by
Ioannis N.
Kallianiotis, Ph.D.
Economics/Finance Department
The Arthur J. Kania
School of Management
University of
Scranton
November 2011
From
the Old “Holy Roman Empire”
to
its Anabiosis with the Treaty of Rome
ABSTRACT*
This article presents
the recent economic history of Europe and the motives for signing the Treaty of
Rome and some of the problems that the European Union created to European
citizens. The most severe ones are the uncertainty that this controlled union
has generated to Europeans; then, the social chaos, which is increasing every day,
the economic and political corruption, which is underrated by the officials,
the tremendous debt crisis of its member-nations and their citizens, and
lastly, the reduction in its growth (recession) and the enormous unemployment.
Europe has a seven thousand years old history, which comes from ancient Greek
civilization and is complemented by Christianity. It experienced many
difficulties, conflicts, and invasions by barbarians and other neighboring
countries. But, at the same time, many good periods with great contributions to
the global scene are recorded. Even though it had two world wars, its nations
and citizens enjoyed huge growth, autonomy, development, improvement, autarky, progress,
and preservation of their indigenous social values. After WWII, some people
decided to integrate the entire continent into one union, but their generative
motives are not known yet. We see lately, that this prototype of globalization,
the European Union, has destroyed the sovereign nation-states and it is ruling
undemocratically an entire continent.
I. INTRODUCTION
The intention
in this paper is to provide an outline of the history and the
socio-political-economic environment lying behind Europe in the detrimental 20th
century. “Europe” and “European Union” are nowadays very political words and we
will try to see what they have in common. The answer is that Europe has been
different things at different times, but European Union[1]
has caused similar problems all the times, which have been magnified during the
recent global financial crisis and the enormous debt crisis in some Economic
and Monetary Union (EMU) members, the PIIGS nations.[2]
Also, the goal of the study is to present the historic environment of the
European Union around its integration and to discuss the severe changes that
have taken place in the EU country-members after the 1957 Common Market and the
1992 integration. European history[3]
took its unique and unnecessary direction after 1950s because the continent
occupies an incomparable position and its people (at least some of them, who
are mentioned in its history) had a particular objective, which was to offer
some possibilities to all humans to become persons (perfect personalities); but
there are so many traps that people with good intention can fall and instead of
benefit their countries, they can cause serious problems to them, as it was
proved during the current debt crises. Of course, it is very hard to describe
truthfully, and impossible to analyze the contribution of so many other
generous humans and nations to European history.
Europe is
the smallest of the five major continents and it is expanded to the Aegean Sea,
the Black Sea, the Caucasus Mountains, and the Ural Mountains. To the east of
those borders, Asia starts and Europe ends. Thus, these nations outside of
these borders are not Europeans, so they cannot join the EU. Europe is not only
a matter of numbers and geography, but a concept of civilization, which started
in Greece, more than seven thousand years ago[4]and expended to the rest of Europe.[5]Europe’s earliest Neolithic sides have been found in Greece, Chalkidiki
(the cave of Petralona). Since 5600 B.C., skeletons were found and pottery was
made in this region of North Greece (Macedonia). The areas around the Aegean are
those, which gave the first civilization in Europe. The cattle appeared to have
been domesticated by 6000 B.C. in Crete[6]
(Knossos) and on the island of Euboea or Evia,[7] which took its name from its good cows, both
of which are in Greece. Minos was famed for his ships and Crete was the first
naval power. Later, this Minoan civilization ended and another emerged in
Mycenae, which mobilized forces from many Greek cities and islands to siege
Troy (1200 B.C.). The Hellenes came to use “Europe”[8]
as a name for their territory to the west of the Aegean as distinct from the
older lands in Asia Minor.
The ancient Greek civilization is
called the “classical” one; later the word “classical” became the source of
standards by which subsequent achievements can be measured.[9]
“There is a quality of excellence about Ancient Greece that brooks few
comparisons.”[10]These
peoples (Hellenes) shared the same language (in an oral and written literature)[11]
and they recognized a common heritage “Hellenes”, which they did not share with
other men. “On most subjects, the Greeks said it first and said it well.”[12]
They belonged, as they felt, to “Hellas”.[13]
The non-Greeks were “barbarians”. The achievement and importance of Greece
comprehended all sides of life. “The Greeks did more for future civilization than
any of their predecessors.”[14] All Europe drew interest on the “intellectual
capital” Greece laid down, and through Europe the rest of the world has
benefited from what Greeks offered to human civilization. Alexander, the son of
Philip, is one of those historical Greek figures called “Great”.[15]He was a passionate Hellene,[16]
who believed Achilles[17]
was his ancestor and carried with him on his campaigns a treasured copy of
Homer. He had been tutored by Aristotle. Alexander the Great had a staggering
record of success, even though that he died at the age of 33 years old. Thus, the
history of Europe is the history of the Western civilization (a Greek-Christian
civilization).[18] Indisputable,
Roman civilization was descended from the earliest Greek (Hellenic) civilization.[19]Today, it has changed drastically because of so many influences by
different sub-cultures.[20]
The current “European, or Western, civilization originated from the fusion of
German (barbarian) culture and Roman (Hellenic-Christian) civilization during
the Dark Ages from the 5th to the 10th century A.D.”[21]
Of course, history repeats itself. There were even monetary and economic unions
in Ancient Greece, i.e., “the Common of Euboeans”, in 2nd century
B.C.,[22]
where they issued a common currency, but they did not last for very long time
because of the oppression on their member-states from the wealthy and powerful
ones.[23]
From the
ancient times, Greeks[24]
colonized the then known world and later other Europeans were expansionists
(some aggressive), conquering, colonizing, trading, proselytizing (except the
Orthodox), and spreading their cultures. Initially this cultural expansion to the
West, with the Greek colonies, owed much to the moral and ethical ancient Greek
culture, but later, it was complemented with the Christian faith (the Revealed
Truth).[25]
St. Constantine the Great (324-340 A.D.) changed the world history more than
any other emperor. He was the founder of the Byzantine Empire (the Medieval
Greek Empire, 324 A.D.-1453 A.D.). Thus, he founded Christian Europe and he
continues to protect it… This Christianization gave to the European world a
unity and cultural cohesiveness that was the ideological foundation of its
civilization. Unfortunately, during the 9th century, barbarians from
the West (Francs) occupied Rome and imposed their own “innovations” on this
homogeneous Hellenic-Christian civilization. The schism between West and East
(Byzantium) actually started during that period[26]and Europe will never recover spiritually. The Muslim conquests (632 A.D.
-732 A.D.) caused serious problems to the Western Europe and a great
territorial loss for the Byzantine Empire.
In the 14th century,
Europe descended into an era of crisis and contraction (occupation) that lasted
more than 100 years and about 400 years for the Balkans. An increasing
materialism started and a decreasing spirituality of the Roman Catholic Church,
even the “pope himself for a time became a tool of the French king”[27] and the Great Schism between Rome and
Constantinople, which took place in 1054 A.D., contributed to the isolation of
the Latin church from its other sister churches, the Orthodox Patriarchates of
the East.[28] Then,
national monarchies started emerging and a new wave of economic expansion and
revitalization of European intellectual life began. Commerce and industry
expanded in 15th and 16th century, gold and silver poured
into Europe from the New World, prices rose, and a worldwide pattern of trade
with Europe was going on. Furthermore, in the 14th century, this
intellectual and artistic revival of the Renaissance started in Italy from the
Greeks, who survived after the fall of Constantinople and moved to the west and
spread to northern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries.
