Will to recapture a lost territory
Look up
revanchism
in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
In
Albert Bettannier
's
La Tache Noire
(1887) French students are taught about the provinces of
Alsace-Lorraine
, taken by Germany in 1871.
Revanchism
(
French
:
revanchisme
, from
revanche
, "
revenge
") is the political manifestation of the will to reverse the territorial losses which are incurred by a country, frequently after a
war
or after a
social movement
. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s
France
in the aftermath of the
Franco-Prussian War
among nationalists who wanted to avenge the French defeat and reclaim the lost territories of
Alsace-Lorraine
.
[1]
Revanchism draws its strength from patriotic and
retributionist
thought and is often motivated by economic or geopolitical factors. Extreme revanchist ideologues often represent a hawkish stance, suggesting that their desired objectives can be achieved through the positive outcome of another war. It is linked with
irredentism
, the conception that a part of the cultural and ethnic nation remains "unredeemed" outside the borders of its appropriate
nation-state
.
[2]
Revanchist politics often rely on the identification of a
nation
with a nation state, mobilizing sentiments of
ethnic nationalism
to claim territories outside of where members of the ethnic group currently live. Such claims are often presented as being based on ancient or even
autochthonous
occupation of a territory since "
time immemorial
".
History
[
edit
]
France
[
edit
]
A French propaganda poster from 1917 portrays Prussia as an octopus stretching out its tentacles vying for control. It is captioned with an 18th-century quote: "By 1788,
Mirabeau
was already saying that War is the National Industry of Prussia."
The instance of revanchism that gave these groundswells of opinion their modern name came in the 1870s. French revanchism was a deep sense of bitterness, hatred and demand for revenge against Germany, especially because of the loss of Alsace and Lorraine following defeat in the
Franco-Prussian War
.
[3]
[4]
Paintings that emphasized the humiliation of the defeat came in high demand, such as those by
Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville
.
[1]
Georges Clemenceau
, of the
Radical Republicans
, opposed participation in the
scramble for Africa
and other adventures that would divert the Republic from objectives related to the "blue line of the
Vosges
" in
Alsace-Lorraine
. After the governments of
Jules Ferry
had pursued a number of colonies in the early 1880s, Clemenceau lent his support to
Georges Ernest Boulanger
, a popular figure, nicknamed
General Revanche
, who it was felt might overthrow the Republic in 1889. This
ultranationalist tradition
influenced French politics up to 1921 and was one of the major reasons France went to great pains to woo the
Russian Empire
, resulting in the
Franco-Russian Alliance
of 1894 and, after more accords, the
Triple Entente
of the three great Allied powers of
World War I
: France, Great Britain, and Russia.
[5]
French revanchism influenced the
Treaty of Versailles
of 1919 following the end of World War I, which restored Alsace-Lorraine to France and extracted reparations from the defeated Germany. The conference was not only opened on the anniversary of the proclamation of the
German Empire
; the treaty also had to be signed by the new German government in the same room, the
Hall of Mirrors
.
Germany
[
edit
]
Map of territorial changes in Europe after
World War I
(as of 1923)
A German revanchist movement developed in response to the losses of World War I.
Pan-Germanists
within the
Weimar Republic
called for the reclamation of the property of a German state due to pre-war borders or because of the territory's historical relation to Germanic peoples. The movement called for the reincorporation of Alsace-Lorraine, the
Polish Corridor
and the
Sudetenland
(see
Bohemia
,
Moravia
,
Silesia
?parts of the
Austrian Empire
and
Austria-Hungary
until its dismemberment after World War I). Those claims, supported by
Adolf Hitler
, led to
World War II
, with the
invasion of Poland
. This irredentism had also been characteristic of the
Volkisch movement
in general and of the
Pan-German League
(
Alldeutscher Verband
). The
Verband
wanted to uphold German "
racial hygiene
" and were against breeding with, in their eyes, inferior races like the
Jews
and
Slavs
.
[6]
Greece
[
edit
]
Greek revanchism refers to the political sentiment or movement advocating for the restoration or reclaiming of territories historically or culturally once associated with
Greece
, but currently under the control of other states. Stemming from unresolved territorial disputes, Greek revanchism often manifests in nationalist rhetoric, diplomatic tensions, and occasional military confrontations. Historical grievances, such as the
population exchanges between Greece and Turkey
following
World War I
, also fuel revanchist sentiments.
[7]
While Greek revanchism has influenced foreign policy decisions and public discourse, it remains a contentious and complex issue in the broader context of regional geopolitics and international relations.
[8]
Poland
[
edit
]
In the 1920s and 1930s,
Poland
was trying to reclaim ethnic Polish lands that had been seized by German, Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires:
Poland counted herself among the revisionist powers, with dreams of a southward advance, even a Polish presence on the
Black Sea
. The victim of the revisionist claims of others, she did not see the Versailles frontiers as fixed either. In 1938 when the Czech state was dismembered at the
Munich conference
, Poland issued an ultimatum of her own to Prague, demanding the cession of the
Teschen region
; the Czech government was powerless to resist.
