re: 101 years ago today: America officially enters World War I

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But what would have been avoided in such a short albeit sharp war is the total collapse of empires and the long term upheaval of the whole world order.

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That's probably more what I was trying to ask you. Do you think we would still have the empires today? Or would there have been some sort of conflict revolving around the empires collapsing eventually in the mid-20th century leading to a world war anyway?

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It all came down to the fact the British saw Germany as a rising threat to them as the world’s superpower. They saw the war as a chance to take Gemramyvdown a peg. You also had the French itching for revenge for thr Franco-Prussian War.

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it can't be understated how big of a role the U.K. had in all of this. Their desire to preserve and even increase the "empire", and the pressure that put on regional neighbors, can be directly attributed to the death of over 70 million people

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That's probably more what I was trying to ask you. Do you think we would still have the empires today? Or would there have been some sort of conflict revolving around the empires collapsing eventually in the mid-20th century leading to a world war anyway?

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Well, that’s a good question. And one not easily answered. All we can say is that even before the war there were growing movements of upheaval in motion. There was growing socialist and communist movements, even a growing anarchist movement. There were women’s movements and numerious nationalist movements inside the empires, particularly in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.

What WWI did was weaken the Social structures of the time to allow the established order to be swept aside and replaced with these new orders. Had the war not dragged on like it did, this weaking of the Social order would not have happened so more than likely the empires of Europe would have lasted at least another few generations or possibly even to today. It’s really impossible to say if the modern social movements we see today would have ever grown or would have faded out.

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The alliance system resulted in a minor regional affair dragging everyone else into a war that literally no one wanted to begin with. A lesson we may be well served to heed in respect to our current and future alliance systems. *Cough* NATO *cough*

And yes, the British foreign policy theory at the time essentially ensured that any rival power attaining comparable status to the British Empire needed to be blocked. It was a clearly belligerent foreign policy. We all acknowledge that Germany's leaders were certainly culpable for decisions that led to war and failed to make any concessions for the sake of ending it, but the British and French are generally given a pass for their sizable blame in the whole state of affairs. They checked Germany's power, for sure, and in so doing destroyed their own empire in the process in the aftermath

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If there was ever a better example of the victors writing the history books than World War I, I can’t think of it. To this day sole blame for the war is laid at Imperial Germany’s feet by most.

awesome podcast on WWI. Dan Carlin Hardcore History: Blueprint for Armageddon

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If there was ever a better example of the victors writing the history books than World War I, I can’t think of it. To this day sole blame for the war is laid at Imperial Germany’s feet by most.

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there are more than enough resources out there for people to learn about the true reasons and blame for ww1. i wouldnt call that rewriting. most people just dont care enough to actually look so they take a convenient and easy answer

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Probably his best work. Far better than his series on the Eastern Front of WWII. I was sorely dissapointed with Ghosts of the Ostfront.

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Xinfinity

Ghosts of the Ostfront was extremely lazy imo

Duped by British lies and propaganda about the Lusitania, threatened by British financial institutions that large loans could not be re-paid to the USA unless Britain won the war, the USA decided to enter WWI on the wrong side exactly 101 years ago.

Discuss amongst yourselves.




PS Just trying to keep this thread seasoned with some pepper.

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Exactly. I had high hopes for it as I had already listened to his WWI series.

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Yeah my introduction to Dan Carlin was Countdown to Armageddon and I was blown away. Immediately purchased Ghosts of the Ostfront and was like, wtf happened?

In Dan's defense, I believe he was doing much shorter podcasts initially because he didn't think there would be an audience for the longer ones and that was an earlier work.

I'd love for him to do something on the Napoleonic Wars because I'm about as ignorant as can be on that period.