Don't blame us for the First World War....
An interview with Karl Habsburg-Lothringen, grandson of Karl I, last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/archduke-franz-ferdinand-first-world-war
I think he makes good point that the war would have happened sooner or later anyway
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/archduke-franz-ferdinand-first-world-war
I think he makes good point that the war would have happened sooner or later anyway
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His father Otto was a decent man and politician. He is of course correct, but I do wonder want the world would look like today if Germany did not invade belgium.
Yes and its why he says that his grandfather inherited the war.
Off topic but I always assumed that the Lorraine branch of that house died out, guess not.
Considering the war saw the end of the aristocracy running Germany, Russia and Austria/Hungary I would say that in the end the people of Europe won despite a heavy cost and the aristocrats lost. Of the Great Powers only the British monarchy survived - and even they had to stop calling themselves the Saxe Coburgs!
Without WWI Poland, the Czech republic and the Balkan states might never have been formed.
Indeed, 4 of Europe's greatest imperial houses were removed from power by the end of the war. Not to mention we saw a socialist uprising and the formation of a communist government in russia under Lennon.
Whatever the reasons though, the world certainly changed as we transitioned from the Imperial to the modern era in the intervening 100 years, still are in some areas.
The people of Europe were murdered by their own Establishments in a foul imperialistic war where the Big Business, munitions manufacturers and other allied interests got fat on the rotting corpses sacrificed on the altar of their greed.
Which led of course to McCartney going into exile in Mexico
Austria held his family to be to blame. "Members of the Habsburg family were forbidden by law from running for the Austrian presidency" As he puts it "All our rights were taken away from us, we were dispossessed and sent into exile. Our assets were put into a fund and should have been returned to us after that fund was dissolved. But that never happened...I grew up with the grotesque situation that I as a child had an Austrian passport, issued in Munich, in which it said that I could to travel to every country in the world apart from Austria."
All that was not because Archduke Franz Ferdinand had the misfortune to get assassinated, it was because of what the Habsburg family did after that event.
And, what were the alternatives to Gt Britain not getting involved in WW1??
But at the time wasn't he advocating "give peace a chance"?
No state's people should have got involved in such a war.
Unfortunately, at the time the people were unable to combat the insidious propaganda (whipping them up into a jingoistic frenzy) of the nations concerned
They were Habsburg-Lothringen from the succession of Maria Theresa in 1740 to the Imperial throne as she was married to Francis of Lothringen.
Every nation will blame an incumbent government for its defeat in war, but an alternative view is that the Austrian empire was destroyed by nationalists, who have regretted it ever since. That is especially true for the large areas, which finished up under Soviet domination and those, who suffered in the various Balkan civil wars. Otto was called the first Real President of Europe as he organised the Freedom Picnics on the Austria-Hungary border in 1989, which led to the opening of that part of the Iron Curtain. He also used his contacts across the old Imperial territories to support the democratic movements in the last half of the 20th century.
Not unlike Farage and Gove's recent mutterings, eh?;-)
The British establishment had no real desire or wish to go to war in 1914 for the simple reason it was not in their interests which is something you can't really say about Germany at the time. However once it had to it is no surprise 'your country needs you' posters appeared.
Not quite so simple, we, that is Gt Britain had the Triple Entente with Russia and France, had we not called on the men of this country to volunteer to join the army we would still have had to send our regular army to fight in Belgium and France, and I feels sure you know how that may have ended.
BIB, Seems the issue of a £2.00 coin with Kitchener saying just that on the coin is not going down well.
http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/country-doesn-t-need-Greens-object-Kitchener-2/story-20426055-detail/story.html
No person, volunteer or regular, should have been called on to fight from any country.
It was a war of imperialism and a fight for vested interests.
A thoroughly despicable time in the history of Europe.
Yes, Gove's mutterings on this subject in particular alarms me.
Most wars are and always have been fought for vested interests.
The reasons for WW1 maybe buried in a much older agreement to which Germany was a signatory, and it was they that broke that agreement.
Britain also had a legal case to justify going to war. In the Treaty of London of 1839, all the great powers of Europe, including Britain and Germany, were bound to respect the neutrality of Belgium, and if necessary, defend her from aggression. The Germans had requested that Belgium let their troops pass, and when her government refused, Germany invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914. This was in defiance of the treaty, and in response Britain declared war on Germany.
To a degree, yes.
This particular war has always affected me very strongly, as those interests were so obvious and the slaughter so great while at the same time the Establishments of the surviving countries still gloss over the truth by playing the "they were heroes" card.
The participants - whether they returned or not - were victims.
That is what I want Cameron and other European leaders to say in the summer.