By By Itaita Perewari
The long road to the “relative peace” that the world has enjoyed by virtue of the end of the second World War (1939-1945) and the eventual establishment of the UN (United Nations) in 1945 has been a long tumultuous and perilous odyssey full of bloodshed and bloodletting engendered by the occasional “Hawkish” invasions by men who by nature have been described as fallen by St. Augustine of Hippo and described as wicked by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) in his book, the Leviathan (1651).
The above catch phrase “relative peace” when put into perspective is used because since the end of WW2 from 1945 till date the world has enjoyed seventy-seven years of the absence of the kinds of full-scale total wars that characterized Europe and by extension the world beginning from the Thirty Years war (1618-1648).
Though in that period, there have been series of civil wars around the world such as the Vietnam war (1955-1975) which was a war with ideological undepinnings between the Pro-West Vietnamese National Army and the Pro-East or Soviet Union Vietcong, the Korean war (1950-1953) which was a war fought between North Korea and South Korea with another coloration of cold-war politics, the Nigerian Biafran War (1967-1970) which we are very familiar with, the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) with colorations of US hegemony in the middle east to mention but a few.
But with the fall of the Berlin Wall (1991) and the final disintegration of the U.S.S.R, the focus of the world and International security has been towards the fight against “Terrorism” as a result of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
However, before the abovementioned the world dating back to the thirty-year war (1618-1648) according to western narratives was a European affair taking into consideration that I am a scholar of western persuasion from Africa.
The thirty-year war was a war between Protestantism and Catholicism which was engendered by the rise of the religious reformation spearheaded by Martin Luther the Heretic and John Calvin who challenged catholic doctrines that held the Harpsburg and Bourbon led “Holy Roman Empire” together.
So the above pitted Catholic princes against Protestant princes and kings. After this protracted conflict the Holy Roman Empire was dis-integrated leading to the creation of the European State system. States like Britain, France, Austria, Sweden, etc were created by virtue of the “Treaty of Westphalia” (1648).
The treaty of Westphalia happens to be one of the first recorded attempts towards the peaceful resolution of conflict by a committee of states and a major milestone towards the creation of international organizations in the mold of the League of Nations and later the United Nations.
Fast-forward to fifty three years later, Europe found itself entangled yet in another conflict called the WAR OF SPANISH SUCCESSION (1701-1713).
Just like the name implies, it was another bloody conflict that was fought as a result of the power vacuum created by the death of Charles II of Spain who was without a heir to his throne which among others led King Louis XIV to seek to merge spain with France.
This was met with hostility by other states in Europe as it threatened their security and the balance of power that existed.
According to scholars like Sidney. B Fay and George Schwarzenberger, “Balance of Power ” states that no state should be so powerful as to threaten the security of other states. This was the case because an eventual merging of the military strength of France and Spain would have tilted the balance of power to the favour of King Louis XIV.
It took the alliance of Britain, Austria and a host of other nations to put to a grinding halt the military machine of King Louis XIV.
The end of the war of Spanish succession was negotiated at the “Treaty of Utrecht” (1713) where France suffered great losses.
The above treaty as this write-up can confirm was another milestone and episode of the search for peace after war times in the known world.
Following the above, the period between 1713-1803 marked another Ninety years of relative peace in Europe with occasional disturbances in the war of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the French Revolution of 1789 which led to a tectonic change in the political-economy of France and later by extension the rest of Europe. The French Revolution replaced the “old regime” of monarchy with the principles of “Liberty” and “Freedom” in France and later led to the ascension Napoleon Bonaparte to power.
It is common knowledge among political scientists and historians alike that It took the joint efforts of the Duke of Wellington, Austria , Prussia, Russia and Great Britain to put an end to the Napoleonic wars of 1803-1814.
The war was settled at the “Congress of Vienna of 1814”. This was indeed another attempt by humans to bring an end to war and the eventual creation of the “Concert of Europe”. The era between 1814-1914 that followed is what we call the one hundred years of peace or the period of Pax-Britannica because it was Britain that maintained the peace.
This period however was not without its skirmishes as it still saw the Franco-Pruasian war of 1870-1871 leading to the unification of Germany by the merging together of Prussia, Bavaria and Brandenburg by the skilled war strategist, Otto Von Bismarck under the leadership of Kaiser William I.
