Antony Alcock recounts four stages in the history of regional cultural minority protection: protection of religious minorities and the rise of cultural nationalism before 1914; attempts to assimilate minorities between the wars together with the League of Nations' system of protection; neglect of the complex issues in minority protection after 1945, leading in many cases to violence; and finally the renaissance of cultural minorities in the west, while in the east the new states after the fall of communism have had difficulties in coming to terms with their minorities.