A century later...

I'm amazed, looking back at my education to this point, at how much I have not learned. I have done pretty well in school, yet somehow seem to have not actually learned a lot about many things I supposedly knew enough about to get good grades in the classes about them. It's maybe a statement about the system, but I won't go there today. I would rather talk about The First World War.
  I was at the library last week and became reacquainted with a book series called "(fill in the blank), A Very Short Introduction". They're just what they sound like. Ranging from 100-150 pages long and basically pocket sized they offer a quick start on a very wide assortment of subjects. Since I recently had been contemplating my astounding lack knowledge of history I selected a few of these I thought might be interesting. My first read was about WWI, which I thought appropriate since it is the 100th anniversary of the start of that war. Oh my. I was sucked in. By the end of it's 119 pages I was astounded by many things, one of which was how little I actually knew about WWI before reading this "Very Short Introduction". And most of what I did know I learned from a John Green youtube video...
Now, if you know a lot about WWI, this post probably won't be very interesting to you- except for you to laugh at my incredibly limited understanding of that war... Just a warning. If, like me, you never had an actual good study of this chunk of history, read on for some interesting tidbits.

What I "knew" about WWI:
-It happened in Europe. America joined in eventually.
-Trenches. Lots of trenches.
-Something about Flanders Field.
-Lots of people died.
-It started because of Germany, as it usually does.
-It had something to do with Franz Ferdinand and Serbs.
-France got invaded, as they always do.

Really, if you had quizzed me about WWI I wouldn't have done very well. Now some thoughts on things I learned from my brief study of the war-

-It didn't actually really start entirely with Germany. With the assassination of Franz Ferdinand the Austro-Hungarians saw an opportunity to go to war and Germany backed them. Germany got all the blame though because they kept fighting after everyone else in their alliance fell apart.
-It's startling how well Germany/Austria-Hungary did in the war. If they had stuck to their original plan of crushing France before rushing over to fight the hapless Russians, they probably would've won. As it was, even with their infighting and aspiring generals they still managed to outlast Russia and take (for a short time) everything stretching from Poland to Finland. Because of this and their eventual defeat all those countries were created along that strip- including the two aforementioned. The Austrians succeeded pretty much only because they were fighting groups even less competent then they were. In the end they just managed to out last the Russians socially and politically. The Germans, however, seemed to be the best fighters in the war. They were better organized, more prepared, and more innovative than the Allies. Again, it seems that if it weren't for the disunity in the military and political scene they would have dominated. As it was their focus shifted back and forth from one front to the other creating no progress on either until Russia imploded. By then, though, the war had gone on so long their own country was suffering and their other choices were to come back and bite them pretty hard.

-America hardly had anything to do with this war. It seems we just came in as the closers. We contributed much throughout the war in the way of trade and shipping, but we were essentially neutral, always calling for peace. Imagine if the blockade against Germany hadn't been so strong we probably would've been supplying them as well as the Allies. And I guess it makes sense. The causes of both sides of the fight had nothing really to do with anything the US cared about. Why should we pick a side? Neither side was entirely right or wrong as far as ethics go, so until Germany started sinking our ships why should we favor one side or the other? Nowadays we see Brittan as a natural ally, but that is because of this war and the one that followed. At the time they were still a competitor and the country we'd just fought 2 wars against. But, thanks to Germany sinking our ships and Allied propaganda eventually we did join the party- just in time to finish it. It seems the real value of the US joining the war was just that our soldiers were well fed, not battle weary, and numerous. They hadn't been hanging out in trenches for the past 4 years, and it showed. It seems the biggest victory of having the Americans was the crushing of the morale of the German soldiers. Heck, they were only actually involved in the war for a few months before the armistice. A tidal wave of fresh leg-ed boys dropped into the last mile of a marathon.
-Germany tried to get Mexico as an ally. That would've been something. They promised Mexico they could have Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back. Ha. Can you imagine Mexico attacking the US? Can you imagine Mexico taking back Texas?
-The sides were not the same as they were in WWII, the war I somehow gleaned more knowledge of in school than I did of WWI. For some reason I assumed Germany always had the same friends. Actually, Japan, Italy, and Romania all fought against Germany the first time round.  Also the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) was an ally of Germany too. I didn't even know they were involved in either of the World Wars.
-Spain and Portugal never participated militarily in either World War. And somehow Switzerland managed to stay neutral, despite being smack in the middle of the action. How did they ever manage that?
-France wasn't actually overrun by Germany. In fact, they never even got to Paris. Turns out the two world wars were actually different things...
-The sheer amount of destruction and loss of life is almost unbelievable. I guess it was just an awkward transition between the old ways of fighting wars and what was required with the advent of new technologies. Just so sad.
-I also was impressed at how WWI really set up WWII. Everything that happened at the end of the war paved the path for Hitler's rise to power and a nation of people who would support him. Also WWI brought in the Russian revolution and Communism. What a legacy.

Yeah, I learned a lot. It's an interesting thing to commemorate 100 years since the beginning of one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. 100 years ago the world changed forever. It doesn't even seem like there's very much of a silver lining to say "But at least..."  I guess the main emotions I had at the end of the book was just awe at how lucky the Allies were to win (I mean, they were pretty impressively incompetent.) and how sad it is that it even happened in the first place. It changed everything, but accomplished nothing. So, a century later- what's the take away? I don't know. Anyway, I feel much enlightened and am looking forward to learning more as this centennial year goes on. It's good to remember.