[9]
Sweden
[
edit
]
Sweden
lost
Finland
to Russia at the conclusion of the
Finnish War
(1808?09), ending nearly 600 years of Swedish rule. For most of the rest of the 1800s there was talk, but few practical plans and little political will, of reclaiming Finland from Russia. Since Sweden was never able to challenge Russia's military might on its own, no attempts were made.
During the
Crimean War
in 1853 to 1856, the Allied nations initiated talks with Sweden to allow troop and fleet movements through Swedish ports to be used against Russia. In return, the Allies would help Sweden reclaim Finland with the help of an expeditionary force. In the end, the plans fell through and Sweden never became involved in the fighting.
Hungary
[
edit
]
The
Treaty of Trianon
: Kingdom of Hungary lost 72% of its land and 3.3 million people of Hungarian ethnicity.
The idea of
Greater Hungary
is associated with Hungarian revisionist aims at least to regain control over
Hungarian
-populated areas in Hungary's neighbouring countries. The outcome of the
Treaty of Trianon
of 1920 is to this day remembered in Hungary as the Trianon trauma.
[10]
According to a study, two-thirds of Hungarians agreed in 2020 that parts of neighbouring countries should belong to them.
[11]
Mexico
[
edit
]
Some Mexican nationalists consider the
Southwestern United States
to be Mexican territory that must be returned.
[12]
[13]
The territory belonged to Mexico until 1836 when Texas established itself as its own nation. Texas citizens then voted to join the United States in the
Texas annexation
(1845) leading to the 1846-48
Mexican?American War
and, as a consequence of the war, the
Mexican Cession
of further territory that now constitutes much of the western US.
Russia
[
edit
]
Changes in national boundaries after the end of the
Cold War
The
invasion and the subsequent annexation of Crimea
by the Russian Federation in February-April 2014, together with accusations by Western and Ukrainian leaders that Russia is supporting
separatist actions
by ethnic Russians in the secessionist
Donbas
region, has been cited by a number of prominent media outlets in the West as evidence of a revanchist policy on the part of the Kremlin and Russian President
Vladimir Putin
.
[14]
[15]
The
invasion of Ukraine
and the subsequent
annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts
in 2022 has the same origins.
[16]
[17]
Some Russian nationalists consider
Alaska
to be Russian territory that must be returned.
[18]
Alaska was
legally sold
to the US by Russia in 1867.
Argentina
[
edit
]
Argentina considers the British-controlled
Falkland Islands
to be part of the
Tierra del Fuego Province
. In 1994, Argentina's claim to the territories was added to
its constitution
.
[19]
During the
interwar period
, the Argentine fascist ideology
Nacionalista
and organizations such as the
Alliance of Nationalist Youth
openly supported plans to annex
Uruguay
,
Paraguay
,
Chile
and some southern and eastern parts of
Bolivia
, which they claimed belonged to Argentina via past territories of the
Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata
.
Spain
[
edit
]
Spain ceded
Gibraltar
to Britain under the terms of the
Treaty of Utrecht
of 1713. Spain's claim to Gibraltar became government policy under the regime of the dictator
Francisco Franco
and has remained in place under successive governments following the Spanish transition to democracy.
[20]
Iraq
[
edit
]
Kuwait
was invaded and
annexed
by Iraq (under Saddam Hussein) in August 1990.
Saddam Hussein's government
sought to annex several territories. In the
Iran?Iraq War
(1980?1988), Saddam claimed that
Iraq
had the right to hold sovereignty to the east bank of the
Shatt al-Arab river
held by
Iran
.
[21]
The Iraqi government, echoing claims made by
Iraqi nationalists
for years, justified the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
in 1990 by claiming that
Kuwait
had always been an integral part of Iraq and only became an independent nation due to the interference of the British government.
[22]
It has been suspected that
Saddam Hussein
intended to invade and annex a portion of Saudi Arabia's
Eastern Province
on the justification that the Saudi region of
Al-Hasa
had been part of the
Ottoman
province of Basra
that the British had helped Saudi Arabia conquer in 1913.
[23]
Turkey
[
edit
]
The 21st century has seen a domestic trend in
Turkish politics
, where the revival of Ottoman traditions and culture has been accompanied by the rise of the
Justice and Development Party
(AKP, founded in 2001) which came to power in 2002, along with claims to territory once held by the
Ottoman Empire
. The use of the ideology by Justice and Development Party has mainly supported a greater influence of Ottoman culture in domestic social policy which has caused issues with the secular and republican credentials of modern Turkey.
[24]
[25]
The
AKP
have used slogans such as
Osmanlı torunu
("descendant of the Ottomans") to refer to their supporters and also their former leader
Recep Tayyip Erdo?an
(who was
elected President in 2014
) during their election campaigns.
[26]
These domestic ideals have also seen a revival of neo-Ottomanism in the AKP's foreign policy. Besides acting as a clear distinction between them and ardent supporters of
secularism
, the social Ottomanism advocated by the AKP has served as a basis for their efforts to transform Turkey's existing
parliamentary system
into a
presidential system
, favouring a strong centralised leadership similar to that of the Ottoman era. Critics have thus accused Erdo?an of acting like an "Ottoman
sultan
".