It was a revival of classical learning and an artistic flowering without
parallel in history. During that period, this confidence of the Western world
[the South-Eastern part of Europe was occupied by the Mongolians (Seljuk
Turks)][29]
found new outlets beyond the frontiers of Europe. Navigators journeyed the world.
Their discoveries, followed unfortunately, by colonization, exploitation, and
slave trade, reached the Americas, Africa, Asia and India, and Australia.
Lastly, this unified Roman Catholic
Christian faith of Western Europe was challenged by Martin Luther in 1517 A.D.
and the Protestant Reformation soon became a revolt against the papal
ecclesiastical authority, producing
theological variety and denominational atomism and ultimately, assuming the
triumph of secularism. The East part of Europe stayed firm to its Traditional
Orthodox Christian Faith[30]
and even though that the Balkans were under occupation from the barbarians of
the East, they survived, due to their strong faith.[31]
The net gain of the age of the Reformation went to the rulers of the emerging
nation-states, whether Protestant or Catholic, who were already fashioning the
absolutism that would dominate the European world from the middle of the 17th
to the end of the 18th century. A revolution in science and
economics[32] (capitalism
and socialism) started and still is going on, today; but from revolution has
unfolded to occupation. Crises, also, started from the 17th century,
like destructive wars, compounded of religious motives and dynastic ambitions,
filled most of the period and brought in civil commotions, revolutions, and two
international wars in the 20th century. In summary, according to all
historians, “The Greeks are the only people in history who have made four major
contributions to human culture and civilization (the spring of Minoan Crete,
the summer of fifth-century Athens, the golden autumn of the Alexandrian
empire, and the wintry splendour of Byzantium), have so competitive a spirit
that they cannot tolerate for long the exceptional brilliance of one man.”[33] The 20th century is also the
period of the creation of the European Union. We hope and wish that this Union
will not cause the end of the European identity and history before the end of
the 21st century. Unfortunately, “contemporary history is vulnerable
to all sorts of political pressure”,[34]
but we are responsible to write the Truth, which is the duty of men of letters.
“Europe” is a relatively modern idea of the earlier concept of “Christendom”
because the entire continent was Christian and its citizens had a common
Christian identity,[35]
but for “European Union”, no one has any idea of what it is and what its
objectives are. The only democratic solution for the European nations is the
referendum, where people can decide if they want to join the EU or the EMU.
II. BACK TO THE OLD ROME FOR SIGNING THE TREATY OF ROME
Europe became a daughter of Greece;
but, with the passing of time and the barbarian invasions, it lost its adoption
and started to follow a different (inferior) way, the road to apostasy and
today, this gap is widen. It (the European Christendom) is a divergent from
Greece (the traditional Orthodoxy),[36]
but it tries to converge all the other European and non-European nations. Of
course, “the glory that was Greece has proven to be the richest intellectual
inheritance of the European world”.[37]
France was Germans’ hereditary enemy. But, the Grand Empire had erected in
Germany and Italy. Those historically divided peoples were granted a vision of
unity that would in 1957 become a reality, but of questionable benefits to the
European citizens and without asking for their approval.
In 1815 more than ¾ of all Europeans
lived in rural villages or isolated homesteads and gained their living from the
soil, but there was no unemployment and they have no psychological problems. In
1914, the majority in Western Europe (the Eastern and Balkan Europe was still
in war to liberate its land from the barbarian Turks) lived in towns and cities
and worked in factories, shops, and offices. In 1815, the average life
expectancy at birth was no more than 25 or 30 years; in 1914, it exceeded to 50
years and was increasing rapidly.[38]
In 1815, only the children of the well-to-do obtained the privilege of a formal
education; the majority could neither read nor write. In the Eastern Europe,
even that it was under Turkish occupation and revolution, the Orthodox Church
(monks and monasteries)[39]
was offering education to
children. By 1914 almost all European children could attend publicly supported
elementary schools and acquire the elements of literacy. In 1815, most
governments of Europe were more or less absolutist and aristocratic;
participation in the process of government by means of elections was a
privilege conferred only on wealthy landowners in a few countries bordering the
western seas. By 1914, almost all European countries had some form of
representative, if not wholly democratic government, and in most countries the
suffrage extended to all adult males.[40]
There were two great revolutions
that took place at the end of the 18th century: the political
revolution in France and the revolution of agriculture and industry in Britain.
Also, a revolution started in Greece for liberating the country from the
Turkish occupation at the beginning of the 19th century. This
occupation of long duration led Greece to underdevelopment and backwardness
compared to the other newly developed European nations. In other words, Turkey
is the permanent problem of Greece and Europe since her liberation in 1821. By
the middle of the 19th century Great Britain had been converted into
the first industrial society in Europe. This was spread through the entire
continent of Europe and the United States. The 20th century has seen
extension of industrial technology, sometimes with great political and social
turmoil, to Latin America, Asia and Africa, with almost every nation in the
world attempting to acquire for itself the essentials of modern industry. The
industrial revolution is still going on today through multinationals,
internationalization, integration, and the worst of all, the destruction of the
sovereign nation and human civilization, the homicide globalization. It appears
with the mask as one of the great watersheds in the progress of civilization,
but we have already reached an extreme point, today, where the social welfare,
the individual as a person,[41]
and his nation’s sovereignty[42]
have no value any more. In our unbalanced and unfair world, only the law of the
powerful is imposed and prevailed to all nations.
An alliance system was dividing
Europe into armed camps and when a series of international crises appeared, as
it happened in the years after 1900, European powers were moving closer to war.
Something must be absolutely wrong with this European philosophy and these
European politics! Germany’s objective was to isolate France. France desired to
regain the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had lost to Germany in
1871. Great Britain was focusing its attention to imperialism. Austria was
seeking to limit the growth of Slavic nationalism within its own borders and to
the southeast in the Balkans. Russia was continuing its expansionist policies
in East Europe, in Asia, and the Balkans. Austria and Russia had a competing
interest in the Balkans. Italy sought opportunities to advance its claims to
great-power status, which led to disputes with France in North Africa.[43]
In 1872, the Three Emperors’ League took place among Germany’s Emperor William
I, Austria’s Emperor Francis Joseph, and Russia’s Tsar Alexander II, who pledged
to cooperate in efforts to maintain peace and the status quo.[44]
On June 28, 1914, the final crisis
began at Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia (at that
time). A south Slav, Gavrilo Princip (1895-1918), assassinated Archduke Francis
Ferdinand (1863-1914), the heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife.[45]Austria declared war against Serbia on July 28, 1914. Germany was
encouraging Austria to move against Serbia, independent of the risk of a
general war. Russia was determined to back Serbia. On July 30, 1914, Tsar
Nicholas II ordered a general mobilization of his armies. Germany declared war
on Russia on August 1, 1914. On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France.
