The Super Summary of World History (55 page)

As Germany starved and scraped the bottom of the manpower barrel it also stumbled in the technological war. The Allies produced tanks (a lot of them), better tactics (combined arms assaults), better aircraft (a lot more of these too), better technology for warfare at sea, more equipment, more spare parts, and better code-breaking methods—just to name a few Allied advantages.

After the last German assault bled to a halt, the Allies took the offensive all along the Western Front. For years, the Germans successfully moved troops from one location to another as each Allied campaign began.
[182]
Now the Allies attacked everywhere at once, and Germany’s dwindling reserves could not plug every hole. As the German Army retreated, Ludendorff lost his nerve abruptly announcing to the Kaiser that Germany must surrender at once. At the same time, mutinies were taking place in the German Navy and spreading to the populace. The news stunned the Kaiser and German civilian leadership, remembering that only a few weeks ago they were told Germany was opening a war winning offensive. Violent questioning changed nothing, as German military leadership continued to insist on capitulation. The public knew nothing of these behind the scene military and political maneuvers. As the mutinies spread, Wilhelm II abdicated and the armistice was signed; nonetheless, the English blockade continued for months, starving women and children from Germany to Syria for reasons unclear to this day. With each innocent’s death, German hatred grew because of the shortsighted English policy.

The German Army forced the nation’s capitulation, but the Allies failed to enter Germany proper. Later,
the
myth
arose that the German Army was “stabbed in the back” by enemies at home rather than suffering defeat in the field. This myth ballooned to a widespread belief and helped Adolph Hitler rise to power in Germany. Hitler, the man who started World War II, fought bravely in the Great War winning the Iron Cross—very hard for an enlisted man in the Kaiser’s army. His hatred of the French, his condemnation of Germany’s defeat, and the armistice terms of Versailles drove him to start a war to salvage German honor. Some Allied generals, Pershing among them, predicted that unless the Allies marched into Berlin the Germans would not admit defeat and the war would renew itself after a few years. The war did renew itself after a few years, and the new war proved worse than the old; however, the origins of WWII go far beyond an Allied failure to march on Berlin. While the myth dovetailed into post war evils, far greater issues pivoted on an international economic collapse, German economic problems, poor leadership in the West, and poor leadership in Germany that allowed
Adolf
Hitler
to worm his way into power.

Aftermath

(And
you
thought
the
war
was
bad
 . . .)

The Germans cringed when they received the peace terms, but the Allies ripped at their throat. Germany must sign or be utterly destroyed. Germany was not allowed to enter the peace conference until told, as only the winning nations were allowed to attend. There were no negotiations. Over German protest, especially the clause saying Germany started the war (the War Guilt clause), the French and English battered Germany into signing the
1919
Treaty
of
Versailles
. The negotiations between the winning parties over the contents of the treaty were probably the most important in history. Many modern worldwide problems started with the Treaty of Versailles. World War II grew from this document, as well as numerous civil wars. World War I was a grave error for the West, but the Treaty of Versailles compounded and extended the error to future generations. The American Senate, to President Wilson’s dismay, decided
against
the treaty and the US later signed a separate peace treaty with Germany.

As the Kaiser fled and the German parliament sued for peace, Germany itself faced a left-wing revolution. Communist cells, established all over Europe by the USSR and competing socialists movements, now attempted to take full advantage of the upheaval to gain control of governments in Germany and other troubled European nations, such as the new nations forming from the crumbling Austria-Hungarian Empire. As the German government tottered the streets became scenes of chaos. The starving populace began rioting, and the police strained to maintain order. In the short term, at least a semblance of order paved over smoldering difficulties; however, the future shown none too brightly for Western Europe as the forces of radical change swept the continent. Germany became the
Weimar
Republic
, a weak government struggling to survive after the Great War.

As the war concluded, a horrendous influenza pandemic swept the world in 1918 and 1919 killing about
50
to
100
million
people
.
[183]
The influenza exterminating the world probably came from the trenches of World War I, when a normal strain of flu moving through millions of men radically changed in the process. Then infected men took the flu back to their home nations where it became an invisible hurricane killing anyone susceptible. Humanity found no cure, and the killing storm simply exhausted itself as survivors were apparently immune to its effects. The pandemic killed far more people than the war itself.

The Great War’s victims were many. Millions were dead, and billions spent. The Ottoman Empire, destroyed; Austria-Hungary, dismembered; Germany’s overseas colonies, and national territory stripped; German honor, shattered; the French and British populace, decimated; the world’s economy, in torment. The great world of 1900, murdered. European wealth and society was destroyed by stupidity beyond imagination.

Versailles’ Treaty stripped Germany of its army and navy, forced the nation to admit responsibility for the war, and forced its citizens to pay
thirty-two
billion
(in 1919 dollars, much more today) in repatriations to the Allies.
[184]
The United States refused to ratify the treaty.
Woodrow
Wilson
, the American president negotiating the treaty, sold out everything for his concept of a new organization joining the leading nations of the world in a setting where diplomacy substituted for wars—the
League
of
Nations
. Wilson, an idealist, dreamed of the League forming the centerpiece of a world without war. However, the US Senate must ratify US treaties, and the Senate rejected the treaty and the League of Nations. The United States signed a separate peace with Germany, bitterly disappointing the Europeans. The world’s nations went ahead with the League, but America never joined, and the USSR (Russia renamed by the communists)
[185]
stayed away until 1934. As organized, the League possessed little ability to enforce any rules it might pass, and passing rules was nearly impossible because taking action required a unanimous vote. It became mostly a talking club, and when talking failed the League failed. The Concert of Europe depended on balance of power politics to maintain the peace, and that produced arms races and the Great War. The League would not rely on balance of power politics that it thought caused the great conflagration, and the ideal of a mutual defense against aggression failed to prevent a swift march to a new murderous conflict.

