First World War Musings (Part One of Five)

Years after this was posted, I realized that there is much more to discuss on the topic of the First World War than I had originally thought. Therefore, this post is retroactively being incorporated into a bigger thread…

“Discuss what you thought was most interesting fact about WWI?”

What is the most interesting fact about the First World War is the immense role it played in human history. Upon the signing of the Armistice, the path of mankind started in a much different direction than anyone at the time could have imagined and very few today truly appreciate. The myth of the romantic ideal of what warfare had become to the general population in places like England had espoused the participation in war as an opportunity to prove the “virtuous manhood” of the young men within their society.[1] The violence of battlefields like Verdun and the Somme not only proved to be a direct contrast to such perceptions, but forced contemporary psychiatry to increase the efforts into understanding and treating the mental casualties of this new and horrifying approach to warfare.[2] On a larger scale, however, the First World War realigned regional and global influence. Russia’s involvement and withdrawal in 1917 led to the abdication of the Tsar and the Russian Revolution that year, placing the Bolsheviks in power and creating the Soviet Union. The Sykes-Picot agreement, likewise, created a lasting effect in the division of the Ottoman Empire and thus fractured the Middle East in a manner which is still contested and resented to this day.[3]

“In what ways, beyond the obvious connection to the rise of the Nazis, does the war connect to World War II?”

One of the biggest connections between the two wars was the development of aircraft and the doctrinal shift associated with the mobility, strategic implications, and the tactical advantages they provided. The controversial efforts of Billy Mitchell in the 1920’s to advocate airpower were largely unheeded by American military leaders at the time, but the Japanese study of his ideas allowed for their successful use of carrier-based aircraft against American naval forces at Pearl Harbor in 1941.[4] Globally, the power shift from former German and French-controlled territories created an opportunity for Japan to exploit the vacillating control of these distant, resource-rich places such as Southeast Asia, leading to their aggressive growth in the region.[5]

“And does the WWI have any connections to today global issues, crisis or wars?”

As mentioned above, the First World War changed much for mankind over the past century. The present issues in the Middle East can be directly assigned to the heavy-handed British attempts to dictate local order in the region and the inevitable tribal, religious, and economic opposition which has resulted. The influence of the various strategies conceived during the First World War were refined in the subsequent war and continue to dictate the aerial and naval involvement in present conflicts, as well. In general, there really isn’t much in terms of global issues, crisis, or wars today that hasn’t been influenced in some way by the “war to end all wars” a century ago.

In all honesty, studying the causes and combat of the First World War can become somewhat frustrating when it comes to those ideals and points of contention which could be debated ad nauseam. At the same time, though, the war brought about technologies, theories, and capabilities that would have more than likely been discovered much later.

One of the more interesting books I have stumbled across, Gerald Bowman’s The Man Who Bought a Navy chronicles the salvage of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow, Scotland, in the decade following the war. What makes it such a fascinating story is that the main figure in the salvage operation, Ernest Cox, bought the salvage rights without knowing the first thing about raising sunken ships and proceeded to raise 32 ships in seven years, including the largest vessel ever raised at the time – the 26,000 ton SMS Hindenburg.[6] One of the quotes about Cox from the book sticks with me as I continue to increase my professional network for the next step after school: “he would never listen to experts. If he had he’d never have tried the crazy things he did, and pulled them off.”[7]

The First World War is largely forgotten by the general public, which is not really that noteworthy, considering the fact that many events in recent times seem to be cast to history just as easily. For some, however, the stories of the people who fought one of the most maddeningly complex and wasteful wars in human history will always resonate with the right individual. With the proper inspiration of the past, perhaps the lessons learned won’t truly be forgotten.

“My understanding before this course was very basic, I am not a History major and find the complexities of the events to be very fascinating.”

History is one of those odd disciplines where other influences factor in heavily – psychology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and even math (as much as I loathe to admit). What turns a lot of people away from the study of history is the misconception that it is nothing more than the rote memorization of facts, names, and events. Perhaps, for some, it is. My own approach towards history is the story behind that tattered wall of the former barracks building there on Hickam AFB, or how people like Ernest Cox, Edward Ellsberg, and Billy Mitchell were able to overcome environmental, material, political and personal challenges to do what was suggested to be impossible, not merely improbable.

The First World War has valuable insights into the socio-economic role of alliances, and, at times, really really bad ideas. However, one could point out a lot of the very good points of studying this particular part of history, and I hope that you find that one question which justifies the search for the answer – it’s a pretty good feeling when it all “clicks.”

An academic discussion a while ago posed a comment I found interesting: “it would be interesting to read a history book in 50 years of how today’s and future wars are still a result of this war,” and it supports the idea involving a repetition of history in relation to the First World War.

There are times when, during my studies in this class and others that have touched on the causes of the First World War where I find myself on tangential research trying to correlate or disprove the idea that we never truly seem to learn from history. I have to force myself to remember that the variables will never be quite the same, but the pattern of poor alliance choices does seem to be there when one looks at the shifting aspects of power and influence in the world today.

It would be interesting to see what lasting effects the First World War has further along the human timeline, but we can see that even today, we are still mired in the poorly thought-out policies of the past with Johnson’s failure at post-Civil War Reconstruction. What will make the future student’s task of figuring out our motivations will be the depth of digitally archived material to support their research. Imagine how interesting the social media posts from the Civil War would have been, if there was such a thing at the time; Wylie Overstreet was onto something when he came up with the idea of his 2011 book The History of the World According to Facebook. Unfortunately, with digital archives come the ease of revising such material to suit political or social aims, or grossly distorting what we record today to fit the understanding of tomorrow.

Either way, history will continue to be interesting and educational… perhaps even guiding in making the future…

Part Two to follow…

[1] Mark David Sheftall, Altered Memories of the Great War, (London, US: I.B.Tauris, 2010), accessed January 20, 2017, http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/reader.action?docID=10424523, 30.

[2] Bradley W. Corfman, “The Cost of Ignorance: Shell-Shock in Britain during World War I,” scholarworks.bgsu.edu, 2013, accessed January 20, 2017, http://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=honorsprojects, 11.

[3] Fraser Cameron, “The Impact of the First World War and Its Implications for Europe Today,” boell.de, 2014, accessed January 20, 2017, https://www.boell.de/en/2014/07/08/impact-first-world-war-and-its-implications-europe-today.

[4] Barney Sneiderman, Warriors Seven: Seven American Commanders, Seven Wars, and the Irony of Battle, (Havertown, US: Savas Beatie, 2006), accessed January 20, 2017, ProQuest ebrary, 218.

[5] Yong Kwon, “Why the First World War Matters for Japan,” thediplomat.com, 2014, accessed January 20, 2017, http://thediplomat.com/2014/01/why-the-first-world-war-matters-for-japan/.

[6] Gerald Bowman, The Man Who Bought a Navy, (London: Harrap, 1964), 224.

[7] Ibid., 69.