World War I As a “Holy War” Sowed Seeds for Many Modern Conflicts

Baylor University ^ | 2014 | Terry Goodrich

[CondoleezzaProtege]

During World War I, Germany saw itself as a religious force on a "messianic mission," while Russia saw itself not just as "a" Christian state, but as "the" Christian state.

[Philip] Jenkins is the author of "The Great and Holy War: How World War I Became a Religious Crusade."

Religion dominated propaganda messages and the way people thought about the war, wrote about the war, made films about the war," ... angels and the Virgin Mary were reported as appearing regularly on battlefields, and the apocalypse was on the minds of many during the war, in which more than 9 million soldiers were killed.

"If you don't see this, and if you don't treat it seriously the way people of the time did, you're not going to get a sense of what people really were fighting about" and why they stayed in a "long, horrendous war" that initially was expected to last only a few months...

Widespread belief in the supernatural was a driving force during the war and helped mold all three of the major religions—Christianity, Judaism and Islam—paving the way for modern views of religion and violence... "Jihads and holy wars broke out after the war across the world, and most of that movement came out of World War I..."

The notion of being part of a holy war "cast a very long shadow" into the 1920s, the 1930s and even into the 1940s, when popular secular movements such Nazism, fascism and communism used similar rhetoric...

But if Germany viewed itself as fighting a holy war in World War I, they had to ask themselves why they lost.

"Their answer was that the devil's agents were among them. That goes a long way to explaining the vicious and homicidal anti-Semitism."

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TOPICS: History; Religion
KEYWORDS: firstworldwar; greatwar; randspam; worldwar1; ww1

[CondoleezzaProtege]

[Carry_Okie]

World War I was the first war in which modern advertising as indoctrination played a part in mass formation psychology, as organized by Eduard Bernays in Europe and George Creel here in the US as appointed to head the The Committee on Public Information by Woodrow Wilson.

[Don W]

Mötorhead 1916

[packagingguy]

What’s tragic is that war made little sense. It was fighting for fighting’s sake.

Not a revolution, war for independence, or anything like that.

[Socon-Econ]

What would help would be writings or speeches where the governing elites were using religion as a major justification for their fighting. While they all prayed for victory, this was nothing like the Catholic-Protestant wars of the 1500-1600s. Nor do I recall any evidence of Woodrow Wilson justifying American entry into the war because the Germans were heretics.

[cowboyusa]

Dumbest War in the history of Wars.

[Paal Gulli]

The people who train the warfighters have always used “-izzums” to get the blood lust up in recruits. As late as the 1970s, the US military was still using terms for Asians now considered racist when training how to kill, particularly at close quarters (it’s easier to get a former grocery stock boy motivated to stick a bayonet into someone if you can convince him he hates them).

AFAIK, the 1st Gulf War (1990-91) was the first instance in which America didn’t tool up for war by indoctrinating troops in some fashion of ethnic or racial hatred.

[chajin]

Nor do I recall any evidence of Woodrow Wilson justifying American entry into the war because the Germans were heretics.

I was thinking along these lines. Practically every nation in WWI entered the conflict because of some alliance with another nation, who had an alliance to another nation, and so on and so on.

The two exceptions to this were the US and Japan. Japan saw it as a means of appropriating the German-controlled area of Qingdao in China as part of its own expansionist plans; among other results, the Japanese got control of Tsing Tao beer, which switched to control under Asahi.

The US wanted to stay neutral because we didn't feel like losing our men the way everyone else was losing theirs, and also our industries were producing lots and lots of ordnance and such to both sides. It was only when it looked like Germany was going to promote Mexico's starting another war with us, along with the Lusitania and similar incidents, that we finally got mad enough to enter the war against the German alliance. What happened after that is where the picture changes...

[BradyLS]

Austria-Hungary gave a list of 10 ultimatums to Serbiab in Juky of 1914. Serbia acquiesced to all but the sixth—which would have allowed Austria-Hungary to use their police and judiciary into Serbia to conduct the investigation into the Archduke’s assassination. As a sovereign state, Serbia could not permit that. They knew it would lead to a war they would lose but decided standing up for themselves would be the better road and that Europe would see the demand as unreasonable and sort it out.

The alliances were already in place and war with Serbia precipitated war with Russia which begat war with Germany and begat war with France. Britain jumped in with Belgian nuetrality violated when Germany marched through it to deliver a right hook into France.

Nobody expectated the ruinous war that followed. Nor expected that the conditions that finally ended it would set the stage for the next.

