Arsonists. How politicians created casus belli
Plot World History with Andrey Sidorchik
On June 28, 1914, Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organization, shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Franz Ferdinandin the city of Sarajevo< /strong> and his wife, which was the reason for the beginning of the First World War, which killed more than 9 million people on the battlefield. Approximately the same number died during this period from starvation, disease, and other hardships caused by hostilities.
The principle was only the formal culprit of the terrible conflict, the scale of which in the summer of 1914 no one could imagine. The real same reason was the insurmountable contradictions of the European powers defending their interests.
Large-scale conflicts are brewing for a long time, but in order to set fire to a barrel of gunpowder, sometimes the action of just one person is enough.
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Rudeness of Governor Dahlberg
Not every history buff knows the name of Erik Dahlberg. However, the appearance of St. Petersburg, the Baltic Fleet, cutting through the “window to” Europe ” made possible by his actions in the spring of 1697 In March 1697, the Great Embassy, in which followed incognitoPeter I, stopped in Riga, which belonged to Sweden. The king was extremely dissatisfied with the reception — ambassadors were placed at a distance from the city center, while at time as representatives of other countries were offered much more comfortable conditions. The governor of Riga, Dahlberg, refused to personally receive the ambassadors, citing “absence of the tsar.” The Swede knew that the monarch was following incognito, but preferred to pretend that he was not there at all. The beginning ice drift delayed the Grand Embassy in the city, and local merchants raised food prices. When Peter I tried to inspect the local fortifications, the guards, by order of the governor, fired a warning shot over his head.
The tsar did not forget anything, and when it came to declaring war on Sweden, he presented the impudence of the governor of Riga as an indelible insult. Dahlberg did not live before the defeat in the war and still is revered in Sweden as an honored statesman.
Ems dispatch in hands of Bismarck
In 1870, the Spanish throne was vacant, and one of the main contenders it could be the German Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern. French Ambassador to Prussia Vincent Benedettidemanded King of Prussia Wilhelm I forbid the prince to claim the Spanish crown. The cautious monarch went along with French wishes, which upset many politicians in both Paris and Berlin. France and Prussia were in a state of sharp confrontation of interests, but Wilhelm I was determined to keep the situation peaceful. The king of Bad Ems sent dispatches to Chancellor Bismarck.
The “Iron Chancellor”, confident in that all problems can be solved by military means, edited the message so that it acquired an offensive tone for the French, after which he ordered it to be published in the newspapers.
The publication of the “Ems Dispatch” led the French into fury, and 6 days later Napoleon IIIdeclared war on Prussia. The conflict ended in a complete military disaster for Paris, the capture of Napoleon III, the fall of the empire in France and the formation of a new, German empire.
Sharon's campaign on Temple Mount
< p>By 2000, relations between Israel and Palestine had deteriorated again. The agreements signed in the first half of the 1990s never led to the establishment of a lasting peace and the proclamation of an independent Palestine. one of the hawks arrived Israeli politics, leader of the Likud party Ariel Sharon. It was known in advance that such a visit would inevitably provoke violence. Sharon, however, not not renounced his plans, but and declared: the Temple Mount is in our hands, and it will remain in our hands!»
Sharon's demarche led to the beginning of the Second Palestinian Intifada, or “Al-Aqsa Intifada”, which stretched out for five years and led the death of thousands of people, both Arabs and Jews.
But for Sharon himself, the trip to Temple Mount was very successful — in 2001, he became Prime Minister of Israel.
Powell Violet at UN
February 5, 2003, at UN Security Council meeting < strong>US Secretary of State Colin Powellstated: “The facts and behavior of Iraq show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are hiding the growing production of weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that Hussein has biological weapons and the ability to produce even more of them in a short time, much more. Colleagues! All the statements I made today are based on sources, serious sources. These are not assumptions, these are facts… To prove his point, Powell produced a vial of white powder that was anthrax spores.
In an NBC interview in the spring of 2004, Powell said: ;years, then relied on the best information that the CIA gave me. We research we researched data sources on mobile WMD production laboratories based on trucks and on trains. Unfortunately, over time, it turned out that the sources were inaccurate and incorrect, and in some cases deliberately misleading. I are deeply disappointed and sorry about this».
However, by then it was done — Iraq has been invaded. According to various estimates, the loss of the civilian population of Iraq ranged from a few hundred thousand to one and a half million people.
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