The 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of 1918, World War I ended. The long era of European “peace” and the European world order was shattered. The seeds were sewn for the rematch some 20 years later.
I agree with those who view World War I and World War II as simply chapters in the same war-with a 20 year intermission. A good over view f round 1 is presented below. Click on the image to see it better:
The end of the World War laid the seeds for many of the problems we live through today. Take the Middle East for example-Ottoman domination was replaced for a while by European colonial domination-but round two undermined the linchpins of that. As a result the Arabs were eventually left unto themselves to to try to make a governance. We’ve all seen how well that worked out, didn’t we?
World War I created the pre-conditions that brought the Slavic horde into the heart of “real Europe”. It took 50 years to undo that damage.
The weakening of Europe led to the rise of Japan in Asia. During the interwar years, Europe’s Asia colonies rested on the illusion of power-without the underpinnings of substance. Even America could not sustain its sole Asian colony-and so the current era of “exporting labor” for the Philippines gloomily dawned.
At the end of the First World War though, as Churchill said, ” We were so glutted with victory that we cast it away”.
Smart man.
And the cost was borne by 70 million dead, in rounds 1 &2, not to mention the soldiers who had to fight and die in the wars that came as an aftermath. Where might the globe be if it had never occured?
We’ll never know. The question for this century though is this: Will we walk down the same paths or will we choose to improve ourselves and our world?
The answer is TBA.