100 years since World War 1

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Before you all see it on the news or hear people talking about it, because I KNOW none of you already knew this, you can learn it from me. I know nobody cares since the second one overshadows it massively, But 100 years ago today, World War 1 officially started. And I know pretty much nobody is alive to remember it anymore, but I still hope we never forget it.

P.S. Kudos if you already knew this, I would hope everyone did but I know not everyone does.

If you haven't already read it, I recommend Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cult ... 180951430/

Modernmax, good on you for taking an interest in history. May I suggest you investigate the reasons why the war started in the first place. I will give you a hint it has very little to do with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, instead the war can be traced back at least 40-50 years and further. I suggest you do this ase the lead up to WW1 has striking similarities to the events of today, ie we have various alliances forming between the major players USA, PRC, and India, The US is a colonial power in decline and the other two are in direct competition with each other and the US.

Explain a bit about WWI, please. I know about WWII, but instead of googling WWI, perhaps you can teach me. I probably didn't pay attention at all. I find history boring when it comes to war, however, you seem eager to let people know information....

Have at it!

World War I occurred between 1914 and 1918. The US was involved from the middle of 1917 to 11/11/1918 (which was known as Armistice Day, and which is now known as Veterans Day).

World War I revolved, basically, around Nationalism. The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires felt a desire to expand. The other European powers, of course, wanted to thwart the advance. I don't know too much about the role the dying Ottoman Empire played. There were previous, smaller wars, from at least 1866, which reflects those desires.

There were two main alliances: the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. When Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, it set off both alliances. War was declared within a week.

One of the Alliances became the "Allies"; the other the "Central Powers."

Within a two-week period, at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, there were over a million casualties (dead, wounded, taken prisoner) combined.

It was a total stalemate on the Western Front from late 1914 through early 1918. The Line separating the Allies and the Central Powers only moved a few miles either way in all that time.

My Uncle E.was a WW1 vet.He was in France.98 years old when he died,the kids were small but they remember him,the only one they ever got the opportunity to meet.The old guy smoked like a chimney and ate everything cooked in bacon grease,one tough old man.

Knew it, but hadnt thought about it until now.

Wow- "the Guns of August" began firing exactly a century ago this summer!


In a sense the First World War did not end until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 because both the Second World War, and the Cold War were direct results of what was set in motion in the summer of 1914.

One of my "special interests" is World War One aviation, especially the career and death of the famous flying ace the Red Baron. I read about him when I was just a boy. Some of his character traits were outstanding enough for him to deserve the legendary fame he has to this day. I wrote a song about him in 1995. The lyrics are historically accurate. The images used in this 2008 music video are also historically accurate and go very well with the lyrics. I wrote and received permission from several different famous aviation artists to use their art in this music video, and all of them answered me within a day or two of my request. (I sing much better now than when this video was made in 2008, but this version of the song has the killer aviation art.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysUQuMarsV4[/youtube]

The US got involved in World War I because of the Zimmerman Note, as well as various acts (e.g., the German sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, their declaration of "unrestricted submarine warfare") undertaken by the Germans.

It took a while for the US presence to have any effect upon the stalemate. But the US presence was probably a decisive element in ending the war.

We lost about 117,000 people DEAD in 1 1/2 years in Europe.

Nowadays, we think 3,000 dead in Iraq over quite a few years is a lot (it is a lot, of course)--but could you imagine if we lost 117,000 people in 1 1/2 years nowadays?

World War One was a brutal war. It could be argued, from the viewpoint of being in the armed forces, that it was the most brutal war of all time (from the viewpoint of civilians, WWII is the "clear winner" in brutality).

This was the first war which made extensive use of airplanes.

Tanks were invented during WW One. No tanks existed before then.

What I mostly know about WWI is from seeing Snoopy in Peanuts Comics. Doesn't seem much different from WWII - Americans fighting the Germans with the French as their allies. And now today they pretty much get along with Germans while making fun of French people all the time. The influenza pandemic that came at around the time WWI killed more people than the war itself, and people said it was supposed to be the war to end all wars.

I personally have virtually no understanding whatsoever about war. As a kid I was taught that such things never solved anything, and I never really understood why Americans had such a problem with Russia during the Cold War and called them The Enemy when I was a kid, but they more or less get along better now. Now if only Americans could see Cuba the way most Canadians do - an affordable place to take a tropical vacation in the winter and get high-quality cigars. My parents have been there a few times.