Blog for January 22nd

Submitted by Elizabeth Hartney on Mon, 01/21/2013 - 20:27

     The part of the reading that surprised me the most was the section titled "Popular Reactions" at the beginning of chapter three. While it is now clear that no one expected the War to last more than six months, I still find it very surprising that the various european peoples were so willing to enter a war that was predicted to kill many due to the new technologies. I personally would have expected the declaration of war to be a surprise to the europeans because I would not have expected them to understand all of the ententes and alliances being formed prior to the outbreak of fighting. This is even more interesting to me because european countries are so near one another- I would therefore expect people of different backgrounds to have family or friends in other countries, making war in Europe more of an emotional conflict.

      From a more historical standpoint, I was interested to learn that Germany initially seemed to be winning the war. It seems that they had all that they needed: a strong army, good tactics and enough financial support. I feel that if they hadn't given Britain enough time to ally with Russia and France that Germany definitely could have quickly won the war as they expected to do. As I continue to read I will try to pinpoint the poor decisions made by Germany that lead to her loss in the War. I am also interested in Russia's poor showing in the War and will continue to follow this as I finish the reading. It seems to me that a country with such a strong population and tough people should have been able to easily defeat the influx of German troops.

 

 

 

Comments

Michelle Scheuter

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 21:02

I am also interested in Russia's involvement in the war. I thought that a country as large as Russia would have more control over their economy among other things. Beside the problem of commuting from Russia to the fighting territories, why did Russia lose so much and what made their government completely fall apart? It kind of sounds like Russia never had control over their own country from the beginning. People lived their, but their was no unity among the society.

Jeff Drouin

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 21:41

Russia's political infrastructure and economy were disorganized, which was a main reason they considered France a key ally. France was helping Russia to modernize its economy and military, but not enough changes had taken root before the outbreak of war. Russia also had ongoing turmoil that resulted in the revolution of 1917.

Will Boogert

Mon, 01/21/2013 - 23:38

It is surprising to me too that most of Europe seemed to support their country's part in the war. I can only assume that most people thought the war would be over very quickly, like you said, and that they were avoiding a bigger crisis as a result of going to war when they did. It seems like a lack of foresight on the part of the political leaders at the time.

Jeanine de Leon...

Tue, 01/22/2013 - 16:03

I figured that even though that people had heard about the new Biological weapons of war, those countries had not seen it for  themselves so did not realize just how horrible it was. In every war, loved ones will die, but people tend not to really realize that their loved ones could be the one who will die. It's the idea that 'it won't happen to you'. It was also an honor for families if they had someone who would fight or die for their country.

Jeanine de Leon-Maestas