Without 20/20 vision, we are bound
to repeat the mistakes of the past, instead of learning from the past to
create a better future-Montesquieu's Table
I'm dividing
this blog into two sections. It seems to me that it would be impossible for me
to analyze this problem philosophically, without discussing its historical
context first. Hopefully we'll
recognize some of the same problems happening in the Middle East, genocide for
example, thanks to the radical Islamic
group Isis. In fact, genocide is a real and present danger to us in the U.S,
England, France, and globally if Isis succeeds. Examining the past is the first
place to start when attempting to secure the
future.
future.
World War 2 History
Most of us remember our World War II history-six million Jews dead in
the most heinous ways imaginable, Jews being forced to hide from the Nazis in
every nook and cranny they could find, people who provided shelter for the Jews
were also killed if they were found, and one man held the entire German population
hostage, or should I say "the entire world?" It was a period of
insanity that no one can fully explain or top...though Isis to coming pretty
close. How could the land of the Weimar Republic and Goethe descend so low into
sadism and ignorance? That's something you'd expect from third world extremists,
not from a democratic superpower that is one of the two philosophical
powerhouses in Europe (the other one is France).
World War I History
Of course,
no one but the Nazis were responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews, in
their genocidal efforts to bring Germany and Austria back to their former glory
in the worst ways imaginable...that is clear. But could it be that someone else
was responsible for their rise? That answer is yes, but the culprits go largely
unnoticed. I mean, there aren't that many books written about their culpability,
or at least none that I can think of at the top of my head. Usually it's the "good
ole boys" story- the Allies defeat an evil foe in war, becoming everyone's
favorite hero, and bringing pride to their countries, but no one is certain how
it started, nor who to point the finger at.
Perhaps we
can examine that question a little bit. The march towards WWI started with the
assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June, 1914 in
Sarajevo, Serbia by the terrorist group "Black Hand." Yes, the murder
of one man started it all. Austria reacted to his death by enlisting the help
of Germany, then issuing Serbia an ultimatum on July 23 to bring the assassins to
justice and halt the anti-Austrian hatred, or they'd mobilize their army. That
is a sign that Austria felt the Serbian government was implicated in the
assassination, and maybe they were. They expected Serbia to accept part of the
ultimatum, but Serbia went directly to Russia, instead, for backing against the
newly formed Austrian-German alliance, also known as the "Central Powers."
Perhaps going to Russia not only confirms Austria's suspicion of their complicity, but also proves that the Serbian government wanted to instigate a war against Austria who had
territory that they wanted to free from Austro-Hungarian rule (frankly, that's
very understandable). On July 28, 1914, the
Central Powers finally declared war on the Serbian-Russian alliance, which grew
to include France and the United Kingdom, otherwise known as the "Allied
Forces."
Russia had a
very powerful military, of course, so the Central Powers decided against attacking
them directly. Instead, they decided to open the war by enacting the Schlieffen Plan, and attacked France by going through Belgium (you see how this got
worse by the minute). That officially brought Britain into the war. France then
enacted their own plan, Plan XVII, and quickly mobilized against Germany. The
Central Powers eventually moved South into France, and the Allied Forces moved
in from the North. It was the United States' turn to join the war, but we had
an isolationist policy, so they practically had to beg the U.S. to join the
Allied Forces. The U.S. finally relented
on April 6th, 1917, creating a buffer when Russia exited that same year to work
on an internal revolution to removed their czar. This is also when Germany's
chances of winning the war diminishes. All of this eventually led to the bloody
battle in the trenches in which Germany launched thousands of shells filled with
chlorine to weaken or kill their enemies (though France was the first to
introduce chemical warfare into the war with 26 mm grenades filled with tear
gas). And this had the desired affect the Germans were looking for, as it
injured many of the Allied soldiers' eyes, throat, and lungs, if they weren't
killed by asphyxiation. The entire war lasted four years from 1914
through 1918, and accumulated a
grand total of 37,466,904 casualties (8,528, 831 deaths alone).