[27]
[28]
[29]
The rise in Ottomanism has also been accompanied by claims to territories held by
Armenia
, with prominent examples including in 2015, a crowd of Turkish youth rallying in Armenian populated districts of Istanbul chanted "We must turn these districts into Armenian and Kurdish cemeteries."
[30]
In September 2015, a 'Welcome' sign was installed in
I?dır
and written in four languages, Turkish, Kurdish, English, and Armenian. The Armenian portion of the sign was protested by the "Fight against Armenian groundless allegations” alliance (ASIMDER) who demanded its removal.
[31]
In October 2015, the Armenian writing on the 'Welcome' sign was heavily vandalized.
[32]
The Armenian portion of the sign was ultimately removed in June 2016.
[33]
The Mayor of Igdir also claimed that the existence of the Armenian state was a "historical mistake", and that Armenia is actually Turkish territory, illegally occupied by Armenians, waiting to be re-integrated into Turkey.
[33]
Ukraine
[
edit
]
Ukraine
, with
Crimea
at bottom and two self-proclaimed separatist republics in
Donbas
at right
On 24 March 2021, Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
signed the
Decree No. 117/2021
approving the "strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the
temporarily occupied territory
of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea
and the city of
Sevastopol
", complementing the activities of the
Crimean Platform
.
[34]
On 10 May 2022, Ukrainian Foreign Minister
Dmytro Kuleba
said that "In the first months" of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
"the victory for us looked like withdrawal of Russian forces to the positions they occupied before February 24 and payment for inflicted damage. Now if we are strong enough on the military front and we win the battle for Donbas, which will be crucial for the following dynamics of the war, of course the victory for us in this war will be the liberation of the rest of our territories", including
Donbas
and
Crimea
.
[35]
China
[
edit
]
The People's Republic of China (PRC) has used historical claims in the
South China Sea
(SCS) as justification for island building activities and revised territorial claims. The "
nine-dash line
" map extends the area that the PRC identifies as within its sovereign territory disregarding several international laws of the sea. In addition to civil and military confrontations in the SCS, other territorial disputes have affected Japan,
[36]
India,
[37]
and
Taiwan
. See also
Chinese irredentism
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
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JSTOR
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- ^
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- ^
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Defeat and Memory: Cultural Histories of Military Defeat in the Modern Era
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- ^
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Under the Shadow of Defeat: The War of 1870?71 in French Memory
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- ^
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- ^
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- ^
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.
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- ^
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.
The Strategist
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- ^
"Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to 'return' Russian lands"
.
Reuters
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- ^
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La Nacion Argentina ratifica su legitima e imprescriptible soberania sobre las Islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur y los espacios maritimos e insulares correspondientes, por ser parte integrante del territorio nacional.
- ^
"Spain won't dare invade Gibraltar ? They'd lose more than a war"
.
The Jerusalem Post
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- ^
Goldstein, Erik (2005).
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Between Memory and Desire: The Middle East in a Troubled Age
, University of California Press, 1999, p. 105.
- ^
Amatzia Baram, Barry Rubin. Iraq's Road To War. New York, New York, USA: St. Martin's Press, 1993. Pp. 127.
- ^
"?stanbul Barosu'ndan AKP'li vekile cok sert tepki"
.
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.
- ^
"AKP'li vekil: Osmanlı'nın 90 yıllık reklam arası sona erdi"
.
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(in Turkish)
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
"?slami Analiz"
.
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. Retrieved
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.
- ^
"AKP'nin Osmanlı sevdası ve... - Barı? Yarkada?"
. Archived from
the original
on 8 February 2015
. Retrieved
8 February
2015
.
- ^
"Yeniden Osmanlı hayalinin pe?inden ko?an AKP, felaketi yakaladı!."
www.sozcu.com.tr
(in Turkish)
. Retrieved
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.
- ^
"Kılıcdaro?lu: AKP cokmu? Osmanlıcılı?ı ambalajlıyor"
.
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.
- ^
"Armenian-Populated Districts of Istanbul Attacked"
. Asbarez. 9 September 2015.
- ^
"Kurdish Mayor of Igdir Installs 'Welcome' Sign in Armenian"
. Asbarez. 22 September 2015.
- ^
"?lce giri?indeki Ermenice yazıyı tahrip ettiler"
(in Turkish). CNN Turk. 12 October 2015.
- ^
a
b
"Armenian Signboards Removed in Igdir"
. Asbarez. 21 June 2016.
- ^
"Zelensky enacts strategy for de-occupation and reintegration of Crimea"
.
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.
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- ^
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.
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Archived
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- ^
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- ^
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.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Akcam, Taner (2007),
A Shameful Act
, London: Macmillan
- Akme?e, Handan Nezir (2005),
The Birth of Modern Turkey: The Ottoman Military and the March to World War I
, London: IB Tauris
- Kieser, Hans-Lukas (26 June 2018),
Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide
, Princeton University Press (published 2018),
ISBN
978-0-691-15762-7