Role of smaller states in the two world wars and Indo-Pacific lessons for China
By: Shreyas Kenganal
Tags: South China Sea, Philippines, China, Vietnam, World War II

We have known the two world wars to be between major powers of the world, the first one between the allied powers led by Britain, France, the US, Italy, Japan and Russia and central powers led by Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Germany, while the second one between allied powers led by the US, Britain, France and the USSR and the axis powers led by Germany, Italy and Japan. However, it was always the smaller nations which caused the spark that ignited the two world wars, while the complex web of alliances which took it forward to the scale as we know it.

World war I

It was fought between the allied forces and the central forces mentioned before. But, what brought these major nations into the war? The central powers did not have colonies all around the world like the allied forces did. This caused them to look for expansion within Europe. The allied powers on the other hand had alliances with smaller nations, against whom the aggression of central powers was focused. This caused them to enter the war. It began when Serbian nationalists, who were Slavs(an ethnic group), assassinated the archduke of Habsburg empire of Austria-Hungary in Bosnia, as they wanted Bosnia to be a part of a future Slav nation, Yugoslavia. Austria-Hungary then attacked Serbia. Russian Czars, who were Slavs, then entered to protect Serbia. This caused Germany to enter in defence of the Austria’s Habsburg, which was a German empire. Germany, which was aware of Franco-Russian alliance, planned to invade France. The invasion plan required them to invade Belgium first(see map). The invasion of Belgium caused Britain, which had guaranteed Belgium borders, to enter the war. Then Japan entered to defend its ally, Britain. The US entered to protect its own interests. The result was a humiliating loss to the central powers which lost most of its territories(see map below) and also a change in their regimes.

World war II

Britain and France had guaranteed the borders of minor powers like Poland and Czechoslovakia. Adolf Hitler, through negotiation in Munich conference, had secured Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, but that resulted in unrest and law and order problems in the rest of Czechoslovakia and the latter was forced by Germany to invite it to control the unrest, when the latter annexed it. The allied powers did not act blaming Czechoslovakia for inviting Germany. This emboldened Germany to invade Poland. It was at this time that the allied powers declared war on Germany. Italy under Benito Mussolini and Japan joined the axis powers. Russia which was on the axis side, shifted to the allies when Hitler invaded Russia. The US joined the allies. The result of which was a devastating loss to the axis. Germany divided between Russia, the US, Britain and France.

Indo-Pacific

Source: Forbes

China has been increasingly aggressive in the South China sea. The claims of various nations have been shown above, where China claims the entire sea through its nine-dash line. Philippines approached the UNCLOS to claim sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, where it got the ruling in its favour. The ruling is binding on the member nations. China, despite being a member nation did not accept it. It has been stopping oil drilling by Malaysia and Vietnam, preventing Philippines’ poor fishermen from fishing, building artificial islands in the sea to claim the sea.

Artificial island built by China

It has to be noted that the islands are just rocks with no economic value. Its the sea that carries value. Trade worth 5.3 trillion dollar passes through the South China sea . It has proven reserves of 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil.

China has to understand that bullying of smaller nations has not gone down well in the recent history as shown before. Germany and Austria have only lost territory in the world wars. It has to be noted that the US has pledged its support to nations neighbouring the South China sea. In its greed for more territories, China, along with disturbing the world peace, might also end up with the same fate as Germany in the two world wars.