The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (18)

 

(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)