The Dark Side of Nation-States: Ethnic Cleansing in Modern Europe (War and Genocide Book 19)

Part I. Setting the ground -- 1. Preconditions of ethnic cleansing -- The ideology of modern nationalism -- The nation-state in theory and practice -- "Minority problems" -- European modernity -- Christian intolerance -- Part II. Phases and agents of ethnic cleansing -- 2. Ethnic cleansing as an instrument of international politics (1912-25) -- The Balkan Wars and their consequences -- Deportations in World War I -- Postwar migrations -- Triage in Alsace -- The protection and reduction of minorities in the Paris Peace Treaties -- The Treaty of Lausanne -- 3. Total war and total cleansings (1938-44) -- From the Munich Agreement to World War I -- Heim ins Reich -- Under Nazi occupation -- Soviet ethnic cleansing -- Wars within the war : the Ukrainian-Polish and the Serbo-Croatian Conflict -- More cases in Germany's sphere of influence -- Ethnic cleansing of Jews -- 4. A clean new order in Europe (1944-50) -- Allies plans -- Poland and Czechoslovakia -- More cases in the Soviet sphere of influence -- At the former lines of the Cold War -- On the British track : India and Palestine -- Part III. Ghosts of the past -- 5. The former Yugoslavia and the Caucasus (1991-99) -- The breakup of Yugoslavia -- Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina -- Kosovo -- Conflicts in the Caucasus compared -- Conclusion and historical typology -- Annotated bibliography -- Comprehensive histories of ethnic cleansing -- Literature on the resettlement of ethnically cleansed regions -- Literature on remembrance and collective memory -- Literature on individual countries. Ethnische Sauberungen wurden nicht nur von Diktatoren, sondern auch von demokratisch gewahlten Politikern veranlasst. Sie sind vor allem eine Folge des modernen Nationalismus und der Nationalstaatsbildung im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Dieses Buch bietet grundlegende Einsichten in eines der dunkelsten Kapitel des modernen Europa. Es befasst sich mit den Voraussetzungen ethnischer Sauberungen ebenso wie mit den Perioden und den verantwortlichen Akteuren von Flucht, Vertreibung, Zwangsaussiedlung und Deportation. Dabei beschrankt es sich nicht auf Osteuropa, sondern beleuchtet auch die Rolle der westlichen Grossmachte. Der Autor spannt einen weiten thematischen Bogen von den Balkankriegen am Vorabend des Ersten Weltkriegs uber die ethnischen Sauberungen wahrend und infolge des Zweiten Weltkrieges bis zu den Burgerkriegen im ehemaligen Jugoslawien und im Kaukasus der 1990er Jahre. English summary: Why was there such a far-reaching consensus concerning the utopian goal of national homogeneity in the first half of the twentieth century? Ethnic cleansing is analyzed here as a result of the formation of democratic nation-states, the international order based on them, and European modernity in general. Almost all mass-scale population removals were rationally and precisely organized and carried out in cold blood, with revenge, hatred and other strong emotions playing only a minor role. This book not only considers the majority of population removals which occurred in Eastern Europe, but is also an encompassing, comparative study including Western Europe, interrogating the motivations of Western statesmen and their involvement in large-scale population removals. It also reaches beyond the European continent and considers the reverberations of colonial rule and ethnic cleansing in the former British colonies. Why was there such a far-reaching consensus concerning the utopian goal of national homogeneity in the first half of the twentieth century? Ethnic cleansing is analyzed here as a result of the formation of democratic nation-states, the international order based on them, and European modernity in general. Almost all mass-scale population removals were rationally and precisely organized and carried out in cold blood, with revenge, hatred and other strong emotions playing only a minor role. This book not only considers the majority of population removals which occurred in Eastern Europe, but is also an encompassing, comparative study including Western Europe, interrogating the motivations of Western statesmen and their involvement in large-scale population removals. It also reaches beyond the European continent and considers the reverberations of colonial rule and ethnic cleansing in the former British colonies. Philipp Ther holds a Chair of Central European History at the University of Vienna and was previously Professor of European History at the EUI in Florence. He has published and edited several books on ethnic cleansing, including Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe 1944-1948 (co-edited with A. Siljak; Rowman and Littlefield 2001) and Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict Over Jewish Property in Europe (co-edited with M. Dean and C. Goschler, Berghahn 2007). The German version of The Dark Side of Nation States has won several awards in Poland and Germany. --Provided by publisher An encompassing, comparative study of all major cases of ethnic cleansing in modern Europe and contains case studies from global history. Based on literature and sources collected from all the countries that were affected by ethnic cleansing.