One needs to know WWI to understand the collapse of Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire (and the demise of Tsar), the German Empire (and the exile of the Kaiser) and Austro-Hungary Empire. With the break out of WWI, there went the beautiful Belle Epoque (beautiful era).
The tragedy is that WWI is unnecessary and totally preventable. It is the arrogance, greed and impetuosity of the emperor, the king, the Kaiser, and the Tsar, who was less guilty, though.
The mass of both Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) and Central Powers (Austro-Hungary, Germany) were consumed by nationalistic and patriotic pathos, making the events all the more tragic; human folly led to the enormous suffering. The whole country was in delirious excitement and intoxication when the world war came. No better term than a Chinese phrase, 如醉如狂, to describe the sad scene.
Last September we took the Eurostar train from St.Pancras International station in London to Gare du Nord station in Paris. If we were in Gare du Nord at the outbreak of war we would see the soldiers departing “the train slowly steamed out of the station. At that moment, quite spontaneously, like a smouldering fire suddenly erupting into roaring flames, an immense clamour, arose as the Marseillaise burst from a thousand throats, . . . The women were throwing kisses and heaped flowers on our convey.”
We walked from the Place de la Concorde along the famous Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomph the last day of our visit to Paris. We would watch a French cavalry regiment march “very smartly” around the square had we visited the Place de la Concorde almost exactly 100 years earlier and “when artillery passed, the guns were festooned with flowers and women jumped on the limbers to kiss the men.”
The air in St. Petersburg was no less excited and exalted; the crowd knelt and sang the Russian national anthem when the Tsar appeared on the balcony. Little did anyone know that the Tsar and his family would meet their fate under the hands of the Bolshevik four years later.
The Kaiser addressed to the exuberant and tumultuous crowd from his palace balcony and his pastor led a huge congregation in the recitation of Psalm 130. The enthusiastic Hitler was among the crowd.
“It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing. ..”
This is how Mark Twain’s War Prayer satire begins, click this link http://warprayer.org/ to read it.
The War Prayer was never published in Twain’s life time, as he couldn’t find any publisher or magazine to publish it. Unpatriotic is un-American! That was the mood of the nation then. In a letter to a friend in 1905, Twain wrote, “I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time, none but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.”
Twain wrote the war prayer at the end of American Philippine War; unfortunately the Europeans didn’t have the chance to read it before the Great War as it was not published until 1923.
The World War I shouldn’t have happened and the World War II should be fought at all costs. That will be another post.
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