The Forgotten War

If you go to a typical bookstore (provided you can find one), make a comparison between the books devoted to World War One and those about World War Two.  The second conflict fills a string of bookcases – everything from the generic survey history to Hitler’s women or something along those lines.  If the first conflict fills an entire single shelf, it is a minor miracle.  Next year will be the centennial history of World War I.  Yet, very little thought is given to that first conflict.  As the war’s veterans died, so did America’s interest.  As a history teacher, I’ve often said that World War One is much more important than the following war.  This is why.   

First, World War One changed irrevocably the political landscape of Europe; gone were the archaic and decrepit ruling families who gave way to the first halting steps towards more democratic governments.  Revolutions erupted in Russia and Germany; the former creating a communist government the likes of which no one had seen before, the latter creating a deeply flawed democratic system that would fail miserably but in the end, would set the groundwork for the future.  The United Kingdom began to lose control of an empire that was a holdover of the past and the ideas of what made a “great” country.  France also began to lose control of its empire as the government began a turn towards socialist democracy.  Italy would slowly delve into fascism, much like their Teutonic brothers in arms. 

Second, the First World War shaped modern Europe.  The dominant powers in 1914, the year Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, were Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and the United Kingdom.  Eastern Europe did not exist, save for the countries of Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the various Balkan states.  Millions of ethnic minorities were trapped in large empires with no hope of autonomy or cultural recognition.  After the war, Europe was a completely different scene and map.  The Baltic states emerged; Austria-Hungary split with each nationality controlling its own boundaries and destiny.  Czechoslovakia, Poland, Belorussia and the Ukraine embraced President Wilson’s dream of self-determination.  The Europe of today, and its spirit, was created as a result of World War One.  This does not even mention the way post-war arrangements shaped, sometimes in capricious ways, the modern Middle East.

Lastly, the First World War created the Second World War.  The treaty of Versailles turned the Allies into money grubbers, fighting and squabbling over reparation dollars even as some of the leaders, particularly British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, knew the treaty was too punitive.  Versailles turned Germany, into a seething, embarrassed, broken nation that fell for a demagogue willing to sell them a twisted vision of their future.  Indeed, the treaty’s most impactful component is its treatment of Germany.  Germany’s military was nearly wiped out; it was saddled with millions of dollars in reparations but was stripped of its largest coal producing region, leaving it incapable in its attempt to build an economy to pay back the Allies.  Worst of all, Germany was saddled with the full and unmitigated responsibility of the war.  While Germany certainly played a role, arguably a significant role, to suggest it was solely responsible for the conflict was a form of punishment Prime Minister Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau could not let go – their pre- and wartime rhetoric created a quixotic treaty.  So badly was it designed, French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch said Versailles was not a peace treaty; it was a cease fire for twenty years. 

World War II is most recent and certainly filled with horrific moments that equal anything that happened between 1914 and 1918.  However, it was only a conclusion and not a conflict in and of itself.  Those men and women who fought and served in the “War to End all Wars” used state of the art weaponry with outdated tactics to create an imperfect peace.  Last week, we celebrated Veterans Day but prior to 1954, it was known as Armistice Day in honor of the end of World War One.  The names have changed but the responsibility is the same – remember their sacrifice by remembering their story.  It is the least we can do.