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By Michael Johnathan McDonald
World War One Strategies
• The first mechanized war.
• Largest war to date
• Need for a superman
• Fascination with Military man
• Terrorism begins war
• Technological developments
• Economic outcomes
• Significance
Long term Causes
Napoleons ways about militarism, imperialism and discipline were romanticized in
the late 19th Century in Europe. Nationalism took a rise after the unification
of Germany and Italy forcing many other areas to want to do the same. In the
Turkish ruled areas of south eastern europe many ethnic groups under the
oversight of Turkish rulers now wanted to follow Italy and Germany leads and
proclaim their own national countries. Much of this was brought on by witnessing
imperialism of the major countries of England, France, Italy, Germany and Spain
do this and prospers. America didn’t much care about grabbing up the earth at
the time. They still had much landscape to discover and build on. They had
resources, such as deep coal mines and plenty of land to grow crops. Europe on
the other hand was extremely vicious group of heritage so in grapping what else
was left of the Earth was a competition: Closely watched by other countries as
many countries nearly went to war with each other over land disputes, Europe
melted into balkanization of tribes ( Races) and everyone began to call out each
others histories. Small areas that had no history began to invent them by using
old wives tales and possibly songs that were written of old: Literally making up
there past to legit their made up heritage background.
Thomas Carlysle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian wrote a book on a
theory on how and why empires rise and fall. “The presents or absents of heroes
determines empires.” For example, when Rome was first forming, great heroic
persons who face difficult problems and built an empire, but at the collapse of
the Roman Empire no heroes could be found, especially when it was needed the
most in times of duress.
The same can be said of America, in all the extremely hard work of the builders
of America. Now most Democrats and Republics sit back and purchase items made by
Chinese slave labor camps, and dissidents who were jailed and have to work
seventeen hours a day for protesting the Chinese government. Americans do not
like hard work and Hollywood plays commercial after commercial on television
reiterating this easy lifestyle. There are no heroes that can arise with an
atmosphere like this in America. Greece had the same hero absence, at their
demise, according to Carlysle ( the fact is that they simply killed people who
tried to open peoples minds to the government corruption going on within the
society. Example: Socrates).
Friedrich Nietzsche the German philosopher of the late 19th century wrote about
having a need for a superman in tough times. Yet his example was a someone from
Prussia and their father was a general and was married to a Jewish wife. Anyway,
Heroes make civilizations and the 19th Century fascination with the military man
thought to create character in a man. Napoleon was the model and Carlysle almost
deified him.
Military bands were in high demand and songs of military marches and such were
the order of the day. Even in the American civil war a parade was held down
Pennsylvania Avenue and it was a bizarre sight to see soldiers wearing bright
yellow Moroccan pants with their usual blue army suits, but the ladies would
swoon over the army men. In fact, in these times you were not a real man unless
you were connected in some way with the military. Empires were thought to bring
peace because it was thought that “we are getting better and better.” Darwinism
came into the scope with its evolution that the world is getting better and
better. (Note Empires sustain themselves by expanding and expanding) So this was
part of the background and thought going into World War I.
Back to the urgent problems of who got what in colonies building ( aka
imperialism) France and England almost go to war over loggerheads of who gets
this and who gets that. So tension builds in Europe.
One of the long term causes was about the eastern question? The two long term
causes so far
1. Militarism
2. Eastern Question
The eastern question dealt with what is going to happen to the Turkish Empire.
In the middle ages ( The Arabs) had gone as far as borders of Austria (c. 1600s)
aloud, while they controlled much of the middle east and Anatolia, Palestine,
and parts of North Africa ( Other Arabs controlled the rest of N. Africa). At
the greatest extent of Turkish Empire they controlled all of Africa, most of
Asia, much of southern Europe (Including Spain and parts of South France) and
all of eastern Europe which included Hungary. By the end of the 1900s their
empire was shrinking from long time bit by bit take back by the western world
and the fact they didn’t modernize and were in family fights between their own
rulers.
The major question now was “What happens to the East if the Turkish Empire
collapses?”
