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Chapter 7: One Worlds
 
 
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One Worlds 143

bwho was not a member of the family might be a guest, a wel- bcome visitor, or even a tolerated resident—but he was not a citizen: bthe land was not his.

bIt was only relatively recently that a new concept emerged, bthe nation-state of modern times. Suddenly it was not member- bship in the nation that gave a person rights and ownership, but bresidency and domicile in the land. Whereas once the one nation- bowner gave its name to the land, now the land gave its name to bthe residents thereon, regardless of their lack of common racial, breligious, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, or historical ties. And so, bthe Austro-Hungarian Empire proudly boasted of its Austro- bHungarian “citizens,” Serbs, Croats, Poles, Rumanians, Hun- bgarians, Czechs. The boasting came to a loud end with the as- bsassination of the Austrian archduke by “citizens” who pre- bferred to be independent Slavs, or Poles in a sovereign Poland, bRumanians in a Rumania, and Hungarians in a Hungary.

bWorld War I marked the beginning of the end of the belief bthat a multinational state could exist without violence, blood, band force. “Self-determination,” a modern-day attempt to re- bturn to the original nation-state, became the watchword. Wilson band the Allies carved out whole new countries from old ones, bwith the hope of having each nation live under its vineyard and bfig tree, in its own sovereign state where it could set its own bdestiny. It was an admission of the inevitable conflict between btwo peoples sharing the same land.

bSince state after state remained with sizable national mi- bnorities, it was decided to write into the peace treaties that fol- blowed the war “national minorities guarantees,” and a whole bbody of international law arose to protect those nations within blarger nations. Of course, they failed. Bloody communal conflict band constant tension were the lot of Central and Eastern Europe bbetween the two world wars. Indeed, it was the presence of siz- bable numbers of ethnic Germans in Poland and Czechoslovakia bthat afforded Hitler the opportunity to aid his “oppressed” com- bpatriots, attack those two nations, and precipitate World War II band the Holocaust.

bFollowing the war, universalists and federalists of various bkinds arose. Throughout Europe, nationalism appeared to be bunder attack and the call for a European community of nations bwas led by Jean Monnet, who, along with many others, pre- b 

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Chapter 7: One Worlds