Photo from Mountain View Mirror
The Treaty of
Versailles
But the
question remains, who was ultimately responsible for starting the first world war? Was it the
Central Powers and their hasty move into war or the Black Hand who assassinated
Austria's archduke? It doesn't matter,
because the Central Powers were forced to take full responsibility for starting
the war. But even that was not enough to give rise to the Nazi party...it was
the creation of the ill-conceived diktat,
the Treaty of Versailles, which was created without consulting Germany or
Austria, and was fueled by destructive revenge to bring Germany to its knees, especially
on the part of France who really didn't care if it turned Germany into a third
world country or not.
While this
was partly warranted because of the casualties and devastation the Central
Powers left behind, the three people who drafted the document-Prime Minister David
Lloyd George of Great Britain; who recognized the unfairness of the treaty but
caved in to public pressure, Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau of France; the
most radical of the treaty signers who wanted to both punish Germany and
prevent it from starting another war against France, and President Woodrow
Wilson of the United States; who wasn't allowed to implement his fair 14 Points
Peace Plan, were unwittingly catalysts to
even bigger problems. In fact, with their pens, the Big Three completely changed
history because without the Treaty of Versailles, the Nazis wouldn't have
risen to power, World War 2 wouldn't happen, 6 million Jews would have still been
alive, communism wouldn't have grown, the Soviets wouldn't have been in power
in Russia, there wouldn't have been a Soviet Block, and there wouldn't have
been a Cold War. Such was the environment they helped create in Germany and
Austria, that allowed all those events to occur.
As for reparations in the treaty, they divided them into four categories- territorial,
military, financial, and general:
Territory
As far as territory was concerned, twelve territories
and their populations were given to
the Allied Powers. Alsace-Lorraine, for example, was to be given to France
(that must have hurt), Eupen and Malmedy was given to Belgium, Northern
Schleswig was given to Denmark, Hultschin was given to Czechoslovakia, the list
goes on-Germany was lucky that it was still one country. They even overreached
and took Germany's colonial possessions, so German citizens who had nothing to
do with the war because they lived thousands of miles away in distant countries
like Africa, China, and German Samoa, had to surrender their countries and businesses to the
League of Nations, which basically is equivalent to England and France who already
had a monopoly on colonial territory.
Military
Germany and
Austria had to reduced their military to 100, 000 men. They were not allowed
tanks, an air force, submarines, but they were allowed to keep 6 capital naval
ships...out of generosity I'm sure (the Germans sunk those in retaliation for being
forced to turn over their entire Navy). And of course there were the
demilitarized zones, which were located west of the Rhineland and 50 kilometers
east of the Rhine River. God forbid if they had to defend themselves in the
future...they were equivalent to defenseless, which is just what France liked,
because in their faulty logic Germany would be unable to start another war (that
theory worked out real well, didn't it...). And the threesome felt they were armed enough
to ward off communism, which was perhaps unrealistic. In the colonies, they didn't have enough military power to fend
off the Allies from taking their countries, especially since Germany's military
was reduced significantly. But that wasn't enough for the Big Three- the German
colonial people throughout the world were interned for four to five years. That
is, they were prisoners of war for no fault of their own. Fathers couldn't see
their wives or children, who had to grow up without them, and families were displaced.
Financial
As far as
the financial aspect of the treaty was concerned, Germany had to give The Big
Three a blank check...to be cashed at a later date when they decided how much
all the devastation cost, and they weren't going dutch. They eventually decided
that the entire war, structural damage included, cost 186.3 billion dollars,
which is an astronomically price especially in the early 1900s, and far beyond Germany's means to repay. The loss of industrial territory and probably
the overseas plantations, hampered Germany's ability to revitalize their
economies. The Big Three even prevented Germany and Austria from uniting as a
super-state, which would have increased their economic potential, should have decided
to have a modest standard of living in future.
In the colonies, as I previously mentioned, the plantation owners had to
cede their plantation over to France and England, but it didn't stop
there...they had to cede "all" their property including money, so
many of them went broke overnight with nowhere to go.
General
The general
aspect of the treaty sure delivered a blow to Germany's reputation and finances.