England began to help modernize Turkey (Ottoman Empire); so all hell would not
break loose. But the other factor played a role as well: If freedom came too
soon, it would cause some major problems too. Britain wanted a foothold on the
Turkish trade ports, so they helped modernize them for return favors. But, after
the unification of Germany and Italy, these two new national countries
challenged Britain for the trade rights in this part of the world. What could go
wrong?
This major development caused a restructuring of the alliances in the world. Now
the world, all parsed out, in order for the smaller guys (Other small
territories) not be swallowed up and able to keep their own identities, they had
to make pacts with the big strong countries in order for survival. These pacts
were mostly with Germany, France, Italy and Britain. Who side are you going to
choose if you were one of the smaller territories?
In 1870 France fought the Prussian-Franco war and was forced to accept Germany
as a powerful nation who was on their eastern northern boarder. France was
humiliated and looked for a desire for revenge (Remember the revenge they had on
the English in helping out the Americans in the revolution). Yet, France
leadership was at a all time low and Germany was surging ahead in progress. The
French birth rate was dwindling and the German birth rate was increasing and
this frightened the French. In addition the Germans celebrated their victory in
the famed palaces of Versailles.
Nationalism was on the rise
Nationalism caused the unification of Italy and Germany inciting other countries
to do the same. This was mostly out of protectionism. Some small countries
collected fairy tales to give credence to their own historical background. It
was a vain attempt promote anything nationalism. This is balkanization of a
grand scale. So other countries now wanted their own independent national
countries. Squabbles began to where to draw the new lines of these national
countries. This increased the tensions in Europe.
Treaties and Diplomacy
The matter of the countries to deal with each other was to send ambassadors to
other countries. Every country wanted the advantage so they called on each other
to form alliances. There were so many treaties and the hardest reality to face
that many of them were drawn up in secret, so that other countries did not know
who was on their side. Fro example, France feeling the pressure of Germany said
“We need a strong ally, and we need protection for ourselves.” They thought
Russia was a good ally. But, they didn’t know that Bismarck all ready had beat
them to the punch and made a treaty with Russia. So France was courting Russia
for at least thirty years and laying on them money and gifts to get the
alliance. In the meantime France was so scared that they signed a treaty of
mutual defense (Aggression) with their arch enemies England. This was because
there was no one left at the time. Finally in 1904 they got the treaty with
Russia finalized. Champaign bottle were heard popping all over France, yet a
year later the Japanese beat up the Russian army at Korea and the French cried
“What have we done, we made a treaty with a country that cannot beat a small
Pacific island country.
Meanwhile in 1870 the Turkish rule, except the Christian minority, wanted to
free themselves from other Turkish rulers. Serbian independence in 1879 allied
with Russia in a treaty of mutual defense. Albania of Turkish rule, they made a
treaty with Austria. The Greeks made a treaty with England. Romania made a
treaty with Russia. Bulgaria made treaties that swung back and forth. Everyone
made alliances and skirmished over how to draw the boarders. Many minorities
were scattered in the Turkish Empire of old now and nationalism forced them to
side with whatever they felt was their rightful heritage: Many leftists believe
that nationalism leads to racism and the right wing, except they do not
comprehend that living under the rules of the Arabs was racism in itself.
Nationalism was considered to be with your own color and heritage especially in
Germany and Italy, but the truth of Nationalism in America was a mix bag of
people living under an ideal of the Constitution of the United States and the
left wing in America does not like the constitution, so they blame nationalism
of white superiority as the root of the right wing when it was the leftwing in
the southern states that owned black people as slaves and started a civil war
because they wanted to keep slaves while the conservative rightwing in the north
outlawed slavery from the beginning of the puritans and make blacks citizens
with the same rights as the Europeans. This included England in the 19th Century
as well.
Yet, while America was going through their own growing pains of equality of
people, Europe was more at a tribal stage of race vs. race in much of the
reorganization of the nationalistic mishmash. This reorganizing branded the
south eastern Europe as the powder keg of Europe – it was about to explode. You
had the most diverse ethnicities trying to figure out where they are supposed to
call home.