Any nation could have said “Stop! Let’s sort this out…” And no doubt they would have if they had any idea what outdated tactics against modern weapons would do. I’m somewhat surprised that the interelated royal families on both sides didn’t put a stop to it. Maybe I shouldn’t be.

[Paal Gulli]

"What’s tragic is that war made little sense. It was fighting for fighting’s sake...."

At the time it often was called "The Cousin's War," a family squabble that spread across the world. If I'm counting right, seven of the beligerents in the war were ruled by a descendant of either Queen Victoria of England and/or King Christian IX of Denmark.

First World War

During the First World War (1914–1918), many monarchs of countries from both sides were closely related due to their mutual descent from either Queen Victoria, King Christian IX or both. The most commonly cited example is the fact that George V of the United Kingdom, William II, German Emperor and Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia were all first cousins via Queen Victoria. Other countries who fought against William II in addition to Russia and the United Kingdom include Romania, whose queen-consort was Marie of Edinburgh, and Greece, whose queen-consort was William's sister Sophia of Prussia. Constantine I of Greece and Nicholas II of Russia, the husbands of Sophia of Prussia and Alix of Hesse respectively, were also first cousins of George V of the United Kingdom as grandsons of King Christian IX. Other first cousins of George V of the United Kingdom, whose countries were neutral during the war, were Christian X of Denmark, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (queen-consort of Spain) and Haakon VII of Norway (who was married to George's sister Maud of Wales).

https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/8253260#First_World_War

[Pelham]

Barbara Tuchman’s Guns of August is one of the better histories of WWI. I read that and one by a British historian, maybe Keegan.

Neither mentioned any religious motive for the war. The leaders of the countries involved were mostly cousins related through Queen Victoria.

The Ottoman Empire was crumbling. Now forgotten Austro-Hungary used the assassination of their Archduke as the reason for a Balkans land grab. This triggered a bunch of alliances to react and all of Europe blundered into a suicidal war. No religious conflict involved.

[Alberta's Child]

One of the necessary preconditions for modern warfare on a large scale is a widespread, pathological, and infantile level of trust in government. Frankly, the 20th century was a disappointing indictment of the United States (in particular) in this regard.

[Pelham]

At the war’s outbreak Teddy Roosevelt urged Woodrow Wilson to let him organize another RoughRiders battalion get America into the fight. Wilson wasn’t interested intended for America to stay neutral.

That remained US policy until the events you mention. IIRC Teddy’s young cousin Franklin was an Assistant Secreta

ry of the Navy under Wilson, which made him aware of the admirals he chose to run the Pacific War 25 years later.

[chajin]

Neither mentioned any religious motive for the war. The leaders of the countries involved were mostly cousins related through Queen Victoria.

I think it would be more accurate to say that once the war began, state religions were used as means of recruitment, with the general idea being to fight "for God and _____," filling in the blank with one's own sovereign.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Barbara Tuchman is an American. Philip Jenkins is not. For starters, Pelham.

European religion, and how it plays out within the nuances, mentalities, collective identity, and social realities of each individual country on the continent - is more complex than Americans understand the role of religion to be within our own body politic. (And even Americans, given the shallow history has been taught in public schools for decades, fail to understand the role of religion in our founding, in the Civil War, etc...beyond simplified tropes.)

Protestant Germany vs. Orthodox Russia, or even Catholic Italy vs. Catholic France, Secular Revolution vs. Church Authority, Folk Peasant Faith vs. the Intelligentsia - all of those dynamics are complex yet essential to understanding the history of Europe in depth.

“The language and imagery of scripture allowed already-committed believers to integrate their personal religious sensibility with the national cause – and often drew those committed to the national cause back into the practice of religion...”

“At the more theological end, there was biblical language of salvation, purification and martyrdom. The Apocalypse became a central text, framing the war as a cosmic battle between good and evil and making generals into messiahs...”

Text:
https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/great-and-holy-war-how-world-war-i-changed-religion-forever

[dfwgator]

Should have just left Germany and Russia alone to bash each others brains in.

Stupid French alliance with Russia caused it to become a World War. Always the French!

[TTFlyer]

Correct.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

For this interested in further expansion on the matter and an interview with the author, see link below from the Gospel Colaition.

Also I had to clarify to other posters on this thread, that Philip Jenkins is British and that many Americans’ understanding of World War I (And World War II for that matter) from the European standpoint is shallow.

How World War I Became a Religious Crusade

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/tgc-podcast/philip-jenkins-on-how-world-war-i-became-a-religious-crusade-philip-jenkins/

[CondoleezzaProtege]

sorry typos