In our class discussion today we touched on the aristocratic roots of most of the European powers' officer ranks. Looking back on WWI, it's obvious to us that a high birth should not have been the main qualification for the job of commanding troops in something so deadly. The failure to adapt, and more importantly the failure to conserve the lives of their troops, of commanders on both sides of the Great War is simply mass murder through negligence. Even if some of the troops did passively and sometimes mutinously resist the killing fields, their commanders should have never let it come to that point. This detachment from reality up the chain of command is still present in our own military today, but to a much less harmful degree. In our time, we are much quicker to hold accountable those who would send our sons and daughters to their possible deaths. I wish the same could be said for citizens of Europe from 1914-1918. I'm honestly surprised that the families of the boys being fed into the meat grinder didn't rise up against their governments and stop the war on their own. I wouldn't think any amount of homegrown propaganda would be able to cover up the horror that was actually taking place.
It didn't happen that way, so we ended up with a massacred generation of young men, Europe in shambles, and the seeds planted for another war to end all wars go round. I'm interested to see how Europe did, if at all, piece itself back together after the war. The only country you normally hear about is Germany, because of what happened in the next two decades that allowed the Nazis to come to power. What does France, England or Russia do in those two decades of uneasy peace? Are they even fully functioning nations? They're so broken and shell shocked, that they don't even dare to step in and stop the tide of fanaticism rising in Germany. Considering the circumstances, I can't say that I blame them.
The effects of a war like WWI are so foreign to us now, that I wonder if the world as we know it could even survive such a thing anymore. People are so detached from the two wars our own country is currently fighting, that I wonder if we could ever join together as a nation and face something so horrible, and still come out the other side. The European powers were never the same after WWI, but they survived. We haven't had to deal with blood on our own soil for so long, I'm not sure what would happen under such dire circumstances. Hopefully the world, and the human race, has evolved enough that we never have to find out, but something tells me we're not there yet.
I agree with you that money should not determine military rank. This is related to what i discussed in my blog. The problem with World War I do not believe anybody was held accountable for the massive amount of deaths during or after the war. That is why it took so long to change their tactics. They had no one pushing them. I would also agree with the idea that we have evolved to not let that happen. I believe that the same situation occur today that occurred then. I believe that there will always be a country who thinks they are powerful, and they want to show their power. I do not think the UN has the power to stop such a thing.
ReplyDeleteWe are not there yet for sure. Unfortunately, I think that it is part of human nature to repeat the sins of the past. We will be forever caught in the endless cycle of war and peace. War is too profitable and peace can only last so long politically. The gears of war line the pockets of government officials and keep the public preoccupied so that we cannot see that they are taking advantage of their post to their own advantage. I don't think that there is any way to stop this cycle. Without the reemergence of statesmen to put into office to lead us, we will definitely continue down this "meat grinder" as you put it. The evils of this world are in the details. It's the small sins we commit everyday that condemn us to our own brutality. War is not evil, the people that provoke, profit from, and facilitate war are evil. this will never change.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I always say that I am an historian of the 19th century because civilization ended in 1914 so I would agree that we are not "there" yet. If anything, perhaps we have regressed.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, the impact of WWI left Europe shell-shocked for a long time. I wish we had the time in class to explore the aftermath more deeply but the point I tried to make in class about the fact that the demands of war led to expectations about redistribution of rewards and privileges after the war does play a key role in events. The masses, so often dominated or powerless in the 19th century, had greater access to the vote and to political power/ influence in the post-war period. This changed the game for most European nations since older politicians struggled with mass politics and people increasingly joined parties designed to protect and advance particular interests, heightening class tensions and regional differences. Politics in all the countries of Western Europe were unstable as governments tried to meet the demands of a new mass electorate. The war also contributed to a wide cultural shift Pacifist movements gained popularity, a sense of cultural pessimism and disenchantment with the bourgeois world found expression in art and philosophy but mass media also led to fears of Americanization and the take-over of older culture by the new Hollywood culture. Economies struggled and collapsed and Britain and France sought avoid another destabilizing war at all costs.