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How can history teaching contribute to a spirit of tolerance with respect to promoting different s
points of view, respect for others and developing the critical and autonomous judgement of future
active citizens within democratic societies? This was the question which the Steering Committee
for Education sought to answer when it launched the project on the “European dimension in history
teaching” in 2002.
The present publication, accompanied by a CD-Rom and a pedagogical handbook, is a
contribution to the implementation of a methodology based on “multiperspectivity”, and allows
teachers to present numerous examples of various approaches in their practical teaching as
well as different points of view or ideas on the same events in recent European history.
Five conferences have been organised since 2002, namely on “1848 in European history”;
“The Balkan wars of 1912-13”; “The search for peace in 1919”; “The end of the Second World War and
the beginning of the Cold War in 1945”; and “The events and developments of 1989-90 in central and
eastern Europe”. Thirty-fi ve of the contributions presented in the framework of these conferences by
eminent historians from different Council of Europe member states are published in this book.
As they will be complemented by additional sources provided by teachers, they obviously cannot be
exhaustive from a point of view of the states concerned or from the different perceptions of history.
This publication allows both teachers and pupils to place regional and national history in a wider
context, develop their historical knowledge, make connections across space and time, and compare
different perspectives on the same events and developments.
www.coe.int
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The Council of Europe has 46 member states, covering virtually the entire continent of Europe. u
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It seeks to develop common democratic and legal principles based on the European c
Convention on Human Rights and other reference texts on the protection of individuals. Ever il o
since it was founded in 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the Council of Europe f E
has symbolised reconciliation. ur
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ISBN: 978-92-871-6031-7 P
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http://book.coe.int
€35/US$53 Council of Europe Publishing
Crossroads of European histories
Multiple outlooks on five key moments
in the history of Europe
French version:
Carrefours d’histoires européennes − Perspectives multiples sur cinq moments de
l’histoire de l’Europe
ISBN: 978-92-871-6077-5
The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced or trans-
mitted in any form or by any means, electronic (CD-Rom, Internet, etc.) or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system,
without the prior permission in writing from the Publishing Division, Directorate of
Communication (F-67075, Strasbourg cedex or [email protected]).
Cover design: Graphic Design Worshop, Council of Europe
Layout: Desktop Publishing Unit, Council of Europe
Council of Europe Publishing
F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex
http://book.coe.int
ISBN: 978-92-871-6031-7
© Council of Europe, December 2006
Printed in Belgium
Editor’s introduction
Robert Stradling
When we began, in 2002, to plan the five conferences which led to the papers repro-
duced in this book we had two overarching objectives. First, we wanted to take as
our starting point the collapse of communism in the USSR and in central and eastern
Europe and the events which followed, not least the emergence of 15 separate coun-
tries as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union, the velvet divorce between the
Czechs and the Slovaks in 1993 and the violent conflicts that led to the fragmentation
of Yugoslavia. Whilst historians continue to debate whether or not the transition which
began in 1989 marked the end of an era, it would certainly seem to be the case that the
changes in central and eastern Europe in the 1990s did not simply arise out of the end
of the Cold War but reflected longer-term developments and aspirations, which could
be traced back over the previous two centuries.
This extended period has been characterised by repeated attempts with varying
degrees of success to convert ideas and ideologies into social and political actions and
structures. At the same time it has also been characterised by an overlapping series
of contests, often violent and bloody, between these ideas and ideologies: absolute
monarchy versus the sovereignty of the people; autocracy and dictatorship versus
constitutional government; multi-ethnic empires versus the demand for national self-
determination; balance of power versus collective security; communism versus capi-
talism; totalitarianism versus liberal democracy.
Perhaps the most obvious starting point for this enterprise was the French Revolution
but the bicentennial celebrations in 1989 had generated many publications in various
languages and, after some discussions, we decided to take the revolutions of 1848
as our starting point and 1989 as our end point. At first sight 1848 may seem a sur-
prising choice. After all, in less than two years the old orders had been restored and
the Habsburg empire, which had seemed in terminal decline in the spring of 1848,
had regained power in central Europe and northern Italy, and elsewhere the old orders
had also been restored thanks to the conservatism of the peasantry, the internal divi-
sions within the ranks of the revolutionary forces, the growing concern amongst the
middle classes about social disorder and unrest and the widespread fear of the reign
of terror that had followed the French Revolution. Nevertheless, the return of the old
orders did not mean that nothing had changed. From this point on people increasingly
formed and joined political parties and social movements, which in turn began to align
themselves with particular social classes, while more and more women of all social
classes became politicised and mass circulation newspapers emerged with their own
political agendas.