German troops invaded Belgium on August 3, 1914. Great Britain responded by
declaring war on Germany on August 4, 1914. All these have led to the outbreak
of the First World War (1914-1918). As the Germans advanced in Belgium, the
British Expeditionary Force was sent to France. On September 5, 1914, the
Germans crossed the Marne River at a point about twelve miles from Paris. The
Battle of the Marne ended with the French turning back the German threat to
Paris.[46]
In mid-July 1918, the French,
British, and American armies began a counterattack that marked the beginning of
the long offensive that ended the war. The armistice with Germany was signed on
November 11, 1918. World War I resulted in the loss of 10 million military and
civilian lives.[47] Another 20
million were wounded. There is a serious social and humane problem, here, with
these blood-dripping European (especially, German) politicians! How can we
trust them now with the creation of this artificial union, which has destroyed the
domestic socio-economic structure and the sovereignty of the individual member-nations?
The new German “invasion” did its appearance lately, with the debt crises in
Euro-zone, but in another form, the economic occupation.
Following World War I, both Great
Britain and France confronted serious economic problems, which became even more
intense during the depression decade of the 1930s. But, this war had been an
exhausting experience, both physical and psychological, for Great Britain. The
war had been costly in human losses and in economic and financial terms, as
well. The national debts had increased by about 1,000%. Germany defaulted on
its payment of loan (the Dawes Plan) to the U.S.A., too.[48]Nevertheless, both the British and the French maintained their democratic
political systems. For Great Britain, the prolonged economic crisis was
particularly serious, as the British failed to regain their once dominant
position in world trade. The most significant political development in Great
Britain was the decline of the Liberal Party and the emergence of Labor as one
of the major parties in the British two-party system. This political shift
served to make the Conservatives the predominant party for most of the interwar
years. However, Great Britain failed to produce leaders of great stature. The
British also confronted imperial problems, as demands for independence mounted
in Ireland, Egypt, India, Cyprus, and other places, later, and the dominions
called for greater rights of self-government.
The great crisis of Western
civilization was a political, economic, social, spiritual, and cultural crisis,
all in one, which continuous up to now and it is becoming worse with the
passing of time. The first overt manifestation came with the breakdown in
international relations culminating in the First World War, although the
symptoms had been building for at least half a century and the aftereffects
persist to the present day. The period of actual collapse lasted less than two
decades, from 1914 to 1933. This war disrupted normal social life all over
Europe. Reconstruction proved to be no simple matter. The difficulties
experienced in all nations; as a result of this destructive war were the
currency disorders[49]
and the first postwar depression in 1920-1921, partially revealed the extent of
the damage to the economic mechanism. Also, disastrous hyperinflations were
created in Germany and in many other European nations and later the worldwide
depression from 1929 to 1933. The 20th century began in an
atmosphere of optimism, but continued with World War I (1914) and the
Bolsheviks revolution imposed in Russia (1917), which brought radical changes
in Europe. Thus, the catastrophic liberalism of the 19th century
caused all these problems in the 20th one and efforts started to
create international organizations. The creation of the League of Nations (the
predecessor of the United Nations) took place on January 10, 1920, where
independent nation-states, without surrendering their sovereignty,[50] might work in concert for the
maintenance of peace and social progress.
Unfortunately, this dreadful 20th
century continued with totalitarianism that covered all attempts at social
organization, in which all the resources of the society were devoted. Communism
in Russia constituted the most comprehensive and systematic of all the attempts
to reconstruct society in the period between the wars.[51] Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) as
Italy’s prime minister demanded and obtained from the cowed parliament a year’s
grant of dictatorial power. His philosophy was Fascism, an amorphous blend of
ideas from a variety of sources, including Hegel, Croce, Nietzsche, Sorel, Pareto,
and other “idealist” writers.[52]
“Fascism glorified the use of force, upheld war as the noblest human activity,
denounced liberalism, democracy, socialism, and individualism, treated material
well-being with disdain, and regarded human inequalities as not only inevitable
but desirable.”[53]
But, charging that the World War I
allies were not willing to treat Germany as an equal, Hitler withdrew Germany
from both the League of Nations and the Geneva Disarmament Conference in
October 1933. In July 1936, a civil war broke out in Spain, marking culmination
of several years of unrest in the country. General Francisco Franco (1892-1975)
soon emerged as the leader of the rebels, who were known as the Nationalists.
In October 1936, Germany and Italy proclaimed the formation of the Rome-Berlin
Axis. In November 1936, Germany and Japan signed an agreement known as the
Anti-Comintern Pact. Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1937,
thereby bringing the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis into being. The outbreak of war in
September 1939 marked the end of what has been called “the twenty years’
truce”. Then, World War II (1939-1945) started and continued for five years.
On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the
war and torpedoed the Greek warship “Elli” at the seaport of Tinos Island on
August 15, 1940.[54] On June 14,
the Germans took Paris. France’s new government, headed by Marshal Henri
Philippe Pevtain
(1856-1951), signed an armistice with the Germans on June 22, 1940. On the eve
of the French surrender, General Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) went to London,
where he established the Free French Movement, a government-in-exile committed
to continuing the war.[55]
Furthermore, in spite of the clear
portents in the months and years preceding, the outbreak of the war in September
1939, found the democracies tragically unprepared militarily, economically, and
psychologically. The dictatorships had for several years been engaged in a
deliberate military and economic build-up. Mussolini also invaded Greece[56]
(on October 28, 1940) from Albania[57]and the Greek army drove the invaders back, threatening to drive the
Italians into the sea.[58]
The superior Italian army was defeated by the poor militarily, but rich in
virtues heroic Greeks, the defenders of their ancestors and descendants land.
To save Mussolini, in April 1941, the Germans overran Yugoslavia and in late
April 1941, Hitler attacked Greece from the north (“Metaxa line” in Macedonia)
and the battle of the bunkers by the Greek heroes in Macedonia kept them, there,
for 40 days, a longer than expected time.[59]
After that time, Germans entered Greece. The seaport of Piraeus was severely bombed from
the German war planes (“stukas”). The German atrocities towards Greek civilians
are unique in human history [Kalavryta, Distomo, Pyrgous, Messovounon, Kommeno,
Viannos (Ierapetra Crete), Kedros, etc.].[60]
The descendants of all these victims demand indemnities from the Germans,
today. Hitler turned, the same year (June 22, 1941), against the Soviet Union,
forcing Russia into an alliance with the western powers. On December 6, 1941,
Soviet forces led by Marshal Georgi Zhukov (1896-1974) counterattacked and
drove the Germans back. In the spring of 1942, the Germans launched a new
offensive directed toward two objectives: the oil-rich Caucasus, lying between
the Black and the Caspian Seas, and the city of Stalingrad on the Volga River.
In early 1943, the remnants of the German Sixth Army surrendered in Russia.[61]
The invasion of Sicily by the Allies
in July 1943 was followed by the Italians’ overthrow of Mussolini the same
month. The new Italian government surrendered on September 3, 1943. The Allies
did not take Rome until June 4, 1944, only two days before the invasion of
Normandy. On this D day, June 6, 1944, American, British, and Canadian forces
commanded by General Eisenhower opened the Second Front in France. Operation
Overlord, the invasion of Normandy,[62]
was the largest amphibious operation in history.[63]By 1944, Allied bombing did heavy damage to Germany’s cities and economy.
