100 years since today, the Archduke and Archduchess of the Austrian Habsburg Empire were shot on a street in Sarajevo (in our days' Bosnia-Herzegovina) by a nationalistic student.
Which triggered the outbreak of one Great War, the Great War of its days (with trenches, gatling guns, fighter planes, chlorine...).
"The Wind in the Willows shows the increase and shift in
population that occurred prior to World War I; society had
developed new ways of communication, and many, unhappy with
their own lot, were quick to take advantage of someone else
suffering a setback. The takeover of Toad Hall by the weasels is also representative of the imperialism or
military aggression that existed in the pre-war days. When
Badger suggested his plan for retrieving the Hall, they
looked forward to the proposed action. They sang mottos
and had romantic visions. This was not unlike many men
prior to the first world war. The romance and adventure of
war intrigued them."
They called it the war to end all wars, which is ironic in hindsight...
The war might have turned to be a war to end all the wars but instead The treaty of Versailles proved to be one of the unfairest treaty in the history, but now, judging from the present scale of time, I find some comfort in the unfairness of the war (Oddly enough). If WWI had really proved to be a war to end all wars, there would have been no WWII, no development or say slower development of technology. The Japanese, after their humiliating defeat planted the ego of growing strong so deep in their hearts that they set out to conquer the world with technology, not weapons and this time they somehow succeeded. Rest of the development of technology caused throughout the cold war. People started using computers in their homes, internet developed then came mobiles, smartphones and somehow the blogs. See, I am sitting in a corner of the world, I am reading this blog which you are writing from another part of the world. It might sound something like the Kalidas sense of optimism, popularly known in the west as the Shakespearean sense of optimism "All's well that end's well." The path of history irreversible, and even if we agree or disagree, we seem to submit ourselves to the changes and the causes that bought them.
ResponderEliminar