At the same time the “genie of nationalism”, set loose by the French Revolution and
then subsequently articulated by Romanticism in the early 19th century, became a
popular cause in 1848, and was never returned to the bottle but, instead, gradually
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Crossroads of European histories
evolved from the preserve of educated elites into an ideology that could mobilise the
masses.
Having established our parameters we then began to identify other key moments in
the intervening 140 years for the focus of the project and the associated conferences.
There was no shortage of possible candidates and no shortage of advocates for each
of the proposed critical moments and turning points either. In the end the planning
group selected three other events in recent European history which, we felt, helped to
explain the momentous developments which took place in the last decade and a half
of the twentieth century. These were the Balkan wars of 1912-13, the peace confer-
ences and re-structuring of Europe in 1919, and the re-structuring of Europe and the
emergence of the Cold War after 1945.
The developments at the end of the two world wars virtually selected themselves. The
‘Wilsonian’ idea of national self-determination raised expectations across central and
eastern Europe, but while new nation-states emerged other minorities remained disap-
pointed and became disillusioned. Within many of the new states there were internal
divisions which re-emerged in the 1930s and 40s and again after 1989. In others
democracy proved a fragile plant and soon succumbed to authoritarian forces. Yet, at
the same time, developments in 1919 also set the international political and national
agenda for the next seventy years: the emergence of the United States and Japan as
global powers; the growing mutual distrust between Russia and the Western powers;
the irredentist aspirations of the defeated nations; the attraction of socialism for many
in the West matched by the fear that many others had of the spread of Bolshevism;
the recurring demands for independence by national and religious minorities; the ide-
alistic desire for a means of ensuring collective security and a lasting peace clashing
with the political realities and the national interests of the more powerful nations.
Although it could be argued that the Second World War was the culmination of a
conflict between the Great Powers that had been ongoing in various forms since the
mid-19th century, and that the internal divisions that had been apparent in some states
such as Yugoslavia since their inception in 1919 deteriorated into civil wars; it could
also be argued that in spite of the tensions brought about by the division of Europe
into two camps a kind of balance of power emerged, imposed by the two superpowers,
which for the next forty years or so kept the lid on the cauldron of minority issues and
border disputes which had plagued central and eastern Europe for much of the first
half of the 20th century.
It is within this context that we decided that the fifth of our critical moments over the
last 150 years should be the Balkan wars of 1912-13. The Balkan crisis of 1908-14
had emerged largely as a result of growing nationalism in the region and the declining
power of the Ottoman Empire. The tensions re-emerged at the outbreak of the Second
World War and determined to a large extent whether national groupings supported the
Allies or the Axis Powers. Then, after a period of apparent calm and stability during
the Cold War the same national and religious issues re-surfaced within the federal
Yugoslavia and between Serbia and Albania in the 1990s.
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Editor’s introduction
At this point it should be stressed that these five key years – 1848, 1913, 1919, 1945
and 1989 – were always intended to be emblematic of wider changes that had taken
place. For example, we anticipated that historians writing about the Balkan wars
would not restrict themselves to the years 1912 and 1913 but would probably want to
trace back the origins at least to 1878 if not earlier. Similarly, we assumed that those
who were writing about the events of 1989 in central and eastern Europe would want
to go back to the Brezhnev era and the coming to power of Gorbachev and then make
observations about the developments in the initial post-communist era in the 1990s.
Our second main objective in planning the five conferences and the production of this
book was to encourage “multiperspectivity”. The Council of Europe had been using
the term in its literature on the teaching of history since around 1990. Broadly speaking
this represented a commitment to move away from a grand narrative approach to
European history towards one that focused on a multiplicity of overlapping narratives.
To encourage this we invited historians to present papers which reflected different
national perspectives on the same events and developments and to engage with each
other and with the other participants in round-table discussions about the variety of
perspectives – national and historiographical – that were presented. It has not been
possible to incorporate those discussions into this publication but they have greatly
influenced the structure and content of the CD-Rom which is the other main com-
ponent of this Council of Europe project.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the authors who have contributed
to this book not only for their texts but also for taking part so wholeheartedly in the
other proceedings at the conferences. The memory of a group of eminent historians
from all over Europe taking part in a simulation of the Bosnian crisis of 1908 will stay
with me for a very long time: illuminating, stimulating and a great deal of fun. The
background notes, role cards and rules of engagement for the simulation can be found
on the CD-Rom. I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to the ministries of
foreign affairs and education in France, Germany (and the Georg Eckert Institute in
Braunschweig), Greece, Hungary and Ukraine for helping with the organisation of
the five conferences. The opportunity to discuss the Yalta Conference in the Livadia
Palace itself or to convene in Sèvres to discuss the peace treaties of 1919-21 was a
very special experience, which all who took part greatly appreciated.
