Posted on 02/20/2014 2:15:56 PM PST by Ravnagora
Royal cousins Wilhelm II and King George V went to war
As nations gear up to mark 100 years since the start of World War One, academic argument still rages over which country was to blame for the conflict.
Education Secretary for England Michael Gove's recent criticism of how the causes and consequences of the war are taught in schools has only stoked the debate further.
Here 10 leading historians give their opinion.
Sir Max Hastings - military historian
Germany
No one nation deserves all responsibility for the outbreak of war, but Germany seems to me to deserve most.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
The only good that came out of WWI was Poland regaining her Independence.
Of course it didn’t last. But keep in mind it was the Poles in 1920 that very well may have saved Europe from Bolshevism.
K
And we cut off tge supply if oil and steel to Japan.
They were the aggressor and had their azzess handed to them.
Analogy...
“My suggestion? Read Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August””
That is an excellent book.
I’m just talking about Germany. The Japanese situation was not nearly as complicated. The Japanese then-and-now see themselves as the racial superiors of their neighbors and the War in the Pacific was the inevitable outcome of Commodore Perry’s opening up of Japan in 1854. The Japanese were not going to ever embrace peace until they were soundly defeated in war and had foreign troops on their soil to humble them.
Even if the USA had maintained full trade with Japan their attack against the USA in the Pacific was inevitable because Japan could never rule the region until the USA was pushed back to its own shores.
And for the same reason I do not believe that trade and cordial relations will prevent China from someday attacking the USA to get us out of what they think is ‘their’ region to control.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was still fresh in the mind in 1914.
France bitterly resented the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to the newly united Germany and there was widespread support for getting that territory back. Just one more push towards war in 1914.
So many things can be listed as causes for WW1, that it is impossible to say which ONE was the cause.
We know the spark, but what about the origins?
A case could be made that it wasn’t Wilhelm, but Russia that was the cause of WW1.
They had been humiliated by the Japanese, and again in the First Balkans War, and had embarked on a massive militarization program, so much so that the German High Command feared what would happen if they waited.
The Austro-Hungarians, egged on by the Hun, issued an ultimatum that was impossible for the Serbians to meet. It would have amounted to surrendering its sovereignty to Austria-Hungary. The square heads were smarting, after having been mostly chased out of Africa by the Brits. Their Schlieffen Plan called for a quick defeat of the Allies in the west, before expansion in the east, against the Russians, just like they tried in WWII! The Krauts have always been expansionist, from the days of the Roman Empire, through WWI and WWII. The Allies should have pressed the Dutch to release der Kaiser to face war crimes charges. Instead, he died peacefully in Holland in 1941.
If you get a chance buy Fall of Eagles run by PBS Masterpiece theatre it good mini series explain a lot about Kaiser Wihlem being a***hole
But also was Tsar Nicholas 2 of Russia was egged on dear cousin Wilhem that too
Terrific Brit series about the impact of the war on three royal houses which fell due to the war and each used an eagle as its royal symbol. First time I ever saw Patrick Stewart in anything and he made a convincing and chilling Lenin. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207885/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
Perhaps not on its own, but the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany on January 31, 1917, which led to the severing of relations between the United States and Germany, had also just taken place. During that time, American citizens had been killed on torpedoed British ships.
Bearing in mind as well that General John Pershing’s troops had had a series of highly publicized run-ins against the border-raiding Pancho Villa during the same time period, and the idea of a German-incited war with Mexico through the Zimmerman Note was infuriating to a large number of people for multiple reasons.
Dang I like you.
Always appreciate someone who enjoys history and its contexts.
I agree about China.
bkmk
Warburg.
Bush!!!
Speaking of 'brainless', sunshine, here is a clue, since your clue cupboard seems a little bare: I am a Canadian, not an American.
You whine about the cost in treasury of WWI and the cost in lives. Here are a couple more 'clues' for you:
Firstly, the US made billions in gold from arming the combatants for the three years before its entry into the war. The US did the same thing in WW2 for over 2 years, which is why the US had 90% of the gold in the world after the war, resulting in fiat money and Bretton Woods! Perhaps you think the US should have sat that war out too?
Secondly, Pershing's pride and jingoism cost the lives of a great many more of his men than it should have. Despite advice from the Brits and French, who had been fighting for almost 3 years, the AEF under Pershing, continued with frontal assaults, killing tens of thousands of his men needlessly. The Canadians had developed, with British artillery, the 'creeping barrage' and made use of it with exceptional results, in the Battle of Vimy Ridge and subsequent battles. If Pershing had listened to the experienced Allies, he would have not lost 116,000 men, but pride overwhelmed intelligence.
Thirdly, you write of 116,000 killed in WW1, of which 40,000 died of influenza, out of a population of 100 million, with 4 million under arms, in 1 1/2 years of fighting. In over 4 years of fighting, Canada suffered 240,000 casualties including 67,000 war dead from a population of 8 million with 620,000 under arms. Since you seem to 'value' numbers over people, which country suffered a greater loss? And what of the French and Belgians, where the war took place?
Fourthly, because of so many Hun and Micks in the US (voting Dhimmicrat, of course), in spite of the atrocities committed by the Boche against the Belgians, the US did not enter the war until after the Zimmermann telegram.
Fifthly, claiming American ‘isolationism’ is pure bovine excrement! ‘Isolationism’ and ‘Manifest Destiny’ are mutually exclusive ideas! ‘Manifest Destiny’ was used as an excuse to war against Mexico in the 1840s. It was in fact, a major cause of the War of 1812, which resulted in the failure of a US annexation of Canada. Remember too, that during the Oregon boundary dispute, many Americans spouted, "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" and were ready for another scrap with the Brits and Canadians. Look at the 1898 annexation of the Kingdom/Republic of Hawaii by the US! By 1914 (when WW1 started, NOT 1917), the US had annexed almost all Spanish territories, including Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, operating some as ‘territories’ and the rest under puppet regimes for years.
Please don’t lay the ‘isolationist’ BS on me! History shows that the US is, and has been, as expansionist as any European power! The good thing about US expansionism is that it led to the concept of 'responsible government', eventually leading to the nation of Canada 'A Mari Usque Ad Mare' to butress against American expansionism.
May I suggest “Guns of August” by Barbara Tuchman.
Man, there has to be an interesting story there!
Read about how US commanders were still ordering attacks on the last day, indeed, the last hours of the war.
The Germans were taking a Knee when the Yanks started to attack them. And The Germans were shocked and tried to stop them.
Attack positions that in a few hours they would be able to walk across without losing any lives was criminal.
US Grandfather Wilson lied and got us into a useless war that accomplished nothing. Canadian Grand Father should have hidden in the woods with the Frenches. Canadian Great Uncle, New Found Land Regiment, British, Ditto. A tour of Little Bills mothers family with input from my fathers , US.
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