EUROPE SINCE 1918
BOOKS BY
HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS
THE FOUNDATION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
THE NEW MAP OF EUROPE
THE NEW MAP OF AFRICA
THE NEW MAP OF ASIA
THE BLACKEST PAGE IN MODERN HISTORY
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF POLAND AND THE NEAR EAST
AN INTRODUCTION TO WORLD POLITICS
EUROPE SINCE 1918
VENIZELOS (in the Modern Statesmen Series)
A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD WAR
THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE LUXEMBOURG
SONGS FROM THE TRENCHES
PARIS REBORN
RIVIERA TOWNS
FRANCE AND OURSELVES
PORTS OF FRANCE
EUROPE SINCE 1918
BY
HERBERT ADAMS GIBBONS
Author of “The New Map of Europe,” “An Introduction to World Politics,” etc.
THE CENTURY CO.
New York and London
Copyright, 1923, by
The Century Co.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.
TO
HENRY MORGENTHAU
Who does not share my lack of faith in theVersailles Covenant and whose judgmentsof men and events are less harsh and sweepingthan mine, because he is older and wiserthan the writer and because he has notallowed the dark clouds of these days toobscure his vision of the goal.
vii
FOREWORD
The world of 1914, as we see it now, remindsus of Humpty Dumpty. Having climbed upon itswall with difficulty, to keep from being involvedin every petty quarrel between nations and coalitions,the world had somehow managed to sitthere for a hundred years. The status quo wasrevised here and there occasionally by violence.But the violence did not set back the hands of theclock, defy economic laws, or, with the exceptionof Alsace-Lorraine, make for internationalpolitical instability. The developments of thenineteenth century were a logical growth, the resultof the working out of economic laws, whichmeans that thoughtful men and strong men ledvirile national groups successfully because theyknew how to adapt their foreign policies to, andshape them by, changing political, economic, andsocial world conditions.
None was satisfied with Humpty Dumpty, but,for fear of the consequences, all bolstered himup and steadied him whenever he showed signs oftoppling. When he did fall, the first dismaygave way to rejoicing. Now was our chance tomake him over again into what we wanted himto be.
viiiWe forgot our nursery-rime. A new world orderbecame our battle-cry. The Central Empiresstood for the old order; the Entente Allies weredetermined to make a clean sweep of the internationalconditions that caused wars. Glibly repeatedfrom mouth to mouth “A war to end war”was the phrase that appealed to our imagination.How? By emancipating subject races, by resurrectingsubmerged nations, by guaranteeing collectivelythe indepen