|
|
|
lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
0 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
|
|
I think I can say that the First World War is better known in Canada, where I grew up -probably because Canada was involved in it from the very beginning, because every schoolkid in Canada knows this poem,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Flanders_Fields
and because the wearing of poppies around November 11 every year is a lot more common in Canada than in the U.S.
| quote: | | However it could be said that the war would have started anyway. |
|
I think it would have started anyway, if not exactly in the summer of 1914. Germany didn't unify as a single country until 1870, under the Prussian Chancellor, Bismarck -for over a thousand years, feudal politics, the efforts of France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Catholic/Protestant religious differences had kept that from happening. But when it finally did... there was going to be a shakedown in the European power structure, no matter what. And France was itching for a chance for revenge on Germany after their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and the weakening Ottoman Empire was creating a power vacuum in the Balkans, drawing the attention of Austria-Hungary and Russia. And Great Britain had too many strategic interests to ever be able to stay out of a major continental war.
It was very unprecedented for France and Great Britain to actually be allies in a major war instead of enemies -the first sign that things had really changed by 1914.
Funny thing, I think it was the Cold War -and the fact that everything happens on a global stage now, not a Eurocentric one- that finally brought the countries of Western Europe close enough together that I honestly don't think they'll ever go to war against each other again.
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by lborgia88 on 29-06-2014 at 22:20.
|
|
29-06-2014 22:20
|
|
|
Members browsing this thread: none
|
|
|
|
|
|
