Posted on 07/28/2014 7:58:12 PM PDT by Ravnagora
Aleksandra's Note: It was in the splendid warm days 100 years ago, in the lovely, peaceful summer of 1914, that things just got really out of hand. The more one learns of how the First World War, the war that was to "end all wars", really began, the more amazed and horrified one becomes at how a "local conflict" that was supposed to take no more than a few months to resolve and finish could manifest into an international monster that quite literally changed the world forever in just four short years.
That is precisely why everyone needs to pay attention to, and be concerned about, those "local" matters, "way over there."
Just in considering a few bits of information about the Great War, one can confidently draw a few conclusions in hindsight:
1. Never underestimate how big something can become.
2. Never become overconfident, even if you are an Empire of many millions of people, because those "little peoples in their little states" could end up victorious over your Empire, and your Empire could become "no more".
3. The manufactured scapegoat of "Greater Serbian Nationalism" was not the true cause of World War I.
4. Do not underestimate the Serbians.
Even after all these years, a full century later, there are STILL people who believe that a 19 year-old Bosnian Serb "nationalist" named Gavrilo Princip was responsible for causing World War I. That's perhaps the most amazing thing of it all. The direct cause of World War One was Austria's declaration of war against Serbia on July 28, 1914, exactly one month after the assassination in Sarajevo.
(Excerpt) Read more at heroesofserbia.com ...
Ping!
Interlocking alliances were the main problem. I don’t think most people wanted war, there was just no way to avoid it once it started.
It changed the world for all time. I doubt we will ever get over WWI.
Or Macho Grande. Those wounds run pretty deep.
I wonder if there is a single WWI veteran left alive today?
They are all gone. Last American veteran from WWI was Frank Buckles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Buckles
Just before WWI, the World was globalized, one could travel from one part of the world to another freely, send money via wire without restriction. Metropolitan cities such as London or Paris boasted products from all over the world.
The entire generations born between 1880 and 1900 were wiped out.
After Belle Epoque, we got the horrors of modernity.
You are right, we never recovered. Totalitarian regimes (Communism, Fascism, Nazism) bankrolled by the oligarchs after WWI severely damaged us.
I think the other problem was that there really hadn’t been any great continental wars involving multiple powers in Europe of any scale or duration since Napoleon. In that time technology had advanced drastically, and I don’t think anyone really understood their newly built ability to kill en masse.
What would have then taken a generation could now wipe out a generation in a few short years. By the time they figured that out it had already happened, as inflexible old school war tactics got mowed down by the new technology at places like Yrpes and the Somme.
Anyone on Twitter can follow tweets in real time simulating the War at
@RealTimeWWI...
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