Monday, July 28, 2014

HOW COUNTRIES CHANGE BORDERS: Rule of International Law

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

   Jewish soldiers at the Wall in Jerusalem end of Six Day War 1967.  Jordan took the former ancient land of Judah which was decided to be part of the Jewish National Home in 1948.  After the aggressive attack of nations against Israel in , Israel won in 1967, gaining back land stolen.

World War I. The aggressors were the Axis of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria  and the Ottoman Empire against the Allies of England, France, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, USA. The war ran from  1914 to 1917.  The Allies won this war that was started by Germany.  The Versailles Peace Treaty and others  decided on the outcome. The League of Nations helped to decide on outcomes between nations.


In Central and Eastern Europe, the consequences of the First World War were much more dramatic than they were in the West. Imperial power was swept away in Austria-Hungary, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary collapsed by 1918 and the map of Europe was re-drawn with the creation of new states from the remains of the old. The successor states were Austria, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Each national group was determined to achieve independence from imperial interference. 

  1.  
    The war began with the Austrian attack invasion of Serbia on 28 July 1914, in response to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.  The USA entered on April 6, 1917.  
  2. The only countries represented in the 1918 armistice which ended the combat were Britain, France and Germany.
By winning, the Allies were able to come into the property of the Ottoman Empire.  They divided it up between themselves and put England in charge of a mandate to decide what to do with the piece called Palestine since 70 CE by the Romans.

 It had been Israel since King David's day who lived from 1010 BCE and died in 970 BCE.  When King Solomon (961 BCE to 920 BCE) died, the southern part of Israel, where the tribe of Judah lived,  broke off from the rest and called themselves Judah, keeping Jerusalem for their capital.

France got the piece that was to become Syria and Lebanon.  The United Kingdom was given Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine- a little later to Palestine and Transjordan.

England decided to give land to the Jews who came to talk with them before the war was even over about their ancient homeland and how they needed their own land back again.  England decided to give their land back to them but would hold a mandate for 30 years on it.  This was due to 2 reasons:
   1. Guilt for the world treating Jews so badly since 70 CE when Jerusalem fell.
   2. Chaim Weizmann, English Jew,  was rewarded for his invention of improving ammunition without which they would have lost the war.

At the same time, they rewarded the same land to Arabs who helped England fight against the Ottoman Empire without which they wouldn't have won against them.  They saw they had much to gain from these Arab lands.  The most important Arab leader, Emir Feisal, was all for the Jews return to this barren land of weeds and mosquitoes and looked forward to the Bedouins there benefiting from the Jewish presence.  However, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Sherif Jerusalem, saw his little kingdom and influence shrink and fought against it by turning the Arabs in his circle to riot.   This caused a change in the English who actually helped Arabs to enter the land from beyond while they worked at keeping Jews out.  They did not want to confront the Arabs there as they had only a small force.  Also, they just happened to be quite anti-Semitic, which was the cause of the Jews to be in need of their own homeland in the first place.   Israel was announced on May 14, 1948.  They were immediately attacked by all the surrounding nations.

Other nations had their disagreements.

1. 1920:  Sweden and Finland fought over the Aland Islands (The Åland Islands formed part of the territory ceded to Russia by Sweden under the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809. As a result, along with all other parts of Finland, they became part of the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland..End of WWI, went to Finland, have autonomy.

2. 1925: Greece and Bulgaria., Greece invaded Bulgaria.  They had an incident at Petrich.  They both wanted Macedonia and later, Western Thrace. Called "War of the Stray Dog",   The story was that a Greek ran after his dog who crossed their border and was shot by the guards.  On the other hand according to some newspapers of that time, the Greco-Bulgarian frontier incident was caused when Bulgarian soldiers violated the Greek borders, attacked a Greek outpost at Belasitsa and killed a Greek captain and a sentry.  Greece had to pay Bulgaria. killed-121 of Greeks.

3. 1931 Japan and China fought over Manchuria. Japan invaded China's Manchuria.  Now called Northeast China.  Japan had:30,000 – 60,450 men, China had: 160,000 men; killed or wounded ??

4. 1935 Italy and Abyssinia fought over Abyssinia.  Took place in Ethiopia with Italy taking it.  Benito Mussolini's of Italy's attack.  italy loss: Total: ~20,000 killed and ~188,000 wounded or sick; Ethiopia loss: Total: ~775,000 killed or wounded
  1. World War II (1939–1945) Axis powers (GermanyItalyJapan, Hungary,Romania, Bulgaria) versus Allies (U.S., BritainFrance, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia).                                  
Oregon Territory of 1848 covered today's Washington, Oregon, Idaho and pieces of Montana and Wyoming. 

5. Poland:  has fought wars about every year in existence since 964 CE.  lately with Russia, British, French., In late 1800's was part of Russian Empire in area of Poland and part of Russia called Pale of Settlement. .

6. Lithuania (Poland-Lithuanian Commonwealth).History from 1009; Created Grand Duchy of Lithuania,   1880's part of Russia, part of Pale of Settlement; Russian troops left in 1993.  

7. USA, Mexico  Treaties broken, USA annexes California, New Mexico, Texas to USA from Mexico.  Austin, Texas was to be a buffer between Comanche Indians and Mexico.  Mexico wound up losing land, Battle of Alamo.

8. Oregon Territory wanted by England-through Canada, USA.  USA won.

9. Pakistan: Created 1947 out of India who was occupied by Britain from 1849 to August 14, 1947; constant attacks back and forth of Muslims and Hindus led to the state, Muslims moving from India to Pakistan.  

10. Israel: land taken from Jews in 70CE by Romans, finally held  Ottoman Empire till 1917-mandated by Britain, State May 14, 1948, attacked immediately, divided into 2 states but Arabs refused, fought instead, Arab wound up occupying Gaza and living in Judea-Samaria (ancient land of Jews). Announced a Palestine with government of Fatah-Hamas unified.  Immediate kidnapping of 3 Jewish boys-then Muslim boy, bombardment of rockets into Israel, over 60 in one day.  Arabs living Judea-Samaria left alone though this is land now in hands of Israel since 1967.  1.7 million Arabs live in Israel with 6 million Jews.

11. Gaza  Part of Jewish Homeland , under Egyptian rule during Ottoman Empire.   Gaza had been subject to military occupation, most recently by Israel (1967–94) and by Egypt (1948–67), and earlier by Great Britain (1918–48)  In 1994, Israel granted the right of self-governance to Gaza through the Palestinian Authority. Jews left it in 2005 for Arabs-no peace treaty-refusing to recognize Israel- who started attacking immediately with rockets, mortars, missiles. In 2007 Hamas terrorists kicked out Fatah terrorists and took over governing which turned out to be attacking Israel all the time.  Rockets, mortars and missiles shot into Israel.   Operation Protective Edge by Israel July 8, 2014.  3rd Intifada has turned into War.

Resource:http://www.johndclare.net/peacetowar1919-1939_redruth.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allies_of_World_War_I
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Germans_from_Czechoslovakia
http://formin.finland.fi/public/?contentid=124244&contentlan=2&culture=en-US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Petrich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Manchuria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Ethiopian_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Poland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Lithuania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lithuania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitioning_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican%E2%80%93American_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_boundary_dispute
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/250447/live-blog-day-21-operation-protective-edge-updated-1203-am-il.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip




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