(no subject)

[naodrith]

History would have been quite different if the Allies hadn't been such utter bastards after World War I.

I think that, in my World History class, They (by They" I mean the shadowy political figures who approve textbooks) aren't expecting me to be getting that out of it. They want me to be all "Oh, my God, Germany and Austria-Hungary are SO EVIL!" They want me to be smirking when I find out that the already-bankrupt Germany had to pay $30 billion in reparations. They want me, above all, not to despise the Allies.

Which I do.

The first World War was not Germany's fault. Serbia made a terrorist attack against Austria-Hungary. A-H retaliated. Germany, like so many other nations, was sucked in by their treaties - treaties formed long before the War.

But Germany took all the blame.

Something isn't right there.

In a bit of an aside - helloooooo, French-hating Bush-loving morons who say that the French can't defend themselves. Battle of the Marne, anyone? Good God.

Comments

[starrysummer.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree with you on this. With the arms race and alliance system going on at the time, WWI really was more an inevitability than any one nation's fault. I guess it's hard to not try to recover as much as you can from the defeated countries, but it's really no surprise Germany ended up in such a mess and fell victim to such an awful regime after the punishment they took as a condition of peace.

[naodrith.livejournal.com]

What really gets me is that my history teacher told me that Germany thought it would be a general armistice. They didn't think they had lost until they saw the terms of the Versailles Treaty.