Why It's Important: The First World War

I am a couple of days late because of some things going on in my personal life, but I have been working on this post for a bit now. I was really hoping to get it up on April 6, the 100th anniversary of America's entry into the First World War. Many people, especially the media, seem to love big anniversaries, and I was shocked by the lack of coverage I saw in American media about this commemoration. Many of the major media and news sites didn't mention it, and many of those that did carried only a short story or focused on the events going on down at the National WWI Museum in Kansas City (a museum i love, by the way!). However, it received decent press overseas in Europe, where the war is much better remembered. In America, many people simply consider the war as WWII's smaller brother, but it was extremely important. Here's just a few reasons why.

Delegates to the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles, 1919

It Drew the Map of the World We Have Today

Ever wonder why nations like Iraq or Jordan have long, straight borders passing through the middle of deserts? Confused about the complex borders in the Balkans? Curious as to where and why extremely culturally, religiously, and ethnically complex populations in African were just lumped into seemingly arbitrary nations together? It all comes back to World War I. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led Europe to split the Middle East among themselves, leading to the borders we have today; men were literally just drawing lines on maps to make things even without regard to conditions on the ground. Which leads us into another point...

Original plans to partition the Middle East, 1916

It Helped Many Modern Nations Find Their Identity

After the war was over, some nations found an identity as a result of borders being redrawn. But many of them found themselves defined DURING the war. Nations like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada first started to see themselves as fully independent nations while fighting together in the war, instead of simply as members of a greater British Empire. Ethnic groups in the Balkans banded together to defend themselves, or were forced to fight in units together as part of the Austro-Hungarian Army, giving them a shared sense of identity. Unfortunately in many cases, this had an unforeseen at the time consequence...

Australian Propaganda Poster from the War

It Caused WWII

World War II is the big one, both in terms of numbers and terms of attention. But it may have never happened without WWI. The brutal treatment of the defeated powers led some, like extreme right-win nationalists in Germany, to hunger for revenge. The nationalism which had been stoked before and during WWI was harnessed by many dictators and thinkers in nations like Italy, Japan, Romania, and Hungary. And more directly...

Most of WWII's Leaders Came to Prominence During WWI

Winston Churchill became famous and then nearly lost his career as a politician while serving as First Lord of the Admiralty during the war. Hitler, as most of you first know, became a minor war hero, was gassed in combat, and was heavily influenced by his war experiences. Mussolini served with distinction, and his participation on the Italian Front helped in his rapid transition from his belief in socialism to being a major leader and thinker in fascism and nationalism. Albert Lebrun and Franklin D. Roosevelt both fulfilled important political roles in their countries during WWI. Finally, nearly every general or admiral famous in WWII gained their first major combat experience in WWII; Rommel, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Patton, Montgomery, De Gaulle, Zhukov, Tito, and more all served in the First World War, where their experiences had a major effect on their tactics and strategies during the later war. Which meant...

Adolf Hitler in Imperial German Uniform

WWI Was Perhaps the Greatest Single Influence on Modern Military Tactics

Modern military tactics and strategy for conventional war were first created and tested on the battlefields of the First World War. The use of small, independent infantry units to secure objectives using speed and surprise grew out of German storm trooper tactics invented to capture trenches. The importance of air power, bombing, and reconnaissance all first saw major use in the WWI. Tanks used as engines to create a break in an enemy line which could then be exploited by infantry. The heavy reliance on artillery as weapons to indirectly support an attack. The formation of dedicated machine gun sections to support infantry. A reliance on hand grenades and similar weapons to act as area of denial weapons to force enemies out of cover. The creation of large dedicated field hospitals close to battle areas to quickly treat the wounded. The need to win a quick, decisive victory before an enemy can fortify himself. All of these tactics were created, refined, or at least found new importance during the war. Of course, none of this would been possible without...