Economic calamity overtook Germany and Europe immediately after the war, with only England and the United States seeming to emerge from the firestorm with something like their old economies intact. An illusion, at best. England spent its national treasure on the war, and it borrowed heavily to sustain itself during the fighting. The German economy launched into hyperinflation where a thousand marks could not buy a loaf of bread. At one point,
a
million
German
marks
equaled about
one
US
dollar.
The United States also spent deeply to enter the war and sustain the fight. Little did the “winning” nations recognize the world economic system sustained enormous strain, and even one misstep by the economic ministers could cause the international system to fail. In fact, several missteps came in the form of higher tariffs, tightening national money supplies, increasing taxation, and more government control over economies (socialism—which resulted in even higher taxes). The world economic system crumbled and the world’s worse depression hit—
The
Great
Depression
. With millions out of work; banks failing and taking people’s savings; industry shrinking; production falling; and international trade dying the government bureaucracies choked. Around the world finance ministers seemed unable to deal with the emergency, and the steps governments did take made the Depression worse. From 1929 to 1939, the Depression gripped the world, but the Depression hit hardest in the world’s most industrialized nation—the United States.
[186]

In the United States, President
Hoover
, who took office in 1929, tried to keep wages high, and he approved of recent congressional moves to increase tariff rates substantially. Hoover adopted high government spending to solve the crisis, and he tried many economic moves never tried before. By keeping wages artificially high Hoover caused layoffs in major industries, keeping high tariffs shrank international trade, and high government spending created high taxes taking money away from consumers. President
Roosevelt
, elected into office in 1933,
[187]
also desired high wages, did nothing to reduce the towering tariffs, and his administration spent far more than Hoover’s. Roosevelt tried to raise the price of farm products and manufactured goods, he created extensive government works programs, and he
raised
taxes
. This caused fewer goods to be available for purchase and took more money away from private enterprise inhibiting new hiring. Roosevelt’s “
New
Deal
” programs did much more harm than good. Recovery from the Great Depression began only after World War II took men out of the workforce as soldiers, and started massive production to fight the war. In fact, some economists claim the recovery did not happen until the 1950s. (See our section on the Great Depression).

As the worldwide economic disaster started, dictators began taking over major nations in Europe and Asia. It seemed capitalism and democracy failed, as shown by the Great War and now the Great Depression. Italy moved to
Mussolini
as its leader (a dictator) in 1922; Russia came under a brutal dictatorship by 1928 (
Stalin
); Germany elected
Hitler
(another dictator) as its leader in 1933, and in Spain
Franco
became dictator in 1934. The economic tragedy of the Great Depression, caused in large part by WWI, led to a political catastrophe where powerful modern nations fell to cold-blooded dictators. In this fashion, World War I led to World War II. The Great War had changed everything, and everything collapsed quickly.

Some
Thoughts
on
the
Great
War
and
the
Aftermath

The great problems of the First World War stemmed from the Treaty of Versailles, the enormous debt incurred fighting the war, the massive death toll, the social dislocation, damage to political and economic structures, and the humiliation of the German nation. At the conclusion of any war, especially a momentous war such as WWI, the winning nation(s) must strive to create a peace stabilizing the situation in a fashion that prevents another war. This is
winning
the
peace
. The Roman general Scipio Africanus understood the principle of winning the peace, and this was why he made a generous peace with Carthage. Scipio ended the very long and brutal Second Punic War where Hannibal spent sixteen years destroying Italy as well as butchering several Roman legions. Scipio had won a total victory, and burning Carthage to the ground posed no problem—as was later accomplished in the Third Punic War after inferior leaders in Rome destroyed Scipio’s diplomatic triumph. Scipio knew Carthage could become a trading partner and assist Rome in controlling Africa; thus, Scipio designed a peace to avoid further war and bring additional prosperity to Rome
and
its ancient enemy Carthage.

The drafters of the Versailles Treaty failed to follow Scipio’s example, creating a treaty calculated to crush and humiliate Germany. France intended to stop another war by being so harsh with Germany she could never threaten Europe again; however, by making the Versailles treaty so ruthless the leaders all but guaranteed the next war. The axiom is simple enough to understand: it is not wise to humiliate a great people.
[188]
By destroying Germany’s wealth through huge repatriations they guaranteed the world additional financial tribulations.
[189]
The great debt incurred by the warring nations hurt their economies and international trade, but no one saw that by harming Germany’s economy they wounded every economy worldwide. These problems, plus feeble financial decisions by key economic powers in Europe and America, resulted in an economic collapse of epic proportions.

Economically, the world was in a fairly good place in 1900 and the future seemed bright. Democracies or paternal monarchies ruled most of Europe and by extension most of the world. Industrialism brought benefits in new and better products at lower prices while workers earned higher wages. Science helped to advance industry bringing ever improving manufactured goods. (These thoughts are my opinions. Many historians disagree.)