With all of the deadly clashes occurring in this changing
world of ours, between religious and secular Arabs, Assad and rebel Syrians,
Israel and Hamas, Russians and Ukrainians, a number of historians and pundits
are reminding us that 100 years ago at this very time of the year, that the old
world order of kings and emperors was submerging into the horrible chaos of
World War I. One hundred years ago this
very day, Tuesday, August 4th, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany
over the German Kaiser’s violation of Belgium’s neutrality thus turning an
eastern European squabble into a worldwide conflict.
Historians along with other academicians will forever debate
the origins of “the Great War.” Some
will argue that it actually was a continuation of the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian
war. Others will insist that it had its
origins when Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm II’s Uncle Bertie (formally known to the
rest of the world as Edward VII of Great Britain) concurred in the Triple
Alliance his ministers signed with Russia and France on Friday, August 30th,
1907, to check future German military expansion in Europe. Kaiser Wilhelm II, whose maternal grandmother
Queen Victoria (who was also Uncle Bertie’s mother) often addressed him as
“Willie,” was quite jealous of his Uncle Bertie who, after all, headed a vast
empire that Willie couldn’t possibly duplicate.
(Note: Kaiser Wilhelm’s mother was Victoria, the oldest daughter of Queen
Victoria and “Princess Royal” of Great Britain.) He would feel no less snubbed
by Cousin George who would succeed Uncle Bertie as Britain’s constitutional
monarch on Friday, May 6th, 1910.
Meanwhile, Kaiser Wilhelm had his own alliance with Austria-Hungary’s
Franz Joseph and in 1912 he signed a pact with Turkey. Thus, by 1914, six great European powers,
Great Britain, France, Russia on one side, and Germany, Austria-Hungary and
Turkey on the other side, were armed to the teeth. Russia had signed an agreement to protect
Serbia and the other Slavic states which invariably made Austria-Hungary, as
well as Turkey, very uncomfortable.
Then, suddenly on Sunday, June 28th, 1914, 19 year-old
Gavrilo Princip, a radical Serbian nationalist who feared the power of Austria-Hungary
to dominate his native land, assassinated the heir to the throne Franz
Ferdinand and his wife Sophie as they visited Sarajevo, Serbia. With that assassination, the “fat was in the
fire.”
In less than two months, the great powers of Europe, all of
them strong and smelling of gun powder, would be at war. If Austria-Hungary sought to punish Serbia
for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Russia would protect Serbia. Germany’s alliance with Austria-Hungary would
require it to stand by the old Emperor Franz Joseph in protection of
Austria-Hungary’s grief, and aroused sense of honor. Turkey, anxious to protect
the Dardanelles Strait against almost certain Russian expansion into the
Mediterranean, would stand by both Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Meanwhile, France, still smarting over its defeat by Germany
during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War (particularly its loss of
Alsace-Lorraine), would, as part of the Triple Entente with Russia and Great
Britain, enthusiastically go to war to avenge its late 19th century
humiliation.
The parallel between 1914 and 2014 can be found, I believe,
not only in the relative military parity among the world’s potential
combatants, but in our learned assumptions about the nature and causes of war.
You and I have been taught by almost every American leader
and president since Harry Truman that the best insurance against aggressive war
is strength, especially military strength.
(Note: Winston Churchill made that very point during his Iron Curtain
speech on Wednesday, March 6th, 1946 before President Truman at
Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.) Today, Israel, Hamas, al-Qaeda, the
Islamic Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and of course Russia all
possess sufficient resentments and grudges, political alliances and weapons of
mass destruction to set off a conflagration that would make World War I the
proverbial tea party or, if you prefer, “the Teddy Bear’s Picnic.”
Since British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s
“appeasement” of Adolf Hitler, the ideas put forth by men such as former
President Jimmy Carter and our current leader, President Barack Obama, among
others, that the causes of war and the antidotes to prevent wars are varied in
their complexities, have been largely pooh-poohed by almost every other president
since “give ‘em hell Harry Truman” with the possible exception of Gerry Ford.
Thus we find the state of the world in 2014. As we Americans, smug in our socio/economic
heritage, snuggle behind our nuclear missiles and computer-guided drones –
argue over the motives and even the legitimacy of our twice elected president
to occupy his office, while we insist that we’re morally superior to one
another because we’re conservative, liberal, religious, or secular, the world
writhes in turmoil. Righteous
resentments and anger justify every possible punitive reaction whether
socio/economic or violent. We appear to
believe that everyone except our pure and righteous selves needs putting in his
or her place. All grievances or slights
must be redressed if we’re to claim our rightful inheritance of peace,
prosperity and well being.
Thus it was in 1914.
Some point out that World War I was little more than a family feud since
most of the European heads of state were related through the British royal
family and were connected both intimately and distantly to one another in the
wake of generations of intermarriages, jealousies and clashing family
values. All of those who directed World
War I were not only from the most respected families, they were supposedly the
most pious Christian leaders of European society whether Protestant, Roman
Catholic or Orthodox Catholic.
The cost of “the Great War” in human life was very
high. There were about 37,000,000
military and civilian casualties on both sides.
That includes 16,000,000 dead and 20,000,000 wounded. The allies suffered 6,000,000 killed while
the Central Powers suffered approximately 4,000,000 military deaths. Causes of death were injury, disease,
malnutrition and crimes against humanity.
As for the fate of the assassin of the Archduke and his wife, Gavrilo
Princip spent the 3 years and 10 months remaining to him at Terezin prison in
Bohemia under a sentence of 20 years.
Too young to receive the death penalty under Austria-Hungarian law, his
death on Sunday, April 28th, 1918 from a combination of tuberculosis
and malnutrition was nevertheless a painful one. He weighed only about 88 pounds at the time
of his death. His bones had deteriorated
to such an extent that his right arm had been amputated to avoid further
infection.
If 1914 possesses an
abiding moral lesson applicable to us, the children of this era a hundred years
distant, it is this: war will prevail until what we desire for others is of
equal importance to what we demand for ourselves.
Look over your shoulder – the ghosts of 1914 are indeed
trying to catch up – not to haunt us but rather to share with us a wisdom they
lacked during their own time.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
No comments:
Post a Comment