It's always made me wonder what the US would be like if we *had* suffered the kind of losses the rest of y'all did during the Great War. Would we have the same militant, might-makes-right attitude as today? Or would we be more cautious?
Good question - I've wondered that myself more than once. Although we didn't learn much from WW1 or else there wouldn't have been WW2. In fact, if US president Wilson had had his way with his League of Nations, and if the British and French politicians hadn't been so eager to punish Germany as hard as possible (Wilson was against this), it would have been interesting to find out what would've happened instead in Europe.
The aftermath of WW1 always reminds me of the kind of trouble the US avoided after our Civil War. There were a lot of folks in the Union who wanted the South punished, and punished hard. But Lincoln was smart, and called for a "gentle peace." If he hadn't, the US likely would have faced a second, bloodier Civil War.
And that was the mistake that France and Britain made after the Armistice. By punishing Germany as harshly as they did, they doomed the Weimar Republic to failure and created the conditions that allowed Hitler and the Nazis to rise to power.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-11-15 09:27 am (UTC)Good question - I've wondered that myself more than once. Although we didn't learn much from WW1 or else there wouldn't have been WW2. In fact, if US president Wilson had had his way with his League of Nations, and if the British and French politicians hadn't been so eager to punish Germany as hard as possible (Wilson was against this), it would have been interesting to find out what would've happened instead in Europe.
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Date: 2008-11-16 02:44 am (UTC)And that was the mistake that France and Britain made after the Armistice. By punishing Germany as harshly as they did, they doomed the Weimar Republic to failure and created the conditions that allowed Hitler and the Nazis to rise to power.