But the peace enjoyed during this period was to be threatened by the unification of Germany in1871 which tilted the balance of power yet again in Europe. This led to the formation of alliances and counter alliances as Britain became threatened by a unified Germany and it’s incursion into the colonial market among others. Such alliances were the “Triple Alliance” of 1882 between Germany , Austria -Hungary and Italy and the “Triple Etente” of 1894 between France, Britain and Russia.
Coupled with the above tensions which the above formed alliances created, the nationalist fervours among the “Southern Slavs” (Czechs, Slovens, croats and Serbs) in the Austro-Hingarian empire which were being fuelled by support from Serbia who already gained their independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878.
So when the killing of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria and Hungary by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo (modern day Bosnia) on the 28th of January, 1914, the Austro-Hungrian Empire had no choice but to attack Serbia. This led to the begining of the First World War of 1914-1918.
The above again presented another opportunity for men to contrive in bringing about peace to a war torn world. It took the intervention of the USA under Woodrow Wilson at the “Treaty of Versailles” in 1918 and the eventual creation of the League of Nations to bring about peace.
Lurking in the background of the unfolding events was an Adolf Hitler who would later play a role of infamous prominence in world politics.
The “League of Nations” in mainstream politics and academia has been unanimously considered a failure as it couldn’t prevent the second World war (1939-1945).
Among scholars of international relations, we have highlighted the following reasons for the cause of the failure of the league;
1. The lack of interest by the major powers in keeping to the dictates of the 27 articles of the league’s convenant. Collective security which was chief of those articles was violated by the major powers.
2. Italy attacked Abyssinia in 1935 (Modern day Ethiopia) as a result of its grudge against the African nation which successfully repelled its colonial incursion during the battle of Adowa in 1896 under Emperor Menelik.
3. Japan also a powerful member of the league attacked Manchuria in China in 1931.
4. Germany under Hitler was withdrawn from the league of Nations and annexed Sundeteland from Czechoslovakia and his eventual attack on Poland in 1939.
The second World war was between the allied forces (Britain, France, USSR, and later China) on the one hand and the “axial forces” (Germany, Italy, Japan), etc on the other hand.
The end of the Second World War ushered in the creation of the United Nations which was a contrivance of war-time conferences by the allied powers starting from the “Atlantic charter” of 1941 between Winston Churchill and FDR(Franklin Delano Roosevelt).
The above stories and historical antecedents have shown how the current Liberal world order and its institutions such as the UN, WTO, ICJ etc amidst USA’s leadership have been a long journey of bloodshed and peace talks between warring parties. Indeed, the history of the known world has been a history of bloodletting and not perpetual peace.
At this juncture, the advancement of Vladimir Putin’s Russia can draw parallels with the incursions of King Louis XIV (1701), Napoleon Bonaparte (1803) and Adholf Hitler (1939). At each time these hawkish individuals rose, the known world have always formed an alliance to quell the imperialistic ambitions of these leaders seeking to tilt the “balance of power” of the known world.
However, two situations in history are not identical as history according to the foremost Claude Ake repeats itself twice — first as tragedy and secondly as farce. This statement validates the current situation of the power configuration of the world and alleged powers behind the military might of Moscow and the possibility of a WW3.
This write up has been able to convey to its audience the pints of blood that have been shed for the relative peace the world has enjoyed by virtue of the liberal world order under American leadership and the need to jealously maintain this peace as the world may not survive another war of global proportions. The reason for this can be readily presented as the sophistication of Weapons of war over the years. The world is now awash with Nuclear weapons and other WMDs (weapons of mass destructions).
However, empires and nations rise and fall. Upon this backdrop we can infer that it is now evident that the USA does not command thesame hegemonic control it had post second world war. In fact the USA had enjoyed seventy-seven years of hegemony or pax-Americana. So the waning of its power is expected as the gains of other powers relative to the USA are sure to expose the weakening of the USA’s power when it comes to relationships of conflict.
In conclusion, a Third World War (WW3) may not be avoidable with the head-on collision of strong powers of the world of eastern and western persuasion also taking into consideration the eventual alliances to be formed.
This is an appeal for peace and diplomacy to take center stage, because the price in blood that has led to the relative peace we enjoy today is incalculable. End the war in Ukraine.
Itaita Perewari is a Nigerian political and international affairs analyst. He enjoys researching and commenting on local and international politics with keen interests in international relations and international political economy.