It was divided into 3 clauses...1. The "War Guilt Clause," where
Germany's guilt would be echoed internationally for decades and even centuries yet
to come. 2. The war damages clause which stated that Germany was responsible
for all the collective damages accumulated during the war, and therefore had to
pay reparations. And 3. The League of Nations Clause which formed the peace
keeping organization. This was the brightest aspect of the treaty, if not the
only one. It was an intergovernmental organization with the goal of maintaining
world peace through collective security and disarmament, as well as settling
global disputes through negotiations and arbitrations, supervising labor
conditions, ensuring equal treatment of citizens, stopping human and drug
trafficking...the list goes on. It was the U.N. of its time, effectively. In fact,
it was replaced by the U.N. after World
War II on April 20th, 1946.
a
The General Effects of
the Treaty of Versailles
Germans were understandably outraged with the
unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles, which was no less than unethically severe,
so the democratic party in power, the Weimar National Assembly, was fragile. It
didn't help that their leader, Frederick Ebert, was the person who signed the
treaty in the first place. The German public revolted and labeled his party the
"November Criminals," which also weakened the Weimar Republic's Enlightenment
movement, thus a period of expansive creativity, philosophy, and scientific
discovery was cut short. The Kapp
Putsch Rebellion, which attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic but failed, created
the chaotic atmosphere that would fester and grow, and cause the Germans to
seek radical solution to their problems.
Of course,
with a lack of economy, comes the inability to pay debts. Though I have a high
regard for the French and Belgian people, when they invaded the Ruhr in 1923
because Germany couldn't pay her debts, they became even more of a catalyst
to Germany's economic decline. Usually
the military is used in war, not as a means to pressure people to pay their
debts. Since the people in the Ruhr didn't have any military power to fight
back, they were forced to protest peacefully, so they stopped producing goods.
As Germany's industrial epicenter, when goods weren't being produced, hyperinflation
(or "rising prices") set in, so their currency, the Deutsch Mark, was
degraded and had little to no value. Thus the German Depression began. Jobs
were scarce and 25% the German workforce was unemployed. Many Germans couldn't
afford their homes, so they had to forsake them, becoming homeless (which
reminds me of the foreclosure period during Bush's term). Many couldn't even
afford basic necessities like food, so starvation rampant. On the positive
side, the Germans learned a peaceful method to solving an international crisis-protesting
peacefully without arms. If only that method had a lasting effect...
Here comes
the scary part, the leadership vacuum in Germany needed to be filled, and the
Germans were turning to two radical parties vying for power to solve their
problems...the extreme left Communist Party (KPD) and the extreme right Nazi
Party (NSDAP). Their moderate parties
the Center Party (ZP) and Democratic Party (DDP) didn't stand a chance. That is, they were clinging to straws because
they needed someone with a sense of vision to bring Germany out of her economic
slump and restore her to her former glory. The Ruhr industrialists found those
characteristics in Hitler, the infamous genocidal psychopath I referred to
before. I think it's such a pity that the enlightenment didn't have time to
take hold of the German public, instead of Nazi barbaric ideology. Needless to
say, Hitler didn't bring Germany back to her former glory, but damaged her reputation
even more. And Jews who shared in Germany's Post World War I plight because they were Germans as well, became the
scapegoats. As for America, we can be proud that Harry Truman lent Germany money after World War II. When
Germany's prosperity grew, so did their anti-Nazi stance, and peaceful position
in the world. In fact, there is currently a growth spurt in the Jewish
population in Germany, as a newer generation makes Germany their home. Six
million Jewish people, of course, will never come back, but perhaps their
lasting legacy is that we can use World War II (and World War I) as a road map
on how to deal with our current problem with radical Islamic terrorist groups
who tout their genocidal plans.
A Skeletal Past Resurfaces
http://news.yahoo.com/poland-unearths-one-of-wwii-s-darkest-secrets-161947503.html
News Articles
An Acrid of 1914?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/opinions/turkey-ambassador-killing-whiff-of-1914-opinion-ghitis/index.html
An Acrid of 1914?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/19/opinions/turkey-ambassador-killing-whiff-of-1914-opinion-ghitis/index.html
A Skeletal Past Resurfaces
http://news.yahoo.com/poland-unearths-one-of-wwii-s-darkest-secrets-161947503.html
Exodus of Israelis BACK to Germany
Syrian Revolutionary Speaks Out. The Elements of WWII Are There.
A World War at Germany's Doorstep, Once Again
No comments:
Post a Comment