So, like, it’s become totally normal for me that I need to understand that things change. Although things might be good, they inevitable will change. Maybe they’ll get better, maybe they won’t. And if things are bad, sometimes they’ll get worse. But they can also get better. This might sound like, totally vague and stuff, but I swear I have a point with this. Sometimes something totally scary and big will enter your life, and it will change everything forever. And I’ve experienced that with people- some people have changed my life forever. There also have been a lot of times where I made decisions that changed everything forever. And that’s a lot like what happened in WW1.
After WW1, there were a lot of territorial changes. Firstly, four of the most important and powerful empires: Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. Many new independent states were formed: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Lithuania, and Yugoslavia. Arab states were created thanks to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the break up of all the empires led to a lot of lands being distributed to other areas. As such, the map of Europe changed drastically and then there were many territorial changes. Territorial changes are an inevitable result of wars a lot of the time, and that was no different for World War 1. You could probably make the argument, though, that these changes were bad or good. They opened the door for a lot of new issues and problems to come up, but also opened the door for a lot more happiness of people and self-fulfillment, thanks to revolutions. So, really, these important changes, it may not be easy to pinpoint whether they were good or bad, but there’s no doubt they changed everything forever, opening doors for revolutions, political, economic, social, and other changes in the world, some of which remain still today.
Territorial changes can almost always end up resulting in political changes. Once things are moved around, there is potential for everything to change. Because something has gained it’s own independence and stopped belonging to a certain empire or country, then it usually craves independence. Independence usually requires a revolt against the traditional powers, and as such, political changes are necessary. World War 1 definitely led to a lot of political changes, as a result of those territorial ones. It can be argued that WW1 led to a “collapse of imperial monarchy”. Once countries had been liberated “territorially”, they were ready to be liberated “politically”, and as such, in terms of monarchy. There was also a triumph of republicanism amongst many of the countries. There was a huge rise in the radical fascist political movements because of this, Once people were “free” in the literal sense of the word, they wanted to be totally free. For this reason, politics were able to be changed, like how Russia changed into a completely communist country rather than a Tsarist empire. For example, once France stopped having power over Lebanon and Syria way back in 1946, the countries split into those two after simply having France control both. Because of these territorial changes, changes in politics for both of the countries were inevitable, and those differences in politics still remain today.
Basically, WW1 had really significant political and territorial changes, and these came as a package deal. Once you have a political change, you have a territorial change too, and this is still a reality in wars nowadays. These changes can lead to good things and bad things: some countries achieved the independence and freedom they craved. Others territorial changes led to eventual bigger issues and problems, like the Ottoman Empire break up which you could argue led to all the Middle East problems still present today. Changes may be bad and they may be good, but they are nonetheless inevitable and this is totally true about WW1, as well as about life.
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