World War One is Finally Over
People tend to see history in decade-shaped chunks. It helps to sort the events and trends if we can store them in boxes marked 70s = shag horror or 50s = conformity or whatever concept we ascribe to the mood of the time. The farther you go back, the more standardized the labels become, so the 40s = war, the 30s = everyone in a sepia-hued breadline, and 20s = Jazz Age, whatever that means. Beyond that, though, it gets indistinct. The teens of the previous century seem quite remote; they had a big dress rehearsal for World War Hitler, and then . . . well, people sat around waiting for the Charleston to be invented, I guess.
But everything from the previous century still affects us today, and sometimes you get little pieces of news that remind you how close Now is to Then. Such as:
This weekend, Germany will finally finish paying off its reparations from World War I. Following Germany’s defeat in the war, the Allied Powers hit it with a steep bill in the form of the Treaty of Versailles, which mandated that it pay £23.6 billion ($393.6 billion in today’s dollars). Reparations plunged postwar Germany deeply into debt, and came in the form of “coal, steel, intellectual property (eg. the trademark for Aspirin) and agricultural products” as well as money.
If there’s an old German soldier hiding in a trench, convinced the war is still going on, this might tell him it’s time to stand down and go on with his life.
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Jul '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
It's not enough they're tied into the EU?
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
Yeah, really, MT. There's a limit to apologizing at some point. Bailing out Greece seems to be the last straw.
The Great War (in which my great-grandfather, Percival Thelonius Smith, was a cavalry officer) was the most significant and overlooked event of the 20th century. Brought the Ancien Regimes crashing down, setting the stage for total chaos which created Nazism and Socialism. It's mainly the lack of original footage that relegated it to obscurity. That and The History Channel founding itself by being Hitler TV. Now they've moved on to CGI dinosaurs and unconvincing re-enactments. But six chubby guys failing to stab each other with bayonets does not make for compelling viewing.
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
If we ever needed proof that in the end, the bureaucrats won, here it is. The old soldiers may fade away, but the legal obligations and regulations harden into stone.
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
This idea of assigning national guilt is fascinating. On the one hand, Germany has embraced it to the hilt. They not only continued to make reparation payments but they have embraced self-flagellation as a way of national life over the Nazi era.
The Japanese on the other hand have refused it. While they have repeatedly apologized for international consumption, internally they whitewash the atrocities of the war. Their history textbooks are notorious in this regard.
Meanwhile, the left in this country want us to apologize for everything. (Presumably because we won.)
I am waiting for the revelation that the Garden of Eden was actually in Kansas. Therefore Adam was an American and can be blamed for getting us all expelled from paradise.
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
Kennedy Smith: Yeah, really, MT. There's a limit to apologizing at some point. Bailing out Greece seems to be the last straw.
... It's mainly the lack of original footage that relegated it to obscurity. That and The History Channel founding itself by being Hitler TV. ...
My grandfather fought in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in France , and said it was the greatest regret of his long life.
Check out the DVD series First World War which has a large amount of footage from the war, as well as an exhaustive review of the conflict.
http://www.firstworldwar.com/dvd/index.htm
I didn't know that at the time of the conflict, Germany had effective universal suffrage for men; however Great Britain did not. (All those lives lost in the mud by the poorest Englishmen that couldn't vote for their own government)
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
True, Dave. The German gummint made some rather rash assumptions, but can by no means be compared with Hitlerian evil.
I haven't seen that. Whenever some Great War footage shows up, it's always heralded as a groundbreaking discovery. Didn't realize you could make a DVD series out of it. My views have been shaped mainly by Dreadnought and The Guns of August. Though Tuchman also makes rash assumptions on occasion, as in The March of Folly.
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
I wonder who they made the checks out to?
They probably would have paid them off long ago but for the humongous late fees I'm sure they incurred between 1933 and 1945.
Re: World War One is Finally Over
I wonder what the world will look like when the headlines announce that the US has finally paid off its debt?
Sep '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
A truly mind blowing news item.
More importantly, of the 65 million pounds in the last payment, I wonder if the US got a cut? Did we get more than Belgium?
Sep '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
Matthew Gilley: I wonder who they made the checks out to?
They probably would have paid them off long ago but for the humongous late fees I'm sure they incurred between 1933 and 1945. · Sep 30 at 10:04am
In the details you'll see that the last payment was mostly if not all deferred interest! So in a sense, interest on interest, late fees indeed.
Sep '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
It seems that J.M. Keynes was against the reparations and was amazingly prescient in predicting the results -- perhaps his only moment of clarity?
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
But he opposed it on the principle that the Germans would be unable to go into massive debt for their own selfish reasons. In Keynes view, why go into hopeless debt if you're not buying off the electorate along the way?
Jul '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
I suspect that last £59.5 million came from industrial machinery and consulting services sold to Iran for their Nuclear Energy Program.
So the Iranians got hi-end Siemens manufacturing equipment and advise. And we got the promulgation of Hasselhoff. Hardly a fair trade.
Would £59.5 million even pay for a few hours of interest on on current national debt? Did we send 'enforcers/collectors' routinely to insure that we would collect?
Sep '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
John Davey: I suspect that last £59.5 million came from industrial machinery and consulting services sold to Iran for their Nuclear Energy Program.
So the Iranians got hi-end Siemens manufacturing equipment and advise. And we got the promulgation of Hasselhoff. Hardly a fair trade.
Would £59.5 million even pay for a few hours of interest on on current national debt? Did we send 'enforcers/collectors' routinely to insure that we would collect? · Sep 30 at 2:35pm
Siemens equipment and perhaps a nice dose of Stuxnex?
For the individuals (speculators?) holding the actual notes, who probably bought them for pennies (pence) on the £, £59.5 million was probably the best part of their portfolio this year.
May '10
Re: World War One is Finally Over
It occurs to me that we should ask the Germans what it's like paying their grandfathers' debts, and then proceed directly to Social Security reform.