(Japanese
Version)
(Arabic
Version)
(contents)
Chapter 1. Wave
of nationalism and socialism (1945-1956) (2)
018. Atlantic
Charter (2/3)
The "Atlantic Charter" declared
by the United States and the United Kingdom was made up of eight articles. In
Article 1 to Article 3, it was written as follows.
“First, their countries seek no
aggrandizement, territorial or others;
Second, they desire to see no territorial
changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples
concerned;
Third, they respect the right of all
peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they
wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have
been forcibly deprived of them;”
The eight principal points of the Charter
were:
1. No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United
Kingdom;
2. Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples
concerned;
3. All people had a right to self-determination;
4. Trade barriers were to be lowered;
5. There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social
welfare;
6. The participants would work for a world free of want and fear;
7. The participants would work for freedom of the seas;
8. There was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a common disarmament
after the war.
The Versailles regime (Paris Peace
Conference) after World War I showed traditional characters such as colonialism
and imperialism. It also showed the punishment which imposed sanctions and huge
compensation to the losers. The current Syria and Lebanon - so-called Levant
region - were colonized by France. UK colonized Jordan, Palestine and Iraq.
This was based on the Sykes- Picot Agreement signed by both countries in 1916.
Germany was also faced to severe disarmament along with the forfeit of its
territory. The fierce punishment against Germany resulted in Nazism. It caused
the World War II after two decades. The Atlantic charter was a lesson of this
failure. It was the fruits of the idealism of United States.
(To be continued ----)
Areha Kazuya
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)