On July 20, 1944, German military and civilian opponents of the Nazi tyranny
attempted to kill Hitler. The Fu>hrer survived and ordered vicious reprisals against his would-be
assassins. Following the liberation of Paris on August 25, 1944, Allied troops
pushed into the Low Countries and toward the Rhine River frontier between
Germany and France. Gradually the Allies forced the Axis Powers back into their
homelands.
In February 1945, Roosevelt,
Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in the Soviet Crimea in the most important
of the wartime conferences. During this conference, agreement was reached on
voting procedures in the Security Council of the new United Nations
organization,[64] with each of
the Security Council’s five permanent members (the United States, Great
Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China) to have a veto.[65]
At the end of April 1945, Germany’s armies in Italy surrendered. The war in
Italy lasted until the spring of 1945, ending only a few days before the final
German surrender. Italian partisans seized Mussoloni, murdering him on April
28, 1945. The Red Army entered Berlin on April 19, 1945, and Adolf Hitler
committed suicide in his bunker beneath the city on April 30, 1945. His
successor, Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz (1891-1980), surrendered to the Allies on
May 7, 1945.
The
irrational World War II ended in Europe in May 1945, with the complete and
unconditional surrender of Germany, and in the Pacific in September of 1945
with a similar surrender of Japan.[66]
The culmination of the offensive came on August 6, 1945, when an American
bomber dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima,[67]
with disastrous results. Three days later, the Americans dropped a second
atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, with similar lethal results. The following
day, Emperor Hirohito (1926-1989) decided that Japan had no choice than to
surrender. The formal surrender documents were signed on September 2, 1945, on
board the American battleship Missouri anchored
in Tokyo Bay. The Second World War had ended; but, not for Greece, which
continued to fight communists until August 29, 1949. These communists “took
over” Greece in late 1970s and early 1980s and since that time, Greece lost her
Hellenic-Orthodox paideia.
In summary, the Second World War was
truly a global conflict. During the first years, from 1939 (Germany invaded
Poland, conquered Denmark and Norway, overrun the Netherlands, Belgium, and
Luxembourg, the German Luftwaffe begins the Battle of Britain; the Italians
invaded Greece and Egypt; the Germans sent Rommel’s Afrika Korps to North
Africa and overrun Yugoslavia and Greece after 40 days of resistance by the
Greeks, Germany invaded the Soviet Union; and the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor) to 1942 (the Japanese took the Philippines and advanced into Southeast
Asia), the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) won a series of “impressive”
victories in Europe, North Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Then, the tide began
to turn as the Allies, led by the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet
Union, pushed forward to victory. In 1944, the western Allies launched the
invasion of Normandy and in 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta.
On August 6, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and on August
9, 1945, a second atomic bomb hit Nagasaki. This Second World War had
far-reaching consequences. In Europe, the defeat of Germany created a power
vacuum in Central Europe that made possible a great westward expansion of
Soviet power. The growth of Soviet power, in turn, evoked an American absurdity.
The result was the dreadful Cold War, which tortured the world for 40 years,
but the world was in a balance of power.[68]
In Asia, the defeat of Japan led to an increase of American influence, power,
and responsibility in the western Pacific and East Asia. Throughout Asia, and
in Africa, as well, the war helped intensify healthy nationalist movements of
people with the same national conscience; thereby hastening the disintegration
of Europe’s artificial empires. Also, the World War II brought many
technological developments, especially the destructive atomic bomb, which
presented future generations with the specter of mass annihilation.[69]
Further, during World War II, the
Allies held a series of conferences, where they discussed military operations
and their plans for the postwar world.[70]
But, World War II was by far the most massive and destructive of all wars in
History. It was a war on land, in the air, and at sea. New weapons, both
offensive and defensive, ranging from radar to rocket bombs, jet-propelled aircraft,
and the atomic bomb were its “scientific” instruments. At the end of the war,
Europe lay prostrate, almost paralyzed.[71]
Thus, Germany defaulted in its payments
again. All belligerent countries except Britain and the Soviet Union had
suffered military defeat and enemy occupation. Wartime casualties in Europe
have been estimated at more than 15 million deaths (over 6 million soldiers and
more than 8 million civilians). Military and civilian casualties in the Soviet
Union may have added another 10 million deaths, total casualties, then, over 25
million people.[72] The economy came to a near standstill.
Warfare destroyed or damaged railroads, highways, bridges, and port facilities,
gutted buildings and factories, collapsed and flooded mines, and leveled cities.
Also, the currencies of all countries had been greatly over issued, resulting
in rampant, but uneven price inflation and hyperinflation. Millions faced the
threat of death from starvation, diseases, and the lack of adequate clothing
and shelter immediately after the war. People lost completely their wealth
[real, financial, and monetary (cash and deposits)].
In
conclusion, unfortunately, in the 20th century, we have the change
of the European civilization, from the western to the world civilization (lost
of identity and indigenous cultures) and to today’s crisis, the extinction of
the European classical-Christian civilization. Material technology and
computers took over the power from humans.[73]
Authorities lost the control of large corporations, especially of financial
institutions and multinationals satisfy their anti-social objectives, which are
“value maximization”, tax avoidance, and labor cost minimization to please the
corrupted financial market,[74]
which led the entire world to the worst (planned) financial crisis, with their
deregulations. The previous century started with a tremendous moral collapse
and divisions within the West led to World War I, which was a civil war within
Western civilization. Later, came World War II and Europe lost its global
leadership. Before the end of August of 1914, Japan declared war on Germany and
Austria; and by the end of the year Turkey entered on the side of the latter
two nations. America entered the war in 1918, too. The war of 1914-1918 is
known to millions of Europeans who experienced it as the Great War (First World
War). For concentrated destructiveness, it surpassed anything in human history,
until the mass air raids and atomic bombings of World War II (1939-1945). Human
casualties numbered about 40 million killed and twice that many seriously
wounded.[75] The cost of
this war cannot be measured and Germany has amplified the debt towards all
Europeans. Industrial technology became increasingly scientific, so did
military technology. A number of new and destructive weapons were developed
from the “new science” and the “new industrial technology”.[76] Submarine, tank, military
aircraft, heavy artillery, the machine gun, chemistry played a spectacular part
with the development of toxic gases, the wireless radio, propaganda (convincing
its own people and the neutral nations that they were right and the opponents
were not only wrong, but committed all sorts of atrocities), spread of false
rumors about the enemies, psychological battle, etc.,[77]
were the innovations of this inhumane “science”. In 1950s, European leaders
decided to create a unified Europe and their dream became a reality with the
Treaty of Rome (March 25, 1957). However, the recent debt crisis proved that
the European Union has caused a big dilemma not only to Euroskeptics, but to
Euroadorers, too. EU and EMU have proven that they were big mistakes and their
anti-democratic impositions destroyed an entire continent, the historic
Christendom. We hope Euro-zone nations to abandon the destructive common
currency and to go back to their domestic previous currencies and to their
domestic public policies, otherwise their future will be very uncertain.
III. SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS
The unfortunate Europeans make up Europe, its long
history, its civilization, its values, its traditions, and its Christian faith,
but without their will they were trapped in European Union and some even worse
in EMU, that they do not know their motives. Today, this old Christendom does
not comprise these unique societies, nations, and indigenous cultures any more.
We may formulate and embrace as many philosophies, theories, economic systems,
and compile as many timetables or lists of significant events (mostly wars and
conflicts in Europe), as we wish to help young people understand the past, but
we must always return to the simple reality that people (individuals) are at
the foundation of every European nation and each one of these nations is
distinguishable because of the homogeneity of its people. These people in any
country have given everything they owned, many even their lives, to improve the
lives of their fellow countrymen and the lives of their descendants and we
cannot ignore them. Can we ignore Leonidases,[78]
Socrateses, Pericleses, Alexanders, Caesares, Constantines, Charleses, Louises,
Makrygiannises, and others? They are tied to the events of their times and to
the European history because of their contribution to European civilization and
to the independence of their nations. It is necessary to give the humanistic
view of European civilization by taking into consideration people, individually
and sovereign nations independently. But, it is obvious that there is a
struggle between good and evil. Of course, the results of this battle are known
to every prudent man.
In the current paper the recent history
of Europe is presented and the responsibilities of some nations that were
forced by the EU to participate in its integration are tried to decipher. The
two world wars of the twentieth century, with their accompanying horrors, did
much to undermine the faith in the True God (Christianity) and the faith in the
inevitability of human progress that was an influential legacy of the seven
thousand year old European (actually, Greek) history. Furthermore, while advances
in science and technology greatly improved the material quality of life, they
also increased borrowing and dependency, which amplify the uncertainties and
threats confronting humanity. As a consequence of these experiences of the twentieth
and worse the twenty-first century, philosophy, religion (traditional
Christianity), literature, arts, and education in general, became increasingly
more diverse in their consideration of the human experience in a troubled age
(the age of integration, globalization, debt crisis, and apostasy).[79]
Europe is a continent with many sovereign nations, which have their own
history, civilization, dogmas, freedom, language, paideia, and values, but also
something in common, their Greek-Christian foundations. For their values, democracy,
liberty, and independence, Europeans are fighting to preserve them for
thousands of years. Thus, it will be impossible for them to surrender these
values to a supranational organization (like the EU and the EMU). Each one of
these nations is unique and they should not be unified because common public
policy and uniform sub-culture cannot and should not apply to them. It would be
better, if these countries were independent and have only some interdependence
and cooperation among themselves, depending on the similarities, common
dogmatic beliefs, and the degree of homogeneity that they have. Now, any common
policy, rules, regulations, currency, or anything else does not seem to work
and the cost of all these efforts exceeds their benefits. The current debt
crisis proved that this union was a wrong, an undemocratic, and a suspicious
choice for Europeans. The worst of all is the common currency and common
Euro-Constitution, which undermine and abolish the country-states social
welfare and Constitutions. The conclusion is obvious; this union is just a
monetary and controlled by the dark powers political (without common foreign
and defense policy) union with a very uncertain future. We saw their
disagreement during the debt crises of its Euro-zone members.[80]
In today’s Europe there
is an iconoclastic, modernist,[81]
liberal, and corruptive tendency, based on lies[82]
(“politically correct”), which is a feature that the European thinkers try
unsuccessfully to unite its 27, at the moment, nations and 502 million people.[83]
This is superfluous, preposterous, and impossible. We need a return to the
fundamentals, to the fellow man, to his freedom, and to do it successfully
involves a return to the teachings of ancient Greece, to the achievements of
Byzantium, and to the revelations that have been preserved by the traditional
Orthodoxy.[84]How with only an unwanted common currency, the euro, they would unite an
ethnologically fragmented, and spiritually divided Europe, whose centers,
societies, and economies are completely different than that of the heterodox
Brussels and the authoritative Germany.[85] EU is pressing its member-nations to reduce
their budget deficit below 3% of their GDP in the middle of a severe recession,
and the poor citizens are paying very high taxes and they are facing reductions
in their salaries, in their pensions, and in other fringe benefits. Greece
imposed property taxes for the first time after the pressure from Troika. For
these reasons, even Germans, Dutch, and Italians wanted to leave the Euro-zone
and other countries decided to stay out of the EMU.[86]
Italy was planning to consider a referendum in Fall of 2005 and if people would
had voted “NO”, it would had abandoned the EMU and would had gone back to its
old liretta.[87] But, they did not have the
referendum, as it happened recently in Greece. Who knows what the pressure was?
More than 50% of Greeks were against the euro.[88]
Of course, a nation to survive must be self-sufficient in all sectors of the
economy and social life, as we were in the past, and above all independent.
Citizens must move out from big cities and go back to their small towns and
villages to avoid the current imposed austerities and the worse ones in the
future. There is no need to be unemployed workers in a big city, where they endanger
their health (from the bad imported products from under-developed countries),
their physical life (from the crime that the abolition of the borders generated),
and their spiritual one (from this current apostasy, due to the introduction of
all these heresies). Europe became the first experiment of the current inhumane
globalization. There will be no new “golden century”, “Cultural era”,
“Christian Europe”, and no “new European age”. The most of the decisions in
Europe are made today by anti-Christians and non-Europeans. A major and fatal
mistake for naive Europe! This current and worse, the future poor secular
Europe was once coterminous and synonymous with Christendom and now, it is a
post-Christian and neo-pagan (even worse) mixture of lost people. The situation
today in Europe is similar to the one that existed 2000 years ago, during the period
of the falling Roman Empire. Consequently, the objective of Europe has been
satisfied; with the Treaty of Rome, the anabiosis of the “New Roman Empire”
took place. This is a true dilemma for poor Europeans!
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* Economics/Finance Department, The
Arthur J. Kania School of Management, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA
18510, U.S.A. Presented at the 38th
Annual Conference of the Northeast Business & Economics Association (NBEA) at
Sheraton Society Hill Hotel in Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A., November 3-5, 2011. I
would like to acknowledge the assistance provided by Justin Purohit and Kevin
McLaughlin. Financial support (professional travel expenses, etc.) was provided
by FRAP funds (Provost Office) and the Henry George Funds. The usual disclaimer
applies. Then, all remaining errors are mine.
[1] Vladimir Putin
proposed indirectly, the revival of the Soviet Empire, with the creation of an
Euro-Asian Union, in which countries of the ex-Soviet Union and Russia will
participate. (dailynews24.gr, October
5, 2011).
[2] These nations are:
Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Of course, their citizens are not
piigs, they are humans, who are not responsible for the current (corrupted Wall
Street’s) financial crisis. A better nickname for them could be: GIPSI, who try
to find loans from usurers, like EU, IMF, and elsewhere. The President of
Argentina warns that “the IMF will have an ugly end for Greece”. See, “The IMF
will have Ugly end in Greece”, Christian
Vivliografia, October 10, 2011. http://christianvivliografia.wordpress.com/page/2/
http://christianvivliografia.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/%c2%ab%cf%84%e1%bd%b8-%ce%b4-%ce%bd-%cf%84-%ce%b8%e1%bd%b0-%e1%bc%94%cf%87%ce%b5%ce%b9-%e1%bc%84%cf%83%cf%87%ce%b7%ce%bc%ce%bf-%cf%84%ce%ad%ce%bb%ce%bf%cf%82-%cf%83%cf%84%e1%bd%b4%ce%bd-%e1%bc%91/ .
