Debellatio: Victory's Strategy, Unveiling the Art of Conquest in Modern Warfare

By Fouad Sabry

What is Debellatio

The term debellatio or "debellation" designates the end of war caused by complete destruction of a hostile state. Israeli law-school professor Eyal Benvenisti defines it as "a situation in which a party to a conflict has been totally defeated in war, its national institutions have disintegrated, and none of its allies continue to challenge the enemy militarily on its behalf".

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: Debellatio

Chapter 2: Axis powers

Chapter 3: Denazification

Chapter 4: Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

Chapter 5: Puppet state

Chapter 6: Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany

Chapter 7: End of World War II in Europe

Chapter 8: Unconditional surrender

Chapter 9: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

Chapter 10: Occupation of the Baltic states

(II) Answering the public top questions about debellatio.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of Debellatio.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 3, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: Debellatio

The phrase debellatio or debellation (Latin: defeat, or the act of conquering or subduing, literally warring (the enemy) down, from Latin bellum war) refers to the conclusion of a war brought about by the total destruction of an enemy state. Professor of Israeli law Eyal Benvenisti defines it as a circumstance in which a party to a conflict has been completely vanquished in combat, its national institutions have crumbled, and none of its friends continue to militarily oppose the enemy on its behalf..

In certain situations, debellation results in the entire disintegration and annexation of the vanquished state into the territory of the winner, as occurred at the conclusion of the Third Punic War in the second century BC, when Rome defeated Carthage.

The unconditional surrender of the Third Reich, in the strictest sense merely the German Armed Forces, at the conclusion of World War II was seen by the majority of authorities at the time as a case of debellatio assentio:

The German Reich was completely dissolved, including all offices.

The Allied Control Council exercised authority over Germany's territory.

A significant portion of the German Reich's land was annexed (see former eastern territories of Germany)

The German Reich was replaced by the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, leaving no unified German state.

Other sources, supported by the decisions of the German Federal Constitutional Court, have maintained that a German state existed from 1945 to 1949, albeit dormant and devoid of any institutional or organizational component, based on the fact that the German Reich did not dissolve until 1949:

The majority of the region that comprised Germany before to the Anschluss was not absorbed.

A German populace continued to exist and was acknowledged to have German nationality.

German institutions such as courts continued to exist even after the Allied Control Council assumed control of the territory.

Eventually, a German government restored complete sovereignty over all unannexed German territory (see German reunification).

The German Federal Republic saw itself as the formal successor of the German Reich.

The Venetian Republic. See Fall of the Venetian Republic.

United States of the Confederacy. Observe End of the American Civil War.

Austria-Hungary. Refer to the Treaties of Trianon and Saint Germain.

The southern region of Vietnam. Refer to Fall of Saigon

{End Chapter 1}

Chapter 2: Axis powers

Ch.

In the middle of the 1930s, consecutive diplomatic efforts by Germany, Italy, and Japan to achieve their respective expansionist goals gave rise to the Axis. The first step was the October 1936 signing of a pact between Germany and Italy, following which Italian leader Benito Mussolini proclaimed that all other European countries would thereafter spin on the Rome–Berlin axis, therefore coining the word axis. The conflict concluded in 1945 when the Axis countries were defeated and their alliance was dissolved.

As with the Allies, Axis membership was variable, with some states switching sides or altering their level of military commitment throughout the conflict. Romania is an example of both: after the Allied ceasefire with Italy in September 1943, the country became the second Axis power in Europe in 1943-1944, and then switched sides in August 1944.

Particularly within Europe, the term the Axis is occasionally used to refer to only the alliance between Italy and Germany, although outside Europe it is typically believed to also include Japan.

The term axis was originally introduced to the Italo-German connection by Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini in September 1923, when he wrote in the preface to Roberto Suster's La Germania Repubblicana that there is no doubt that at this moment the axis of European history passes through Berlin..

Since the early 1920s, Italy under Duce Benito Mussolini pursued a strategic alliance with Germany against France.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized power in Germany in 1933. Since the 1920s, Hitler sought for an alliance between Germany and Italy.

Several weeks after the conference in Venice, on July 25, 1934, Austrian Nazis murdered Dollfuss. French and Italian military personnel pondered the possibility of a war with Germany if Hitler were to strike Austria.

Hitler's support of Italy's invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 improved relations between Germany and Italy, while other nations criticized the invasion and sought sanctions against Italy.

In 1935, German and Japanese interest in creating an alliance was sparked by the visit of Japanese diplomat Oshima Hiroshi to Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin. While the planned partnership was favored by the higher echelons of the Nazi Party, it was opposed by many in the Foreign Ministry, the Army, and the business sector who had financial interests in the Republic of China, which Japan was hostile towards.

Italy became interested in creating an alliance with Japan after learning about the German–Japanese negotiations.