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Contents
The authors .............................................................................................................. 5
Foreword ................................................................................................................. 7
PART ONE – 1848 in European history
Introduction to 1848 ......................................................................... 11
Chapter 1 The European dimension of 1848: from democracy
to the nation-state
Dieter Langewiesche ........................................................................ 13
Chapter 2 The French view of Europe in 1848
Pierre Barral .................................................................................... 23
Chapter 3 Germany and the Habsburg monarchy, 1848-49
Wolfram Siemann ............................................................................. 33
Chapter 4 The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and its consequences
Peter Bihari ...................................................................................... 47
Chapter 5 The 1848 Revolution in the Romanian principalities: continuity
and discontinuity
Carol Capita, Alin Ciupala and Maria Ochescu.............................. 59
Chapter 6 Liberty and unity: an impossible combination –
The centenary celebrations of the 1848 Revolution in Germany
Rainer Riemenschneider .................................................................. 67
PART TWO – 1912-13 in European history
Introduction to 1912-13 .................................................................... 79
Chapter 7 The Great Powers and the Balkans, 1878-1914
Ioannis Koliopoulos ......................................................................... 81
Chapter 8 The Balkan Wars, 1912-13: their effect on the everyday life of
civilians
Helen Gardikas-Katsiadakis ............................................................ 89
Chapter 9 The Balkan wars: Russian military intelligence assessments and
forecasts – Variants of old thinking in producing a new picture
Arutyun Ulunyan .............................................................................. 101
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Chapter 10 The Balkan wars in recent Bulgarian historiography and
textbooks
Ivan Ilchev ........................................................................................111
Chapter 11 The Balkan Wars, 1912-13: a Turkish perspective
Halil Berktay .................................................................................... 119
Chapter 12 The Balkan Wars, 1912-13: an Austrian perspective
Karl Kaser ........................................................................................ 131
PART THREE – 1919 in European history
Introduction to 1919 ......................................................................... 149
Chapter 13 The morrow of the Great War: France and the French in 1919
Jean-Jacques Becker ........................................................................ 151
Chapter 14 The Weimar Republic: the burden of the Great War
Gerd Krumeich ................................................................................. 157
Chapter 15 Images of defeat: Hungary after the lost war, the revolutions and
the Peace Treaty of Trianon
Peter Bihari ...................................................................................... 165
Chapter 16 From balance of power to collective security? The League of
Nations and international diplomacy
Alan Sharp ........................................................................................ 173
Chapter 17 Yugoslavs at the Paris Peace Conference and the legacy of the First
World War
Tvrtko Jakovina ................................................................................ 187
Chapter 18 The Great War and the Treaty of Neuilly: real and imaginary
legacies in the public debate in Bulgaria
Ivan Ilchev ........................................................................................ 199
Chapter 19 Images of women, 1914-20: the ideals and the realities
Ruth Tudor ........................................................................................ 207
Chapter 20 The year 1919: its global dimension
Odd Arne Westad .............................................................................. 221
Chapter 21 The Great War as cultural watershed
Dimitri Vezyroglou ........................................................................... 229
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PART FOUR – 1945 in European history
Introduction to 1945 ......................................................................... 241
Chapter 22 The Yalta Conference and the emergence of the Cold War
Odd Arne Westad ............................................................................. 243
Chapter 23 Yalta, Potsdam and the emergence of the Cold War: an overview
from the United Kingdom in the light of the latest research
Martin McCauley ............................................................................. 251
Chapter 24 The Crimean Conference and the origins of the Cold War
Alexander Chubaryan .......................................................................261
Chapter 25 Yalta seen from the Polish perspective
W¢odzimierz Borodziej ..................................................................... 271
Chapter 26 Yalta, Potsdam and the emergence of the Cold War: an overview
from Germany in the light of the latest research
Wolfgang Benz .................................................................................. 279
Chapter 27 Note: a perspective from Ukraine
Mikhailo Kyrsenko ........................................................................... 297
PART FIVE – 1989 in European history
Introduction in 1989 ......................................................................... 297
Chapter 28 1989: The year of miracles in retrospect
Jussi Hanhimäki ............................................................................... 299
Chapter 29 1989: The end of the Cold War and the ensuing break-up of
the Soviet Union
Alexei Filitov .................................................................................... 313
Chapter 30 Heroes, “pasts”, participants, people – Hungary, 1989
Janos Rainer ..................................................................................... 325
Chapter 31 The history of the fall of Communism: an area of inquiry for
the social and human sciences
Lavinia Betea.................................................................................... 333
Chapter 32 The response of the United States to the events of 1989
Wolfgang Krieger ............................................................................. 341
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