[3] See, Cameron (1997)
for an extensive economic history of Europe and of the entire world.
[4] Actually, the history
of Greece is much older (around 70,000 years old), as it was found in the Cave of
Petralona. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aris_Poulianos
[5] Greeks are aboriginal, descendants of
Pelasgians. See, Stephanos Mytilinaios, http://www.hellasontheweb.org/2010-04-05-22-32-27/2010-04-06-11-49-23/1610-2011-08-13-12-31-30
[6] See, Roberts (1997,
p. 12).
[7] See, Kallianiotis
(1995, p. 26).
[8] In ancient Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus
abducted after assuming the form of a dazzling white bull. He took her to the
island of Crete, where she gave birth to Minos, Rhadamanthus and Sarpedon. For Homer,
Europe (Greek: Εὐρώπη) was a mythological
queen of Crete, not a geographical designation. Later, Europa stood for central-north
Greece, and by 500 B.C. its meaning had been extended to the lands to the
north. The name of Europa is of uncertain etymology. One theory suggests
that it is derived from the Greek roots meaning broad (εὐρ(υ)- eur(u)-) and eye (ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- ōps/ōp-/op(t)-),
hence Eurṓpē, “wide-gazing”, “broad of aspect”
(compare with glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις ‘grey-eyed’) Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις
‘ox-eyed’) Hera). Broad has been an epithet of Earth itself in the
reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion. See
also, Kallianiotis (2011f).
[9] With their wisdom,
like: “Moderation in all things”, “know thyself”, and many others, they set the
foundations and advanced not only Europe, but the entire world.
[10] See, Davies (1998, p.
95).
[11] See, Kallianiotis
(2010k).
[12] See, Snodgrass
(1998).
[13] Hellenes had the same blood, the same language, and the same religion,
according to Herodotus, 5th century B.C. See, Kallianiotis (2007, p.
179).
[14] See, Roberts (1997,
p. 43). The entire world owes trillions of euros to Greece in intellectual
rights because every intellectual achievement came from Ancient and Byzantine
Hellas, as a member of the European Parliament said, recently.
[15] See, Kallianiotis
(1992, 2010a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, and i, and 2011a, b, c, i, and j).
[16] See, Roberts (1997,
p. 47).
[17] See, Homer’s Iliad.
[18] The European
civilization was a Hellenic-Orthodox civilization up to the 9th
century A.D., before its barbaric invasions from West and North. See,
Sakarellos (2005).
[19] See, Jones (1997),
Kebric (1997), Vasiliev (1984), Paparrigopoulos (2003), and Fouyas (1999). For
this reasons, Europeans are envious of Greeks. See,
“Why are they envious of Greeks?”, Christian
Vivliografia, August 31, 2011.
[20] This
multi-culturalism was imposed on Europe, lately, and will destroy the European
identity, because these stranger cultures are against the European ones and
especially, against the European religion, Christianity.
[21] See, Blum, Cameron,
and Barnes (1970, p. 4).
[22] See, Vranopoulos
(1995, p. 168).
[23] Does this remind to
us today’s behavior of the wealthy EU members on the poor ones? Yes, it is
exactly the same!
[24] Greek colonies were
spreading to all over Mediterranean Sea (Europe, Africa, and Asia) and the
Black Sea. They transferred the Hellenic civilization to the entire Europe and
for this reason, the estimate for the people, who have Greek origin must be
over 100 millions all over the world. See also, Fouyas (1999, p. 55)
[25] “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified [by Greeks].” (John 12: 23).
[26] See, Sakarellos
(2005).
[27] See, Blum, Cameron,
and Barns (1970, p. 5).
[28] An example is the
failure of the Synod in Ferrara and Florence (1438/1439). See, Stephanides
(1990, pp. 390-396). The crusades of the West against the East (Byzantium)
weakened the Empire until it fell to the Mongolian Ottomans. These western
“Christian brothers” looted all treasures of Byzantium, which “adorn” the
western museums and churches, today and the Ancient Greek manuscripts, which
contributed to the European Renaissance. Amazing justice! See, Vasiliades
(1993) and Frangopoulos (1993).
[29] Currently, there is a
movement by the Muslim Turkey to unite all the Muslim nations from Asia Minor,
Africa, and Asia up to Indonisia; the “Arabic Spring” or the “Islamic
Neo-Ottoman Storm”. See, http://www.hellasontheweb.org/2009-05-25-15-24-30/2009-07-04-17-37-26/11817-2011-11-16-16-50-24
[30] This lasted until
1920s, where some orthodox foolish pseudo-leaders abandoned their 2,000 years
old tradition and joined the pope and later the World Council of Churches,
where 349 “churches” try to find a common god. In a few years everything will
be common: “common currency”, “common god”, “common government”, “common
language”, “common culture”, and
“common submission”.
[31] A few Balkan people,
due to pressure from Turks, became Muslims and were lost for ever from Europe.
They moved to Asia Minor after the exchange of populations and now, they are
Muslim-Turks. Of course, there are over nine millions Europeans in Turkey, who
were cut in Asia Minor and are secret-Christians (crypto-Christians) today, due
to fear of persecutions.
[32] Of course, Economics
is 2500-years old; Xenophon, a disciple of Socrates,
is the “Father of Economics” (Oeconomicos) and not these Europeans in the 18th
century. The word “nomisma”, meaning coin, was used by Greeks, also
specialization, futures contracts, control of inflation, protectionism
and other trade policies, with which to increase income and employment inside
the state, and many other terms used in Economics,
today. According to Herodotus, money, in the sense of coinage (drachmas), began
to circulate in the Aegean in the early 7th century B.C. See
also, Davies (1998, p. 101).
[33] See, Bradford (1980,
p. 55).
[34] See, Davies (1998, p.
2).
[35] See, Davies (1998, p.
7).
[36] Only Russia and the
other Eastern European nations remained faithful to their Greek-Orthodox
mother. See, Fr. George Florofcky, Antibaro.
[37] See, Blum, Cameron,
and Barns (1970, p. 10).
[38] The life expectancy
in Greece was very high; many people were living close to 100 years.
[39] Through the “secret
schools”. The offering of the Orthodox Church, during the 400 years of Turkish
occupation, is immeasurable towards the rajahs. For this reason, state and
church in Greece are equivalent and inseparable. Someone, who is not Orthodox,
cannot be Greek, too.
[40] See, Kallianiotis
(2011e).
[41] A person has infinite
value, but our current sub-cultures do not respect it. A South Korean student
at Virginia Tech executed in cold blood 33 students, wounded others and
committed suicide. (The Wall Street
Journal, April 17, 2007).
[42] Sovereignty is the
exclusive right of an independent nation to have complete political
(legislative, judicial, and executive) control over the area of its governance
and its people. The EMU country-members have already lost their sovereignty.
[43] See, Viault (1990,
pp. 373-374).
[44] See, Viault (1990, p.
374).
[45] See, Viault (1990, p.
382).
[46] See, Viault (1990, p.
