When Europeans commemorate the Great War of this summer they should be reflecting not only on the diplomatic blunders and the enormous waste of lives but also the beginning of a new approach to international relations epitomised by the EU. Diplomatic alliances and promises made during the First World War, especially in the Middle East, also came back to haunt Europeans a century later. The balance of power approach to international relations was broken but not shattered.
It took the Second World War to bring about sufficient political forces to embark on a revolutionary new approach to inter-state relations.
Europe Interested in Europe and the EU? After both wars Europe was exhausted and devastated. The difference was that the second major internecine war in Europe in a generation led to a profound change in political thinking, at least in Western Europe, about how states should conduct their relations. This system has brought many benefits to Europeans but in recent years the system has been under challenge by the rise of Euroscepticism, populism and nationalism.
As Europe reflects on the titanic struggle of it is important to recall the advances made since through European integration and redouble efforts to combat nationalist and extremist forces. Responsibility for the Great War remains hotly debated today with very different dimensions of the war accentuated by the various combatants. What is incontestable, however, is the number of advances in science, technology and medicine, as well as the revolutionary changes in social behaviour that occurred as a result of the conflict.
The aristocracy was overthrown or its role greatly diminished. The socialist and labour movements seized the opportunity to make considerable advances; but so too did communism and fascism. Germany was at the centre of both failed experiments and was unable to achieve a peaceful unification as a democratic state until All Europeans thus have a stake in the continued success of the EU as it provides a safe anchor for the most powerful state in Europe.
This paper considers how the war led to fundamental changes in European politics, economics and society, paving the way after for a historic new way of dealing with inter-state relations in Europe.
It suggests that the horrors of the Great War remain alive in Europe today and colour the reluctance of most Europeans to resort to war to achieve political ends. It argues that the process of European integration has been extremely beneficial to Germany and that the German Question may finally be put to rest.
Thousands of books have been written about the conflict with many seeking to apportion responsibility for the outbreak of war. The renowned German historian, Fritz Fischer, caused a sensation in the s when he published a book Griff nach der Weltmacht claiming that Germany was primarily responsible for starting the war as it had secret ambitions to annex most of Europe. Macmillan agrees that Germany should bear much of the responsibility as it had the power to put pressure on its Austria-Hungary ally and stop the drift to war.
Clark argues that Germany, like the other major powers, sleep-walked into the war. Another famous historian, Neil Ferguson, has argued in The Pity of War that Britain should not have become involved as the stakes were too low and the ultimate costs too high.
Perspectives Southeastern Europe Perspectives Southeastern Europe is a publication series intended to let experts from Southeastern Europe express their views about current political issues in their region.
Read online, download or order for free! What is perhaps more interesting is how the major powers involved have presented different narratives about their involvement in the Great War. In Germany the shame of the Nazi period including the Holocaust has meant that there has been little appetite to reflect about the conflict.
For Russia, it is has always been the heroism and sacrifice of the Great Patriotic War of that remain uppermost in the national psyche rather than the disasters of the First World War, including defeat and revolution. The war also means different things to the constituent parts of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Austria looks back with regret tinged with nostalgia for its glory days. Hungary still finds it difficult to accept the injustice of the Treaty of Trianon. Czechoslovakia gained its independence only to be swallowed up by Germany twenty years later.
France views the war as a tragic but massive endeavour to save the motherland from Les Boches. The First World War certainly plays better in the French national memory than the defeat in followed by occupation and collaboration. Each year millions of Britons wear red poppies to commemorate Armistice Day and hold memorial services around war memorials on which the names of the dead in the First World War vastly outnumber those of the Second.
The controversies about the causes, strategies and consequences of the Great War remain matters of contemporary concern. He complained that for too long the conflict had been portrayed as a series of catastrophic mistakes by an aristocratic elite. The impact of the two world wars has been such that in other parts of the world politicians have been competing to draw analogies.
More recently Putin has spoken of the need to protect ethnic Russian minorities in the former Soviet republics including Ukraine. But Hitler had a geopolitical vision — the domination of Europe — and the reunification of German-speaking peoples was merely the means by which he could acquire the critical mass needed to attain that geopolitical end-state.