August 1914, French cavalry in armor ride out of Paris

Early 1919, French Tanks in Victory Parade in Paris

WWI Was a Major Influence on Technology

Before WWI, most flight was achieved by multi-winged airplanes made of wood and canvas, by the end of the war there were monoplanes made of metal or otherwise armored. Seaplane carriers found their first major use in the war, paving the way for the development of aircraft carriers. At the start of the war French Cavalry units left Paris wearing armor and uniforms their ancestors had worn under Napoleon, but returned to the city in 1918 riding in tanks. Cars, trucks, and tractors became rapidly improved to contend with extreme war conditions, and the war saw the first major use of motorized ambulances similar to the ones we would recognize today. Nearly every field of technology or science was advanced in some way because of the war. 

It Gave People a Voice

Many social movements, especially in America, had their origins in or became more popular because of the war. When African Americans arrived in Europe, particularly France, they were stunned at the great treatment they received from the locals who had for more enlightened ideas on race, at least compared to Americans of the time. As repression against blacks increased in the south, many sought an escape which they simply lacked the economic means to carry out, but the war changed that. As factories and mines in the north pumped out higher and higher volumes of goods over the course of the war (early on to fill gaps left by the converting of European production to war material, then to sell materials to resource-strapped warring nations, and finally to support the American effort itself) they required more employees. This problem was exacerbated as men began to leave factories to go fight. This created huge numbers of unskilled but relatively well-paying jobs, giving the economic chance for African Americans to escape the south, which they did to the number of 5 million people during the first "great migration". Women going to work for the first time or acting as the heads of a household or community leaders began to question more and more their lack of rights, and the war is frequently seen as having been the final blow against those opposing women's suffrage. 

It Shook The International Stage and Broke the Great Powers

Before WWI, the great powers of the world were the same as those at the end of the Napoleonic Wars one hundred years earlier; France, Germany, Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. The war changed that; by the end France had suffered massively in terms of a loss of men of all classes, England began experiencing its first major imperial problems they were forced to weaken their presence in colonies while simultaneously exploiting them more, and Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary would all have their governments broken or cease to exist at war's end. Britain and France remained powers, but rapidly declining ones, and this opened the door for...

It Created New Great Powers We Still Have Today

Before the war, the United States had been an economically powerful nation, but one with little major influence abroad. With the notable exception of the Teddy Roosevelt presidency (when Teddy for instance helped mediate negotiations during the Russo-Japanese War) America had mostly been an insular, isolationist country considered by many in Europe to still be something of a backwater. Japan, despite its successes against Russia in the previously mentioned war, was still seen as a regional power in Asia but no more. The war created the great powers and super powers we all know today. Japan created her empire and laid the groundwork for the successful modern country she is today. The Soviet Union was created and modernized Russia from a large but backwards nation into a new super power. And America became a de facto world leader, capable of almost single-handedly ending a war which had dragged on for years. From then on, every nation had to factor in the American response when engaging in diplomacy and acts of aggression, even in the old world. 

It Created Modern International Diplomacy

Woodrow Wilson's creation of the League of Nations after the war directly set the groundwork for modern international relations. Without WWI or America's intervention in it, there would be no UN, no treaties banning the use of poison gas in combat, and probably far fewer international treaties. (Some, like the Geneva Conventions were created before the war, but they became far, far more numerous and popular after the war's conclusion in an effort to prevent another major world war). This, of course, wasn't a good thing in every respect...

It Laid the Ground for the Cold War and Modern system of Super Powers. 

With no WWI, and without Germany sending Lenin to Moscow secretly near the end of the war, there would have been no Soviet Union, making a cold war between east and west, communism and capitalism, much less likely. The creation of the Soviet state helped to polarize the world between three ideologies; western democracy championed by France, England, and the US, Fascism championed by Germany, Italy, Spain, and others, and Communism championed by the Soviets and revolutionary groups around the world. WWII broke the fascists, but the last two paved the way for our current system, with America (democracy) and the EU (democracy), contending against the Russians (former Communists) and Chinese (communists) for power on the world stage. Currently the balance of power is maintained, but for how long nobody knows. 

Honestly at this point I could go on and on; the creation of politically-influential veterans movements in the United States and the creation of the VA, massive loss of life triggering major population and demographic changes, the influences in the arts, and a nearly infinite list of things came from WWI. But I think I have made my point; World War One was extremely important, and you should learn more about it if you can. It'll help give you some perspective on the current situation the world finds itself in, and give you respect for how important single events, even very large ones can be. 

That's it for today, see you next time!