Was anything achieved by WW1?

[Mycroft]

Yes. Lots and lots of money was made.

War is a Racket, by General Smedley Butler
https://archive.org/details/WarIsARacket


The fascinating thing about this was Gen. Butler's prediction of the next world war.

 

[Watchmen]

It gave the Nazis the chance to murder six million people without anyone seeing it happen.

I find it increasingly difficult to think of any war that has achieved its goal with a justifiable cost.

American Revolution?

 

[GoodbyeDave]

American Revolution?

I doubt if the thousands of loyalists driven out, or the native Americans left to the mercy of the USA would agree with that.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It set off a chain reaction that lead to, so far, a century of international tensions and war, and it changed Western society and much of the world with it. WWI never really fully came to a halt, as the in between period was more of an awkward, stagnant, and shaky truce, and WWII changed the world. Technology boomed, different approaches of politics were experimented with, and while more and more of Europe would come to appreciate human rights, more and more Americans came to appreciate patriotism and free-market enterprise. The western nations largely ceased fighting amongst each other, though they still partake in the wars of the East and Middle East.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

All the fighting took place in France. The Germans had in 1914 advanced all the way to the outskirts Paris. Damage was catastrophic. Other than war debt German industry and civilian areas were untouched. Kissinger touches on this fact in his book Diplomacy that the Germans were in a much more economically powerful situation due to the war as France was devastated and the British economy was in the tank. The weakened Weimar government was its own problem but the economic side was heavily in German favour. Ineptitude by the Weimar Government made that advantage disappear.

So, you mean it led to Germany being in a potentially strong economic position which they failed to take advantage of?
Im not convinced, but can keep an open mind on it. It didn't lead to an economically powerful Germany though.

 

[Watchmen]

I doubt if the thousands of loyalists driven out, or the native Americans left to the mercy of the USA would agree with that.

So it's a matter of perspective?

 

[Cureus]

The central powers did a lot to remove the gangbanging mentality of the colonial era in my opinion. I mean the demonstration of violence showed that europeans could be just as brutal to each other as they were to those in the developing world.

That, and my grandad was born.

 

[Riverwolf]

I've been reading a little about the Great War recently. My feeling is that it achieved nothing.
In your view, did WW1 achieve anything?

It achieved exactly EVERYTHING that happened after it. The Great War was a keystone event that completely altered the course of World History from that point on.

Without it, the world we know simply does not exist.

I'm not saying that as some kind of praising or glorifying. It created this modern world because it was so senselessly horrible.

 

[Shad]

It broke down many of the previous bourgeoisie systems and exposed the holes in capitalism.

 

[Riverwolf]

So it's a matter of perspective?

All potential readings of history are based on subjective perspective.

The Founding Fathers were freedom-loving revolutionaries who liberated a nation...

Or they were a group of violent, traitorous terrorists, murdering people in their sleep ON CHRISTMAS, for the crimes of a poor King who...

...

Okay, I don't really think King George III can be defended, overspending on an ultimately failed war with France, and then failing to apply English law to one of its own colonies(one of the biggest sparks of the AR was that the colonists were being taxed without representation in Parliament, which was in direct violation of English law, which had for about a thousand years prior declared that no man can be taxed without his consent). The guy isn't even fondly remembered in what I've seen of British history, nowadays having the title "The Mad King".

HOWEVER, it is worth remembering that the people the Revolutionaries were fighting weren't soldiers shipped oversees from England; they were almost all colonists, too. The American Revolution was very much a Civil War. They were fighting their neighbors. Heck, most of my knowledge of the American Revolution comes from my memory of what I was taught in High School. I do wonder how much truth there was in those lessons, and what key information may have been left out that might actually defend the King's actions.

RF's British folk! How's that event taught in your schools?

 

[Riverwolf]

Hell, Churchill said WW1 and WW2 were one war with a truce in the middle, and it could be called the War of British Succession.

I don't know about the title, but I definitely agree that both World Wars might be considered a single Great War. Whenever I say "postwar", I'm pretty much exclusively talking about post-WWII, even though plenty of wars have been fought since.

 

[Phil25]

I'm not sure WW 2 achieved anything, either.

It destroyed Nazi Germany

 

[Sapiens]

I've been reading a little about the Great War recently. My feeling is that it achieved nothing.
In your view, did WW1 achieve anything?

Sure ... it guaranteed WWII.

 

[samosasauce]

We learned that PTSA exists from it; also, it was a starting point for colonies of European countries to break away and become independent.

 

[psychoslice]

I don't think anything is achieved by war, war is for the unintelligent, no matter how good it sounds.

 

[Wirey]

Again, it destroyed the imperial course set by most of the European superpowers. the French and English hung on for another 30 years, but colonial feudalism died in Flanders and at Gallipoli. Actual, tangible freedom for every person on earth took it's second big step forward.

 

[Riverwolf]

I don't think anything is achieved by war, war is for the unintelligent, no matter how good it sounds.

Well... I wouldn't say war never achieves anything; after all, a thing achieved is not necessarily a positive thing.

Neither would I say it's for the unintelligent, since the actual act of effectively fighting a war requires the sort of intellect that the bulk of us are untrained in. Reactionary is, I think, a more accurate term. The intellect is there and strong, running a hundred miles per hour... in the completely wrong direction.

 

[Cureus]

All potential readings of history are based on subjective perspective.

The Founding Fathers were freedom-loving revolutionaries who liberated a nation...

Or they were a group of violent, traitorous terrorists, murdering people in their sleep ON CHRISTMAS, for the crimes of a poor King who...

...

Okay, I don't really think King George III can be defended, overspending on an ultimately failed war with France, and then failing to apply English law to one of its own colonies(one of the biggest sparks of the AR was that the colonists were being taxed without representation in Parliament, which was in direct violation of English law, which had for about a thousand years prior declared that no man can be taxed without his consent). The guy isn't even fondly remembered in what I've seen of British history, nowadays having the title "The Mad King".

HOWEVER, it is worth remembering that the people the Revolutionaries were fighting weren't soldiers shipped oversees from England; they were almost all colonists, too. The American Revolution was very much a Civil War. They were fighting their neighbors. Heck, most of my knowledge of the American Revolution comes from my memory of what I was taught in High School. I do wonder how much truth there was in those lessons, and what key information may have been left out that might actually defend the King's actions.

RF's British folk! How's that event taught in your schools?

King George III didnt exist according to my lessons. Infact to learn about WW1 and Britain's expenditure on the navy I had to choose an extra class age 14, for WW2 I needed an extra-extra class age 16. Although I went to a state school, Britain doesnt even have a unilateral education system. Scotland for example has its own parliament and education system. The state broadcaster BBC did run a programme recently on George III, but I dont see the correlation between that and WW1.

 

[Estro Felino]

Are you kidding me?
The WW1 destroyed the 4 Empires: Austria, Germany, Turkey, Russia.

tens of nationalities got independence and freedom.

 

[Shuttlecraft]

I've been reading a little about the Great War recently. My feeling is that it achieved nothing.
In your view, did WW1 achieve anything?

It just showed us how stupid the major powers were in those days, so let's hope our modern governments have learned something from it and are not quite so stupid, but I doubt it..