Rebuilding Rob

I’m not a “War buff”; nor do I write this to glorify war and death. At the risk of sounding morbid, I think the historical event that fascinates me most is World War I.

I feel like “the great war” gets swept under the rug compared to World War II. Perhaps its is because World War I is another generation removed from us; only now are we getting to a point where most members of the World War II generation (aka “The Greatest Generation”) have passed. World War I started and ended over 100 years ago. Even growing up as a kid in school, I feel like World War I got glossed over in history class. Granted, almost everything gets “glossed over” in world history classes. i could be wrong but I feel as if there a lot more written about not only World War II but also the Civil War, than there is about World War I.

World War I may not have been the watershed moment in American history was; and it certainly didn;t cement America’s place as a major superpower the way that it’s sequel WW2 did. But “the war to end all wars” was the first war that put the United Sates on the global stage. It’s true that the US joined the war it’s final year, once the other major players were depleted and diminished from years fighting; but the war forced the US to modernize its military. Before 1917, the US armed forces more closely resembled the armies of the Civil War than what it would become. And speaking of modernizing war…

World War I was the first war to use camouflaged gear, airplanes, submarines, chemical weapons, and machine guns. To say these were game-changers in the history of warfare is an understatement.

Imagine you’re in the French army, wearing your traditional red, white and blue Napoleonic ear military uniforms. You are armed; but your rifle is essentially a musket. You and your fellow platoon members are marching up a hill, as you have always done in combat. That’s how it was done in Napoleon’s day after all.

Little do you realize that the Germans, who already have the high ground, can see you from hundred of yards away as your uniforms clash with the terrain. They break out a new weapon that would become known as a machine gun. The Germans mow down you and hundreds of your comrades within a few minutes. Naturally, French officers send in reinforcements; only to have the suffer the same fate.

These kinds of innovations led to tens of thousands of deaths on a single battlefield in a single day. And this is to say nothing of the destructive power tanks, chemical weapons and airplanes. It’s no wonder that this became known as “the war to end all wars”. If only that was true.

The Treaty of Versailles would give Germany its worst-case-scenario for war reparations to the rest of the world; devastating her economy. The fallout from this would motivate an Austrian-born German war veteran to enter the world of politics; thus setting the stage for World War I’s sequel…

World War I was a watershed moment for the 20th century; much the same way that the Civil War was a watershed moment in the history of the United States. Every thing that world politics had been and would become collided in those bloody years. I surprised that World War I isn’t deeply covered in high school history classes. World War II gets a lot coverage, as it should. But I think one had to know the fallout from World War I to understand the stat of World War II. As it is, I learned most of what I know about it from a “special topics” college course I took.

What historical event fascinates you the most? Feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. All of your views, likes, follows are greatly appreciated! Be sure to follow me on social media as well. Check out some of my recent posts:

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The article “My Most Fascinating Historical Event” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob