the GREAT War and effects on your country

[Shri]

Please mention you country and the effects of the Great War on it, if need be (club 1+2) mention of the 2nd 30 year War-

For me, INDIA got her freedom directly due to the GREAT WAR , history's irony.
I for one am thankful for it, most people in Asia and Africa should be thankful for it too as it proved the British were not invincible and could be defeated. Guess Shakespeare was right- "One man's death is another man's freedom".

[Random]

The Great War probably started Canada on the road to real nationhood. Over 50% of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was British born but the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that a huge majority of them identified with Canada and themselves as Canadian after they demobilized. The CEF (along with the Australian Imperial Force) provided the hard core shock troops for the BEF in France during 1917 and 18. In 1914, Canada had gone to war automatically with the rest of the British Empire but after mobilizing over 400,000 men (out of a population of less than 11,000,000) and suffering almost 60,000 dead Canada earned the right to place her signature on the Treaty of Versailles as a self-governing Dominion within the British Empire. Just three-years later Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King would stand up in Parliament and win overwhelming approval to refuse to allow Canada's participation in support of Britain in the Chanak Crisis of 1922. After that, the 1931 Statute of Westminster that made the Dominion of Canada entirely self-governing in all respects, foreign and domestic, was a mere formality.

World War One started Canada on the road to urbanization and industrialization with the attendant socialization and political militancy similar to what happened elsewhere. Socially it served to widen the political gap between the English and French Canadian communities and the mishandling of the 1917 Conscription Crisis almost tore the country in half. The appalling post-war treatment of the First Nations peoples and visible minorities who had volunteered to serve (although many were refused enlistment on racial grounds) helped keep these communities marginalized for decades to come. With 20/20 hindsight a tremendous opportunity for social and cultural bridge-building was thrown away.

Of course all of the above is highly subjective and there's probably an element of nationalist chauvinism as well.

-C

[Tamas]

Just to give you guys a strong counterpoint: the aftermath of the Great War traumatized Hungary so much that a lot of it still lingers on to this day, and have even much more severe indirect results, which stems from a severe sense of loss of national integrity, and being ruled by extremists ideologies for about 60 years due to becoming a weak little country, a shadow of it`s former self.

Now, as with your countries, the Great War just accelerated processes which were well on their way, and the suffering of the war, and the loss of most of the territories which consisted Hungary until 1918 was pretty much inevitable on the long run, but I think the peace treaty of Trianon was a huge historical mistake, because it created a region which have had probably more ethnic conflicts after the treaty than before it.

[Shri]

@Tamas

I never painted a rosy picture, but just wanted to give a view hidden from most Americans and Europeans.

Most treaties treated the losers of the Great War very badly- the reason why they slipped into Fascism and Communism. (Brest-Litovksk, Severs, Trianon, Austrian Treaties, Turkey's treaties and further humiliation - all were badly handled by the arrogant French and indifferent Americans and the indecisive British who wanted to swing both sides).

The Habsburgs rulers of Central Europe and the leading dynasty of Europe were thrown off and their lands were balkanised akin to the post SU break-up, ironically Brussels in formation of EU has tried to recreate a Habsburg Monarchy type Government.

I am sure- every old educated person or most of them would have though about the Habsburgs and their relatively mild hand when compared to the horrors of the 20's, 30's and 40's. Independence does not always mean better government or anything of that sort is the bitter truth of the GREAT WAR.
One sort of Colonialism or Rule was replaced by a even more Despotic rule in most of the newly Independent countries.

If hindsight and time travel is possible, probably all the Central European elites would have come together and disbanded the Independence movements and backed the Habsburgs with all their power to continue on the throne.

[paulk205]

Although the Great War as "1914-1918" was not a major issue military for Greece, it forms part of a 10 year war that made the current version of Greek nationhood a reality. The country doubled in size compared to 1912 and obtained a slightly more diversified economy with the addition of the North, rather than just olives and blackcurrants as in the 19th century. OTOH, it led to the absurd and disastrous adventure of the Asia Minor campaign of 1920-22 which ended with at least 1 million Greeks (and at least a quarter of a million Turks) being forcibly torn from their homes of centuries. My own family on my mother's side is of this refugee origin, so I wouldn't exist without the Great War .

The "Catastrophe" of 1922, as it's still called, is the central event of modern Greek (post-Ottoman) history. It accentuated the political divisions of 1914-20 between supporters of Venizelos and Royalists, and directly caused the social scars that led to the disastrous Civil War of 1946-9. It still casts a shadow over the relations between Greece and Turkey, two countries which should be the closest friends instead of the silly third world rivals they are now.

I find it amazing that WW2 gets so much more attention in the popular mind, whereas the first war was so much more fundamental. Most people basically think of it as men stuck in holes in the ground and being miserable for no good reason, whereas it was the cataclysmic watershed between 19th century civilisation and the world we know now.

[Shri]

GREAT War is still alive my friend,
Look at CRIMEA- part of old Ottoman Empire (as a client state) and then conquered by the Czars who fought the CRIMEAN War with 3 great powers- England, France and Turkey.

Look at Arabia and the mess made by the English in the old Ottoman lands.
Look at Africa and the mess made by the English and French in the lands they conquered and also the erstwhile German Lands.
And finally in Indian Sub Continent - all the mess is still there.

[Baris]

I think it would not be wrong to think WW1 started at 1914 ended in 1922 for Ottomans. As per İlber Ortaylı wrote in 'The Longest Century of The Empire' (analysis of 19th century) it was then inevitable to join the war. Some historians argue it was fault of the German influenced leadership who urge to join the war but I don't think this is the case. It was very clear after Turkish delegation meetings with the west before the war that gather the opinion land should be divided. Which was very carelessly shaped after the war. Most problems in todays middle east lies in there.
The breaking point of the war is most obviously Bolsheviks. Which was not the main inspiration for resistance in WW1 but after. Ex: Greek-Turkish war.

paulk205 mentioned it very clearly that many families migrated. Additionally It is very much unfortunate people have to migrate from İstanbul to Cairo after 6-7 september 1955 events, that include jews and minorities that they speak fluent Turkish.

[Shri]

Well, what can a country do after 2 of the Best ships in the world being built by that- 'Corrupt Policeman' are confiscated before declaration of war? also these were being built by the monies contributed by peasants and farmers in an outpouring of patriotism following the losses in First Balkan War.
And then charging the 'Pashas with perfidy'.

[TheDoctorKing]

The Great War is the beginning of the "American Century". The US was catapulted from regional power to global superpower by the events of 1914-1918, even though America's military participation was relatively minor when compared to the other major Entente powers.

Nevertheless, my family was directly affected as my great-uncle 2LT Edward Glenn Royce - known as Glenn, hence the "G Royce" carved on his pipe, which I have - was killed in action September 15, 1918, near Verdun (in the St. Mihiel salient, no doubt).

(I checked with my cousin who is into genealogy and she got me the correct information. Oct 30 1918, which I originally listed, was apparently the date he was interred or his remains recovered. )