On September 27, 1940 in Berlin, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. Subsequently, Hungary (20 November 1940), Romania (23 November 1940), Slovakia (24 November 1940), and Bulgaria joined the alliance (1 March 1941).

The fundamental objective of the Axis countries was territorial expansion at the expense of their allies.

In 1938, the Axis had a population of 258.9 million, whereas the Allies had a population of 697.7 million (excluding the Soviet Union and the United States, which eventually joined the Allies).

Hitler blamed the intervention of Western powers against Germany during its war with Poland for the outbreak of World War II in 1941, attributing it to the European and American warmongers..

At the conclusion of World War I, German citizens thought their country had been humiliated as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, which included a war guilt clause and compelled Germany to pay large reparations payments and cede former German Empire territory and colonies. In the early 1920s, the pressure of reparations on the German economy caused hyperinflation. When Germany defaulted on its reparations payments in 1923, the French invaded the Ruhr region. Despite the fact that Germany's economy began to revive in the middle of the 1920s, the Great Depression caused further economic misery and a surge in political forces advocating extreme solutions to Germany's problems. Under Hitler, the Nazis propagated the nationalist stab-in-the-back myth that Jews and Communists had betrayed Germany. The party pledged to rebuild Germany as a major power and to establish a Greater Germany comprising Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, Sudetenland, and other German-populated areas in Europe. As part of the Nazi strategy of pursuing Lebensraum (living space) in Central and Eastern Europe, the Nazis sought to capture and colonize non-German regions in Poland, the Baltic republics, and the Soviet Union.

In March 1936, Germany rejected the Treaty of Versailles and remilitarized the Rhineland. In 1935, Germany reintroduced conscription and declared the establishment of an air force, the Luftwaffe, and a navy, the Kriegsmarine. In 1939, Germany absorbed the Memel region from Lithuania and the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. In 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia, establishing the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the nation of Slovakia.

Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August 1939, which included a secret agreement dividing eastern Europe into areas of influence. sparked the outbreak of World War II. By the end of 1941, Germany seized a substantial portion of Europe, and its armed forces were fighting the Soviet Union and were close to taking Moscow. However, devastating losses at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk decimated the German military. This, along with Western Allied incursions in France and Italy, culminated in a three-front conflict that reduced Germany's armed capabilities and led to its surrender in 1945.

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established after the breakup of Czechoslovakia. Shortly after Germany's annexation of the Czechoslovak province of Sudetenland, the Slovak Republic declared its independence from the remnants of the Second Czechoslovak Republic. The newly formed Slovak state allied with Germany. German military forces captured the remainder of the country and established the Protectorate. Czech civil institutions were intact, but the Protectorate was regarded as part of Germany's sovereign territory.

The General Government was the name given to the territories of occupied Poland that were not immediately absorbed into German provinces but, like Bohemia and Moravia, were regarded to be part of the sovereign territory of Germany by Nazi authorities.

Reichskommissariats were established in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway, whose Germanic people were to be absorbed into the projected Greater Germanic Reich. In contrast, the eastern Reichskommissariats (Reichskommissariat Ostland in the Baltics and Reichskommissariat Ukraine in the Ukraine) were founded as colonies for German settlement.

In Norway, under Reichskommissariat Norwegen, the Germans installed the client regime of Vidkun Quisling during the occupation, while King Haakon VII and the legitimate government were in exile. Quisling incited Norwegians to join the Waffen-SS as volunteers, assisted in the deportation of Jews, and was responsible for the death of members of the Norwegian resistance organization. Approximately 45,000 Norwegian collaborators joined the pro-Nazi Nasjonal Samling (National Union) party, while some police units assisted in the arrest of several Jews. However, Norway was one of the first countries where resistance was widespread during World War II before to the 1943 turning point. Quisling and other collaborators were executed after the war. The name Quisling has become internationally synonymous with traitor.

Duce Benito Mussolini described Italy's declaration of war against the Western Allies of Britain and France in June 1940 as follows: We are going to war against the plutocratic and reactionary democracies of the West, which have always impeded the progress of the Italian people and frequently threatened its very existence..

In April 1941, Italy justified its action against Yugoslavia by citing both Italian irredentist rights and the fact that Albanian, Croatian, and Macedonian rebels did not want to be a part of Yugoslavia.

The Fascist regime intended to establish a New Roman Empire in which Italy dominated the Mediterranean. In 1935 and 1936, Italy attacked and occupied Ethiopia, and the Fascist government announced the establishment of the Italian Empire. Protests by the League of Nations, particularly by the British, who had vested interests in the region, resulted in no significant action, although the League did attempt to impose economic sanctions on Italy without success. The French and British unwillingness to offend Italy and lose her as an ally reflected their weakness, as evidenced by the event. Despite the modest efforts made by the Western nations, Mussolini's Italy allied with Hitler's Germany. Italy abandoned the League of Nations in 1937 and joined the Anti-Communist Pact, which Germany and Japan had signed the previous year.