Putin appears to want to restore Russia to a central global position in international politics, something the former Soviet Union enjoyed for much of the post-World War II era. It does not mean, however, that Putin seeks to restore the former Soviet empire. Although politicians often use historical analogies to describe an unfolding situation it does not mean that analogical reasoning is not fraught with potential dangers. It is important to note that each situation is unique although some unscrupulous political leaders often exploit these opportunities for their own ends.
The human cost of the First World War was horrendous. More than 16 million people, both military and civilian, died in the war. An entire generation of young men was wiped away. In , the year after the war was over in France, there were 15 women for every man between the ages of 18 and The First World War changed the nature of warfare. Technology became an essential element in the art of war with airplanes, submarines, tanks all playing important new roles. Mass production techniques developed during the war for the building of armaments revolutionised other industries in the post-war years.
The first chemical weapons were also used when the Germans used poisonous gas at Ypres in A century later the international community was seeking to prohibit President Assad of Syria from using chemical weapons against his own people.
Following the war, institutions of higher learning relied on the Alpha test to determine class placement for students, perhaps eventually leading to the use of the ACT or SAT in college placement. However, WW1 created several consequences which led to a second World War: New states in Eastern Europe who were weak and ripe for the taking by Hitler. A devastated Germany and France appeased Hitler to prevent another war. In Asia, Japan turned to militarism and began taking over European holdings.
Ineffectual League of Nations. His letter was ignored. It is felt that because of the snub by the conference attendees, Nguyen turned to communism. Berlin Wall: The Great War destroyed czarist Russia, leading to a Bolshevik revolution and the creation of communist Soviet Union, which feared continual capitalist intervention. Built in to separate communist East Berlin from capitalist West Germany, the Berlin Wall stood as the most enduring symbol of the Cold War until it was opened for free passage in However, very few people were interested and instead they went with the harsh economic terms against Germany in the Treaty of Versailles.
Following the devastation of a second world war, the idea of a unified Europe was seriously considered as an antidote to nationalism. In the s six countries formed what will over the next 30 years become the European Union, a political and economic union of 28 member states.
The EU has a common currency - the Euro, which is used in 19 member countries. In , Britain voted to leave the EU. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne. Truman served as President And the economic, political and social consequences of peace made it the fatal prelude to World War II. To celebrate the publication of the…. College of Law alumnus Brian J. Gerling, who brings nearly two decades of intellectual property and commercial litigation experience to the role, takes the helm from M.
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews syr. Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Author Kathleen Haley. Friday, November 12, , By News Staff. Friday, November 12, , By Erica Blust. Friday, November 12, , By Ellen de Graffenreid. Subscribe to SU Today If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews syr. In between, the voices of soldiers, politicians, nurses, diplomats, journalists, suffragettes, and intellectuals ask questions that are still with us.
Are our claims to moral leadership abroad undercut by racial injustice at home? What do we owe those who serve in our wars? With marking the one-hundredth anniversary of America's entry into the war, the moment seemed ripe to revisit a conflict whose ghosts still haunt the nation. The volume shows off familiar names in surprising places.
Nellie Bly and Edith Wharton report from the front lines. Henry Morgenthau Sr. Writing from Italy, Ernest Hemingway complains to his family about being wounded. While Wilson and Lodge fight over American sovereignty, Ezra Pound expresses his disillusionment and grief in verse.
We also meet Floyd Gibbons, a Chicago Tribune crime reporter. It sounded to me like some one had dropped a glass bottle into a porcelain bathtub. A barrel of whitewash tipped over and it seemed that everything in the world turned white. Stepping into an operating theater with Mary Borden, the Chicago heiress who established hospitals in France and Belgium, the smell of blood and death almost leaps off the page.
They lie on their backs on the stretchers and are pulled out of the ambulances as loaves of bread are pulled out of the oven. We experiment with his bones, his muscles, his sinews, his blood. We dig into the yawning mouths of his wounds.
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