Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The End of the War to End Wars

the advent of air power--SPAD XIII
Historians still dispute the causes of the first great war in Europe. The results are indisputable. The war was particularly deadly for both combatants and civilians since the adversaries first used mechanized equipment on an industrial scale to kill en mass. The means descended into the horrible use of chemical weapons. An estimated 16 million people died in the conflict. The war to end war did not accomplish that laudable goal; in fact, historians think the ensuing peace that imposed ruinous financial burdens on Germany set the stage for the rise of fascism; barely a generation passed before conflagration erupted again. Empires fell. A generation was traumatized for life. The armistice that brought peace to the continent on November, 11th one hundred years ago was remembered across Europe this Sunday.

in the mud at Passchendaele
Of course a superficial review of the historical events leading to war will conclude that the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by a Serbian terrorist precipitated conflict. But it was the web of military alliances that drew nations into belligerence. Leaders had come to accept inevitable war as a legitimate means of achieving national ends.  The continent was divided into two camps of major powers, the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia, and the Triple Alliance of German, Austria-Hungary and Italy.  When Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia a month after the assassination, the other powers were required to come to the aid of their allies by treaty. German declared war on France, August 3, 1914. When Germany advanced on Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany. 

A less apparent causative factor was an intense arms race between Britain and Germany in which Germany intended to create a blue water navy that could rival the world's leading naval power. Kaiser Wilhelm II began building battleships of immense tonnage and firepower in 1898. Britain's economy relied on sea-borne trade, so any challenge to its navy's hegemony was viewed with alarm, provoking a response in kind. Developments in technology such as steam turbines and large-bore guns mounted in turrets made older vessels obsolete.  By 1906 Britain gained a technological advantage with its dreadnought class of battleships. Unable to keep up with the spending of the world's largest industrial economy of the time, Germany turned its attention to the army. The damage done to relations between the two countries by the naval arms race was irreparable.
industrial capacity was key to victory

Deteriorating family relations may have also had a causative role.  The three emperors, George V, Tsar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II were first cousins who knew each other well.  The oldest grandchild of Queen Victoria, Wilhelm nevertheless  developed an antipathy towards everything British probably due to a difficult relationship with his mother. A historian wrote of his conflicted attitude toward the British: From the outset, the half-German side of him was at war with the half-English side. He was wildly jealous of the British, wanting to be British, wanting to be better at being British than the British were, while at the same time hating them and resenting them because he never could be fully accepted by them." While she was alive, Queen Victoria attempted to reconcile the cousins, but when she died relations between the branches of her extended royal family became more strained. A recent book reviewer wrote, the events leading up to the conflict are "a study in the envy, insincerity, festering rancor and muddle that only families can manage". Unlike ordinary families, however, the royal rancor had tragic geopolitical consequences for the world.