Saturday, October 28, 2006

Crossroads and minorities - Who is a majority?

The Austrian Habsburgs ruled Trieste from 1382-1918, until the city was ceded to Italy after WWII, see www.roth37.it/COINS/Trieste/index; and Slovenia borders Austria - sharing Alps - and Trieste, both.

Slovenes are in a difficult position in Trieste, however, despite the border and their own port adjacent to it. See www.ce-review.org/01/6/pozun6. There was much brutality surrounding the World Wars, and the current resort-oriented flowery reference to the beauty of the city are misleading, if you stop with that. See www.ictp.it/pages/info/aboutts. Proponents of the territorial allocations after WWII note that Trieste was kept from both Tito and Stalin. See www.marxists.org/archive/glass/1946/10/ww2. That apparently was a main consideration, not the orientations of the people.

For the wars and psychological/economic/political damage undercurrent, see the Potsdam and treaties discussion at www.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_15. See also Germany Road Ways (Potsdam post). Scroll down this site to the section, "The Dark Side - 1945," at www.lewrockwell.com/orig/raico-churchill5.

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