1912 Turkey was really weak so the Serbians, Bulgarians and Greeks fought a
short war of three months and the Turkish had to give up much land. This sent
the different ethnicities into a land grab that began terrorism of the 20th
Century. The battle over where the borders are draw makes the powder keg noticed
by the world. Countries know a war is coming and only time before the launch
time is to arrive so they prepare. Austria finally goes nationalistic and many
Slavic people wanted their own country in the same country of Austria: For the
world was too small now and two races fight over the same soil.
Short Term Causes
The Czech national movement had a leader by the name of Deutsch, which means
Germany and another Czech national movement leader had a name of Nemez another
name associated with Germany. So the mixing up of name over the centuries
blurred the lines in who were who in further complicating things and identities
in the region. The independent Serbia wanted to bring all their folks into a
national country. This was seen as bad for Austria which had many of them living
there. So Austria said equal status for all living there. Yet, the Slaves didn’t
like the Hungarians and so the Serbs told the Austrians to give up land. The
Serbs further said, “ If not we will do national advocating by using terrorist
tactics.” Serbian s began to train their men into assassins and send them to
Austria to kill political leaders. A law which was in effect in Austria said
that no one under any circumstances was to be put to death for any crime. A “No
death penalty” was in affect for any man under the age of nineteen years old.
This was key factor in that Serbia began recruiting young men who had diseased
that were going to die anyway and said “Why don’t you do something for our cause
and become a hero.” The Serbs pick incurable debilitating diseased boys and
train them to assassinate.
On the last days of June 1914 Arch Duke Ferdinand was going to Austria to
conduct some ceremonial services and the Serb national terror squads warned
Austria not to let him in, sent their assassins to strategic places in the
cities he was attending to, and braced for war. Assassins placed in various
parts of the cities one took a shot at Ferdinand’s wife but missed. Gabriel
Princip another strategically placed assassin got a call from one of his leaders
telling him to go to such and such a corner and wait for Ferdinand’s car to roll
by and shot him. Stationed at a corner with a pistol he waited and waited but
the driver of the limousine got lost. Princip became depressed after waiting for
a long time and decided to go to coffee shop where he bought a drink and cried
over it. Then he looks through the window and the Arch Dukes Limousine was right
outside. He steps out the coffee shop and goes up to the car and shoots the Arch
Duke dead. Then he was quickly arrested. This was a major assassination and at
first it was not known who the culprits behind the shooting were. When
authorities questioned the Serb national terrorist movement they denied having
anything to do with it. But, soon the real details came out who was behind it a
demand for no more assassination and an apology was ordered by the very upset
Austrians. The Austrians placed a time limit to the Serbs terrorist movement to
admit it was them and apologize and promise never to do it again. The Serbs
talked in private about the Russian coming to their side in a treaty and Austria
planned for the worst. Suddenly everyone gets into an alliance for battle. By
the end of July the time of confession was approaching and Austria didn’t want
to back down and loose face. They gave their word in an ultimatum and that was
the way it ended. August 1 came and Austria rolls in the heavy artillery –
within days WW I was an all out war.
World War One Strategies
World War one began from a long period of fear building because all the powers
were grabbing up the minerals and resources and land. This had an effect of
pushing people around the globe in an effort to get at what could make money and
life easier for whoever held the power. The actual war began from a terrorism
act. These same acts are appearing more and more in the world with the Arabs who
use them to bully the west into giving up there lands. Political correctness, a
blindfold apparatus, is defining the way governments make mistakes. What the
problems of the root of the world is that the Arabs were only happy when they
controlled much of the world during the middle ages and kept the westerners out.
It has been many long centuries that the would could have integrated as a whole
which has not been the case. People take sides over ethnicity. This was the
underlining theme of World War I. Yes, there are many variables that we will
discuss, yet the underlining theme was racism.
What we have learned from history is that honoring combatant treaties cannot
lead the world into another world wide conflict. This is what the extremist
Arabs want in the current effort of world terrorism. Just like the Serbian
terrorist organization that triggered WW I, we have tried not to get overwhelmed
by the terrible acts and deal with them on individual levels instead of bring
entire nations against nations.
