Post WWI

Hopefully, history does not always repeat itself. If we learn from the events that transpired before us, we might be able to secure a greater future for ourselves.

Pride, greed, and irrational fear are among the ugliest of human traits. These deadly sins helped to cause WWI.

Pride will always lead to prejudice. Pride is an exaggerated perception of yourself. Pride causes you to feel superior. And, if you are superior, other people must naturally be inferior. The pride that comes along with nationalism subliminally justifies violent actions taken against "inferior" people. National pride leads to ideas like Social Darwinism, which lets Europeans feel OK with conquering African, Asian, and American lands. Nationalism united Germans in their hatred of the French. Nationalism filled Gavrilo Princip with enough pride to assassinate Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The pride of nationalism caused the people of Europe to walk around with inflated chests.

Greed forced the people of Europe to step on each others toes. Each nation wanted to practice imperialism, to expand its empire. Since Britain and Germany were the first to industrialize, they both became major players in the imperialism game, pillaging foreign countries for their natural resources. Other European countries and Japan felt that imperial greed as soon as they became industrialized. This imperial greed mixed with national pride caused the Austrians and Serbians to fight over Bosnia. Both people felt entitled to that land. In order to take over new lands and accomplish imperial goals, nations must develop a strong industrialized military.

These large military forces breed irrational fear in rival nations. Germany, in fear of England's navy, became determined to develop the strongest military in the world, with new weapons including submarines, poison gas, and machine guns. France, fearful of Germany's growing power, formed alliances with Britain and Russia (Triple Entente). When fear grows, each nation develops more deadly tactics in order to create a sense of security. However, the new weapons and alliances do not prevent war. The new weapons only make the inevitable war more deadly. Time and time again, we've seen this pattern repeat itself.

As WWI drew to an end, US president Woodrow Wilson developed a plan to prevent history from repeating itself. He wanted to create a long lasting peace with his 14 Points. He wanted to eliminate irrational fear by ending secret treaties and reducing army sizes worldwide. Wilson wanted to set up
a League of Nations that would settle international disputes through discussion instead of violence. Wilson wanted to curb imperialist greed and national pride by allowing conquered people to decide what government they would like (self-determination). Unfortunately, the US Congress had too much fear to join the League of Nations. Members of Congress were scared of getting into another large intercontinental war. Furthermore, the leaders of France and Britain felt too much national pride and imperial greed. French and British pride prevented them from forgiving Germany. At the Treaty of Versailles, France took land from Germany. The Treaty of Versailles also made Germany give up it's overseas colonies.

From WWI, we should see that pride, greed, and fear will inevitably lead to violence. If we would like to prevent intercontinental bloodshed, we need to monitor our national pride, imperial greed, and irrational fear.