388).
[47] See, Davies (1998, p.
1328).
[48] The Dawes Plan (as proposed by the Dawes Committee, chaired by Charles
G. Dawes) was an attempt in 1924, following World War
I for the Triple Entente to collect war
reparations debt from Germany. When after five years the plan proved to be
unsuccessful, the Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it. At the
conclusion of World War I, the
Triple Entente included in the Treaty of Versailles a plan for reparations to be paid by Germany. The
amount of these initial payments was reduced from 269 to 226 billion German
Gold Marks in 1921 but in 1923 Germany defaulted
on its ability to deliver further amounts of coal and steel. In response to
this, French and
Belgian troops
occupied the Ruhr River valley inside the
borders of Germany. This occupation of the centre of the German coal and steel
industries outraged the German people, who, in response, passively resisted the
occupation, thus leading to a further strain on Germany’s economy,
significantly contributing to the hyperinflation
that followed. To simultaneously defuse this situation and increase the chances
of Germany resuming reparation payments, the Allied Reparations Commission asked Dawes to find
a solution fast. The Dawes committee, which was urged into action by Britain
and the United States, consisted of ten informal expert representatives, two
each from Belgium (Baron Maurice Houtart, Emile
Francqui), France (Jean Parmentier, Edgard Allix), Britain
(Sir Josiah
C. Stamp, Sir Robert M. Kindersley), Italy (Alberto
Pirelli, Frederico Flora), and the United
States (Dawes and Owen D. Young). It was entrusted with finding a solution
for the collection of the German reparations debt, which was determined to be
132 billion gold marks, as well as declaring that America would provide loans
to the Germans, in order that they could make reparations payments to Britain
and France. In an agreement of August 1924, the main points of The Dawes
Plan were:
The Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation
troops.
Reparation payments would begin at “one billion
marks the first year, increasing to two and a half billion marks annually
after five years” (Merrill 93)
The Reichsbank
would be reorganized under Allied supervision.
The sources for the reparation money would include transportation,
excise,
and custom taxes.
The Dawes Plan did rely on money given to Germany by the
US. The German economic state was one in which careful footing was required,
and the Dawes plan was of the nature that only with the unrelated help of loans
from the US could it succeed. The plan was accepted by Germany and the Triple
Entente and went into effect in September 1924. Although German business
rebounded and reparation payments were made promptly, it became obvious that
Germany could not continue those huge annual payments for long. As a result,
the Young Plan was substituted in 1929. The Dawes Plan provided short term
economic benefits to the German economy. It softened the burdens of war
reparations, stabilized the currency, and brought increased foreign investments and loans to the
German market. However, it made the German economy dependent on foreign markets
and economies, and therefore problems with the U.S. economy (e.g. the Great
Depression) would later severely hurt Germany as it did the rest of the
western world, which was subject to debt repayments for loans of American dollars. After World War I, this
cycle of money from U.S. loans to Germany, which then made reparations to other
European nations, which then used the money to pay off their debts to America,
locked the western world’s economy on that of the U.S.
[49] This currency
disorder is present many times in the previous and in the current century.
Lately, we saw an overvalued euro and its negative effects on European
economies, but authorities did not do something to alleviate these burdens from
the poor Euro-zone citizens and to affect positively their employment and
recovery from the 2008-2011 debt crises.
[50] Unfortunately, this
sovereignty was lost completely and for ever with the creation of the EU and
worst of all with the imposition of the EMU (common currency).
[51] But, it failed loudly
in 1990, as an extreme system that it is. Then, the other extreme one,
capitalism started monopolizing the global economic system until its even more
sensational end will be constructed (after its first major problems during the
global financial crisis, which created in 2007-2011), thus to leave the
environment empty and this vacancy will be seized by the future catastrophic
system of our civilization, the globalization, which is prepared since the 19th
century in Europe by Non-Europeans.
[52] The Russian author
Solzhenitsyn (Nobel 1970) has said that “where there is no God, everything is
allowed” and this was the environment in Europe at the time.
[53] See, Blum, Cameron,
and Barnes (1970, p. 934).
[54] Mussolini had grown
jealous of Hitler’s gains and wanted to share in the spoils of victory, but he
was defeated in North-West Greece, by the heroic descendants of Leonidas.
[55] See, Viault (1990, p.
483).
[56] The Greek Prime
Minister Ioannis Metaxas declared the historic “OXI” (NO) to the demands of the
Italians. Sixty-five years later, another brave Greek, Tassos Papadopoulos (the
President of Cyprus) said “NO” to the Plan of subjection of Cyprus (“Kofi Annan
Plan”) that the West wanted to impose on this island and the Greek politicians
were saying “YES” to the enslavement of this advanced fortress of Hellenism.
[57] Albanians also helped
Italians during their invasion against Greece. See, http://www.hellasontheweb.org/2010-04-05-22-32-27/2010-04-06-11-49-23/867-2010-10-27-19-41-11.
Albanians are causing serious problems to Greece, daily, but in the future the
country is in danger by these Muslims leavings in Orthodox Balkans.
[58] There are numerous
miraculous stories with the Greek soldiers during this war with the Italians.
God and Panagia were helping the just resistance of Greeks. A Greek captain of
the Army by seeing all these miracles abandoned his military career and became
an Orthodox priest, Fr. Charalabos. I had the opportunity to meet him and he
gave me first hand information about the Italian invasion in Greece and
Pangia’s help towards the just Greek resistance.
[59] In March 25, 1941,
Yugoslavia joined the Axis (receiving from them the promise that Thessalonici
will be given to it as booty). Turkey kept “neutrality” and gave every easing
to the Nazis. See, Ioannis Tsilimigras, “April 1941”, e-grammes.gr, April 6, 2007.
[60] Increasing attacks by partisans in the latter
years of the occupation resulted in a number of executions and wholesale
slaughter of civilians in reprisal. In total, the Germans executed some 21,000
Greeks, the Bulgarians 40,000, and the Italians 9,000.The most infamous
examples in the German zone are those of the village of Kommeno on 16
August 1943, where 317 inhabitants were executed by the 1. Gebirgs-Division and the
village torched, the “Holocaust of Viannos” on 14–16 September
1943, in which over 500 civilians from several villages in the region of Viannos and Ierapetra in Crete were executed
by the 22. Luftlande
Infanterie-Division, the “Massacre of Kalavryta” on 13 December
1943, in which Wehrmacht troops of the 117th Jäger Division carried out the
extermination of the entire male population and the subsequent total
destruction of the town, the “Distomo
massacre” on 10 June 1944, where an SS Police unit looted and burned the
village of Distomo
in Boeotia
resulting in the deaths of 218 civilians and the “Holocaust of Kedros” on 22 August 1944 in
Crete, where 164 civilians were executed and nine villages were dynamited after
being looted. In the villages Pyrgoi and Messovounon (Eordaias Kozanis),
Germans killed 600 men, women, and children. They raped the young girls inside
the church of Transfiguration and then, they burned them (120 people) alive
inside the barns. Also, 108 women and children were executed in the place Agioi
Anargyroi (Vermion) and 157 men in Messovounon. These atrocities took place in
April 1944. At the same time, in the
course of the concerted anti-guerrilla campaign, hundreds of villages (like,
Servia in Kozani, etc.) were systematically torched and almost 1,000,000 Greeks
left homeless. Two other notable acts of brutality were the massacres of Italian
troops at the islands of Cephallonia and Kos in September 1943, during the German takeover of the Italian
occupation areas. In Cephallonia, the 12,000-strong Italian Acqui Division was
attacked on September 13 by elements of 1.Gebirgs-Division with support from Stukas, and forced to
surrender on September 21, 1943, after suffering some 1,300 casualties. The
next day, the Germans began executing their prisoners and
did not stop until over 4,500 Italians had been shot. The 4,000 or so survivors
were put aboard ships for the mainland, but some of them sank after hitting
mines in the Ionian Sea, where another 3,000 were lost. The
Cephallonia massacre serves as the background for the novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. See
also, TV News ERT, November 14, 2011.
