Part II, History of the World, and of World War 2
(1914-1937; from the start of World War 1 to the start of World War 2)
by Carl R. Littmann; (Part 2, dated 6-1-2004);
(...continued from Part 1, dated 7-1-2003)

Note:

A link to my long Timeline is found at the end of my few pages discourse, below:

A globe or map of the world is strongly recommended for all my history articles. Unfortunately, most large western countries greatly practiced imperialism before, during, and after WW1. It represents one of the most disgraceful, degenerate period of Western “civilization”; and it does not really merit a single written line, much less ~40 pages. I included it here, only so that the reader will understand how it contributed to WW2. Sometimes *asterisks* appear near a special timeline heading. If the readers wish, I can, hopefully, email them more information and opinions about such special * topic* .

Introductory Remarks:

Despite my long tirade against “income” taxes; there is something even less intelligent! And that is the doctrine of maintaining “peace” through quick Pre-emptive Strikes and pre-emptive wars. (Yet, that “mind set” was especially popular in early twentieth century Germany ). But that doctrine is a path of the mentally bankrupt, the insecure, impatient, impulsive, and neo-intelligent—at best. Its “fruits” were ~10 million killed in WW1 and more injured. And 25-70 million dead from an “influenza” epidemic, since war weakens populations. And all the economic destruction and great monetary inflation associated with the above. And most of the seeds laid for WW2 by poor solutions, continued imperialism, poor progress, and the search for convenient scapegoats.

As previously mentioned, many European countries were engaged in a competitive, out-of-control imperialism, leading up to WW1. (And in World War 2, the Axis nations also speeded up their own destruction through “Pre-emptive Strikes”. The USSR , itself, got off to a “bad pre-WW2 start” to the extent that they experimented with it.) In WW1 and WW2; the prevailing, defective mindsets were the sort of thing which old Mencius railed against when he said, “The thing I hate about you ‘wise men’ are your ‘forced conclusions’.” The aging Otto von Bismarck, although perhaps adequate for his time, lost his position in 1890 and died in 1898.

((Optional: In my opinion, we still see similar, flawed “forced conclusions” and “pre-emptive acts”. For example, recently a leading U.S. Senator reportedly argued …that the President is NOT ultimately responsible for a President’s “incorrect” statement about uranium, Africa and Iraq …. .that, instead, bad “CIA” or “British” intelligence is “ultimately” responsible; (i.e., …because they “ allowed” the President to put flawed, misinformation into his speech). I think that is a grave and sick departure from the philosophy of Harry Truman—that ultimately, “the Buck stops here!”—(i.e., that is, that the ‘passing-the-buck’ should stop at the President, who must take the Ultimate responsibility, and not some “fall-guy”). Of course, that is a different from the political philosophy that “the buckS stop here”, which became more prevalent later in the century!))

Strangely, the “trigger” for WW1 was partially set by the results of the Russo-Turkish War of 1878, and decisions made in international conferences to limit those Russian gains. A number of ethnic and nationalistic European nations were established out of the defeated Turkish (Ottoman) empire. Most large countries in Europe still did not welcome “self determination”, nor the establishment of small countries ruled by their dominate ethnic, nationalistic group pursuing self-determination. Problematically, a region, “ Bosnia ”, (with a significant Serbian and Moslem population) was turned over to Austria-Hungary to administer. In those days, Austria-Hungary was a large, important country, with seaports, and a significant Navy! It eventually annexed the “Bosnian” region with their ethnic Serbs. (That made Austria-Hungary still larger).

But many Serbs in that region, and in nearby Serbia, hated Austria-Hungary for that annexation; and many Serbs wanted a “Greater Serbia” nation, instead. ( Austria-Hungary did pay something to Turkey for Turkey’s lost territory.)

Click Forward to ---- TIMELINE ---- to continue with a chronology of events from 1914 to 1937. ((NOTE: The above link is to an Adobe PDF file. If it doesn't open (after allowing a minute for any old computers with slow dial up service), go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html and easily install the free Adobe Reader.))

The readers will likely obtain better focus and appearance on their Printouts of my PDF Timeline, than what appears on their monitor screens; especially if they first adjust the printouts to best fit the page. Also, the reader might first skim only the timeline dates and underlined events; and later return to any interesting event, for details.

Back to: Beginning of Part II

Forward to: Part III-A, WW2, (bypass WW1 timeline)

Back to: Part I

Back to: Home

(Readers’ comments always welcome)
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