As the entire reasons for wars are too complex, we much look at the treaties of
the imperialist times if the late 19th Century to get a clear picture of what
lead to WWI. We have looked at the long-term and the short-term causes that lead
up to WW I., now will look at the strategies behind the war itself.
August 1, 1914 most of the countries fall into two camps. Austria, Bulgaria,
Turkey and Germany form what was called the Central Powers. Taiwan even joined
them but it is uncertain how much of a role they really played.
France, Belgium, Britain, and Russia joined what was called the Alliance
(Allies). Italy joined Austria then later they switched sides to the allies.
Holland, Spain and Switzerland remained neutral. This is a key factor in the
southern German opening salvo on France. You were not supposed to run through a
country that was neutral unless you asked for permission, which was not the case
for Germany.
Because of imperialism, colonies around the world will be involved in the war.
This is one treason it is called World War I, although in reality, it was the
second.
First days of the war
Austria attacks Serbia because of there terrorist acts and the Serbians
overwhelmed flee into Greece. Austria takes Serbia without a problem. Then
Russia says, well we have a treaty with Serbia and we must honor it, so get the
troops ready and were off to war. “ Within days total war breaks out.
Germany had a plan to this world war that was anticipated: invade France first
then take out Russia. The reasons were that Russia was weaker because the
country was slow in establishing industry during the Industrial revolution so
their army was less sophisticated than France. In addition, Russia just lost a
war against Japan and Korea who were considered lesser powers than European
countries at the time. Attacking France where Germany would loose many soldiers,
but still have enough of them to battle Russia and win, was a smarter option.
Also, attacking France and winning decisively would make Britain cower. France
on the other hand, was scared of Spain and Germany’s friendship for the last
fifty years that they anticipated the not-so-secret German plan and built
massive fortifications around all the german boarders. Concrete, steel, barbed
wire, trenches made up a sort of wall to keep out the German troops. Germany
realizing this said, “lets bypass this obstacle and run are army through
Belgium.” So the germens figured this was a clever plan. It was called the
Schliefen plan. The gernams figure it would take them three days of fighting to
reach Paris and end the war. Boy were they wrong! So when the war began this is
exactly what they did. Hitler who was literally homeless and hopeless joined the
army but was only seen fit to run letters on the battlefield – a very dangerous
job, which is said that his survival was miraculous and his comments to his
fellow soldiers was that a ghost protected him from the flying bullets.
Belgium came into existence in the 1830s by saying their nation chose to be
neutral in any conflict. When the germens didn’t ask for permission and just
showed up rolling through the towns of Belgium the people were so upset that
they picked up anything and started to battle the germen troops. So significant
was this that it bogged them down and the French were able to rally their troops
to the northern boarder to face-off with the germens. Without the Belgium
breaking their treaty and fighting the germens the French would not have been
ready in time. The Belgium’s were outraged and they called every abled-body-man
to fight the germens. The French hearing that the war started hopped in taxis,
on carts, on bicycles, on horses and with any vehicle to get themselves to the
front line.
Within 3-5 days of the war the Germans were stopped. They should have said, “
Heah! We made a blunder, let’s negotiate for piece.” The Kiser ( Their king)
didn’t want to loose face, just like the Austrians didn’t want to loose face on
accusing the correct terrorist organization that assassinated one of their top
political figures which triggered WWI. Finally when the British mobilized, both
sides dug in for a four year trench warfare that would be much of the estimated
35 million people who would die in the loggerhead wars. Many call this area of
the war the 100 yards war. This is because when one side would advance a hundred
yards then the next side was make a major push to get the 100 yards back.
Millions would die and the terrain that once been full of vegetation now looked
more like the landscape of the moon.
Russia
Russia took the initiative to invade Austria. They got deep into the northern
are of Austria and they were surprised how well the Russian army was doing.