[61] See, Viault (1990, p.
488).
[62] See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord
[63] See, Viault (1990, p.
488).
[64] It was established on
June 26, 1945 in San Francisco, “to maintain international peace and security…”
(sic). The only things that we have seen so far are wars and insecurity.
[65] See, Viault (1990, p.
495).
[66] I had asked once a
colleague from the Philosophy Department to tell me; how was it possible Japan
to join the Axis during WWII? She told me that Japanese had adopted the philosophy
of nihilism from Germany in the 19th century. Then, what can the
world expect from these nihilists? Nothing!..
[67] The pilot of the
plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Paul Tibbets, died on November
1, 2007, at the age of 92, in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. See, The Wall Street Journal, November 2, 2007, p. A1.
[68] See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_power_in_international_relations
[69] See, Viault (1990,
pp. 479-497).
[70] See, Viault (1990,
pp. 493-497).
[71] For
Germany, in constant 2005 dollars the United States provided a total of $29.3
billion in assistance from 1946-1952 with 60% in economic grants and nearly30%
in economic loans, and the remainder in military aid. Beginning in 1949, the
Marshall
Plan provided $1.4 billion with the specific objective of promoting economic
recovery. Prior to that, U.S. aid was categorized as Government and Relief in
Occupied Areas (GARIOA). Adjusting for inflation, the constant 2005 dollar
total
for
Marshall Plan aid was $9.3 billion, of which 84% billion was grants and 16% was
loans. (West Germany eventually repaid one-third of total U.S. assistance it received.).
See, Nina Serafino, Curt Tarnoff, and Dick K. Nanto, Total U.S. assistance U.S. Occupation Assistance: Iraq, Germany and
Japan Compared, March 23, 2006, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade
Division, Order Code RL33331, CRS Report
for Congress.
[72] See, Blum, Cameron,
and Barnes (1970, p. 976). In proportion to population, Greece had the most
casualties from all the European nations, due to German atrocities towards
Greek resistant, (even women and children were executed) and because after
World War II a civil (communist) war against the country, which lasted until
August 29, 1949, where communists were defeated, caused numerous military and
civilian casualties.
[73] Today, the old and
broken computers are shipped from the West to Hong Kong and from there
illegally to China for recycling. These equipments are very dangerous waste for
the environment and very hazardous for humans. (TV News ERT, October 30, 2007). The overuse of computers will stupefy the
future generations, which will be helpful for the dark powers to control them
much easier.
[74] See, Kallianiotis
(2003 and 2010n ) and Kallianiotis and Harris (2010).
[75] Military losses
during World War II were 14,362,177 people killed in action or dead of wounds
(not including U.S.A.) and civilian killed during this war were 27,077,614
people. See, Davies (1998, p. 1328).
[76] For this reason, the
old morality and ethics are disappearing together with the faith and all the
other values of the Christian Europe.
[77] America became the
champion in these forms of war. For the Americans, it was a “war to end war”
and “to make the world safe for democracy”. See, Blum, Cameron, and Barnes
(1970, p. 858).
[78] “A little of Leonidas
lies in the fact that I can go where I like and write what I like. He
contributed to set us free.” William Golding, The Hot Gates. Also, for us, as Europeans, we must respect the
European history and tell them in Brussels: “Tell them in [Brussels],
passer-by, that here, obedient to [our country’s] laws, we lie”; but, not to
their directives, regulations or Euro-constitution.
[79] See, Viault (1990,
pp. 565-577).
[80] “Greece is in high
debt and is borrowing hundred of billions of euros from EU and IMF to cover her
expenditures and at the same time France and Germany, in August 2010, were made
negotiations to sell to Greece weapons, which cost tens of billions. Also, we (Europeans)
want to put Turkey into the EU, which will cost to Greece billions of euros.
This is our wrong European policy towards our member-states.” Said Daniel Marc
Cohn-Bendit (co-president of the group
European Greens-European Free Alliance in the European Parliament). TV News ALTER,
September 6, 2010. Ireland’s total cost of fixing its banks could be €50
billion, which will rise its budget deficit to 32% of its GDP. See, The Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2010,
pp. A1 and A14.
[81] Modernization started
with the industrial revolution and has contributed to the social welfare
through science, policies, economics, education, and others, but at the same
time has caused serious problems, like, urbanization, creation of new social
classes, migration, poverty, exploitation, organized crime, abandonment of
values and introduction of mass culture, consumerism, state bureaucracy,
imperialism, human trafficking, slavery, and total wars. See, Davies (1998, p.
1293).
[82] “Greediness brought
the lies and the truth was lost, the lie rules and on this everyone is
convinced.” (St. Neilos the Myrrh-bearing).
[83] See, Eurostat, Yearbook 2006 (where EU-15 has
385 millions, the new EU-10 has a population of 75 millions, and the last two
members 30 millions).
[84] Lately, there is a
tremendous propaganda (opened war) against the Church of Greece and the
Patriarchate of Jerusalem (the Orthodox Churches of the East) by the controlled
media and the dark powers. See, TV News, MEGA,
ERT, and ANTENNA January and February 2005. Even pope John Paul, during his visit of
Greece in 2001, asked for forgiveness because of the crimes that the Latin
church and the West have committed to Greeks, after seven crusades. TV News ERT, October 16, 2007.
[85] Of course, they have
other means in their disposition, money, propaganda, power, force and a new
European army in progress (with fire and iron). Currently we see Holland and
Finland to go close to Germany to increase their power by induction.
[86] Margaret Thatcher had
said that: “She denied surrendering her country to the EMU. For this reason the
Builderberg Club rejected her. Whoever accepts to surrender the sovereignty of
his country to the Club, he becomes one of its elite members, otherwise, he is
rejected… The position of the Club is to demote the nations and the New World
Order to take place, but they will fail. They put me aside because I refused to
surrender the sovereignty of Britain to the EU, which is a necessary step of
the Club for the creation of a Global Government. ” (The Spot Light, July 10, 1995). Unfortunately, Anna Diamadopoulou
(minister of education in Greece) is an elite member of the Builderberg Club.
Greece has serious problems because of these pseudo-socialists in power since
the beginning of 1980s.
[87] TV News MEGA, July 11, 2005.
[88] TV News MEGA, September 7, 2005. Also, 71.4% of
Greeks want to return to drachma. E-grammes.gr,
6/4/2007.