isles took the lead in completing the industrial revolution, they found that their strength was unprecedentedly strong, the strength of the strength brought about the expansion of ambition, so the first idea of the British Empire was "to unify Europe, solipsism", at the same time, the Tsarist Russia in the east is not a fuel-saving lamp, its own territory is large enough, but still very greedy, in a vain attempt to level Europe from east to west, for this reason the European countries have united several times to fight with Tsarist Russia. The Crimean War of the 19th century was a typical war of the Western European union against the Russian invasion.
In addition to Britain and Tsarist Russia, Germany, a rising star of the Industrial Revolution, also had inflated ambitions and launched two world wars, the purpose of which was also to wipe out Europe and return european land to Germany. And today we can't move the "milk law today" france, once also full of martial virtue, a Napoleon turned Europe upside down, seven times united to resist Napoleon's plan to "unify Europe", which did not let the European land "French", so see here, do you still think that European countries are really kind and generous, there is no dispute about the national territory?
In fact, in order to defeat Napoleon, the seven anti-French alliances in Europe, each with more than a million casualties, a thriving Europe was reduced to ruins, and the people's lives were directly regressed for 30 years; in order to resist the Russian invasion, the Crimean War alone killed 820,000 soldiers, not to mention the attrition of other wars.
The two world wars triggered by Germany have brought heavy disasters to all mankind, there are 40 million casualties on the European battlefield alone, this is only casualties, other aspects of the loss is countless, the painful lessons let the European countries deeply realize: if Europe is still keen on territorial disputes, then in a few decades, the world will completely abandon Europe, after all, a land that has been in war for a long time has no future for development.
Napoleon, the Tsar, and Hitler all tried to unify Europe by force, but they all failed without exception, so the unification of Europe can only seek another way, that is, to establish an organization that everyone recognizes, and on the basis of full respect for the sovereignty of all countries, seek to warm up in groups, which is the common aspiration of all European countries when the "European Union" was born.
But the European Union was established, but history is not so easy to forget, after all, all countries have killed red eyes for territory, and border people have killed into feuds. At this time, a country must stand up and set an example in order to make all European countries put aside their preconceptions about territory, and this chosen country is Germany after the defeat!
Before World War I, Germany's territory reached a total area of 540,000 square kilometers, making it one of the largest european countries. At present, Germany's area is only 350,000 square kilometers, and its territory has shrunk by nearly 40%, and most of its land was voluntarily ceded after World War II.
Even the German land of Ryuxing, East Prussia, was ceded and is now Russia's European enclave, Kaliningrad Oblast. Silesia in the east was ceded to Poland, and even the "wolf's lair" that Hitler commanded is now Polish territory. Isn't it a big joke that Europeans want to know about hitler's stronghold of the Germans and actually want to visit historical sites in Poland?
In fact, this is precisely the cleverness of the German government, because after the end of World War II, Germany was divided into two regions, "East Germany" and "West Germany", which were controlled by the British, French, American, and Soviet divisions, which was obviously not the normal state of a country.
Over time, Germany will face the threat of division, and the Germans certainly do not want to see a divided Germany, so they seized the historical opportunity of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, toppling the Berlin Wall, and East Germany and West Germany became one, making a good story.
But the Soviet Union fell, and the whole world began to look at Germany with a suspicious eye, after all, this country had launched two world wars, once it was given absolute freedom, maybe there would be some moths, not to mention that Russia and Poland also occupied a lot of people's territory, they were afraid of Germany's retaliation later, so the nerves of all sides at that time were very tense, and the war was almost triggered. In order to reassure the whole world, the German government has added to the new Constitution of german reunification that "all the territories of Germany have completely returned to Germany."
As soon as this statement came out, Poland and Russia, which had gained the bargain, stopped talking and acquiesced to German reunification, and other countries, large and small, were reassured, because it meant that they and Germany would no longer have territorial disputes, so the new Germany was quickly recognized by other countries.
Germany has lost 40% of its territory in exchange for national unity, but also for Germany to gain the opportunity to rise again, and now it has become the leader of the European Union, and the former big brother Britain has long since withdrawn and lost its glory.
With Germany, the leader of the team, the attitude of other European countries to the territory has also relaxed a lot, after all, everyone has been bleeding for the territory, they have already fought enough, tired, no fun, it is better to give up a step and develop together with harmony.
There is also the fact that after the end of World War II, similar to the rapid rise of super economies such as the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, the era of small European countries colonizing the world is completely over, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, etc., casually pull out a country is far from being a rival of the super economy, they only have a tight group, there is a glimmer of hope for survival, under the huge external pressure, all countries can temporarily put aside prejudices and unanimously resist external pressure, which is a truth from the cooperation between the Country and the Communist Party.
The reason why europe rarely has territorial disputes is because they have suffered great losses in territorial disputes in history and have almost ruined Europe several times, but the overall situation now is that European countries must hold a group, and the group must put aside prejudices, and let go of prejudices to tolerate each other, so the matter of territorial disputes has been temporarily shelved.
This is a self-protection mechanism hindered by the general environment, but this protection mechanism is not long-term and unreliable, and whether it will be maintained in the future depends on how the world situation has changed.