Germany recalled many troops from the northern French boarders to push-back
Russia which happened. Re-troop-fit began the 60 mile war where one side pushed
60 miles and the other mounted an retrieval of the 60 miles. Poland who stayed
neutral was caught in the middle. When the Russians advanced and occupied the
villages of Poland the people had to help out the Russians ( Because they had
the military). So when Germany retook the area they accused Poles of
collaborating and killed them. Then when the Russians retook the same area they
would accuse the poles of collaborating with the germens and would kill them.
Meanwhile both sides took what they wanted and left Poland to starve.
New Weapons
Machine guns were invented and created the equal opportunity killing machine.
Before commandeers would lead the rush of their particular squad of troops to
battle the opponent. Now, the germens had machine guns and sprayed the
commanders leaving a vacancy in much of the allies’ commanding officers. Now the
allies had to pick unqualified people to head up these positions. For example,
the British almost lost all of there commanders because they lead the charges.
In addition, some French officers who were distraught and got a hold of machine
guns (And sometimes cannons) and turned it on their own soldiers. This was a sad
episode for France.
Hand grenades were deadly new weapon. Not only the troops on the ground war used
them but eventually when the first planes began to battle, these became the
precursor of bombs. Steel cannons which leveled buildings in one shot were
created and they could be fired from behind enemy lines with devastating
accuracy.
Airplanes
1. Surveillance was the first job of the new weapon called the airplane
2. The first bombs from an airplane were hand grenades.
3. Later bombs are made and used
4. At first firefights in the sky were accomplished by hand heal rifles. Also,
one could not shoot from the front, or blow off his propeller blades. So the
pilot would have to circle around his opponent and position himself to shoot
from right angles at his enemy. Planes were first made out of wood and canvas
and when the bullets would go right through the fuselages the plane was able to
stay functioning. To get around this, air force pilots would use bricks and drop
them onto a wing which created larger holes to kill an aircraft.
5. Later the development of frontal guns on the plane that fired thought the
propeller on a calibrated system made it easier for the pilot to simple fly and
while fighting.
6. Barbed wire was used and various chemicals: Acids that would melt a man and
everything around him to the ground. This also included poison gas, mostly tear
and mustard to disable the troops so the enemy could easier kill them. To get
around this type of warfare the troops would have to wet their handkerchiefs and
cover their air passages. Usually if no water was around the soldier would pee
on his handkerchief.
7. Stung grenades were a deadly tool. These were like hand grenades but it
utilized air pressure to blowout the lungs of the enemy and blow out the ear
drums. Both sides wanted to ban them, but both sides continued to use them.
8. British invent the Tank. First they keep it secret and when they shipped them
they told everyone that they were non-combatant vehicles used to water down the
troops. They were called Water Tanks. And that is where the word comes from.
9. Britain was still the sea power of the world, but fast approaching industries
( Helped by industry proliferation of raw materials) helped gift out a modern
navy for Germany that included submarines that were invented in America.
Americans also invented the steel hulled ship.
Economy
War costs allot of money and it became a large issue for many countries. The
Russians for example could one send one line of troops to charge in battle and
the second line had no guns. Only way the second lineman could get a gun is that
he pick it up of one of the fellow soldiers in the front line. National
interests were all being depleted from every country so they all turned to
America for finances to keep the war going. Of coerce, at hone in America, many
people sympathized wit the English because many of the emigrants came from
there, there was a policy in U.S. history of not getting involved in anyone
else’s war no matter for what, unless it was in American protective interests.
Woodrow Wilson at first told Germany, Britain, France and the other nations “No
Way!”
“Only because of the arrogance of the participants”…. the only steps I will take
to fund is if you all sit down at the table and negotiate, he stated to the war
leaders of Europe. So U.S.A. stayed neutral. At the time Winston Churchill
called on the European countries to form a United States of Europe that is still
trying to be done today in the guise of the European Union. Wilson still felt
pressure to do something because of the casualties and the loggerhead mentality
of the Europeans.
Copyright © 2004 Michael Johnathan McDonald Bookoflife.com
(Michael Report)
All Rights reserved.
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