100 Years Ago...

[Flyby PC]

The UK has plans to spend £50 million to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of WW1 next year, and there has been some controversy whether it would be better to wait until 2018 to commemorate the end of the war, rather than the beginning.

 

It got me doing some thinking, and frankly, even by 1913, we were already well on the way towards war being inevitable as a consequence of all the instability in the Balklands, especially Bosnia, over several years. It's really quite wrong to think it was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand which started it all. The situation in the Balkans was already a powder keg waiting to blow.

 

http://www.funfront.net/hist/wwi/crises.htm

 

I dare say this isn't news to lots of you, but it isn't something I'd read up on before.

[+Lothar of the Hill People]

But spending £50 million now as apposed to 2018 can bring the inevitable consequences of bad fiscal management to head sooner! It's not like the EU's a power keg waiting to blow...

[+matt milne]

I agree it's too much. As it was in 95, celebrating the end is a much better option, celebrating hope for a better future rather than highlighting the start of a long gloomy period of death and despair However, I would like to see some companies making some documentaries, games, films etc about it over the coming years, followed by the main celebrations in 2018, that would benefit a lot more people.

[Hellshade]

To me, even the end of World War I is nothing to celebrate for in it was planted the seeds of the war that followed due to the harshness of the treaty. That war was even more brutal than the first...and so the killing not only continued, it intensified. And with the end of the World War II, we had still not learned our lesson because the only thing that stopped there being a third world war between the soviets and the west was the fear of genuine world destruction and the end of all life. We do not seem to ever find a way to learn to live in peace, despite our differences...but rather at some point we just run out of young men to die, so we wait until enough children grow up and then start again.

[+Olham]

To remember the outbreak the first world war - instead of celebrating it's end - is a very bizarre decision IMHO.

[Flyby PC]

It's even more bizarre to kick it all off in Glasgow. Of course Scotland did it's bit and then some in WW1, but there were tanks and 10,000 English soldiers deployed on the streets of Glasgow in January 1919 to quell a strike over working hours. It concerns me how much this event this smells very much like Westminster politicking in advance of Scotland's independence referendum. http://www.theglasgo...ion=0&search=99 Incidentally, the picture here in the article is wrong, the tank shown is Julian 113, a demonstration tank promoting war bonds. It's a Mk VI male tank. The tanks deployed on the streets in Glasgow to break up the strike were medium C types. If it was my place to do so, I might warn Westminster that Scotland has a long memory. Curious times we live in. I hope this makes it under the wire for WW1 relevance and apolitical comment, as I say, something doesn't ring true. Edit: More info - http://urbanglasgow.co.uk/archive/tank-on-trongate__o_t__t_677.html

Edited May 17, 2013 by Flyby PC

[+Hasse Wind]

If somebody wants to celebrate a war, then it would definitely be better to celebrate its end, not the beginning.

[Maeran]

IE 10 strikes again. I'll change my browser.

... It concerns me how much this event this smells very much like Westminster politicking in advance of Scotland's independence referendum...

I don't think the thinking behind it is that complicated. Like the millennial (did I ever learn to spell that right?) celebrations, they want to have their spending cake now rather than wait for the appropriate time. Have any other countries announced any plans at all? Edited May 17, 2013 by Maeran

[Flyby PC]

In a sane world I might agree Maeran, but after the Olympics carry on, there is a worrying precedent. I don't want to dwell on the politics, nor indeed the UK media, or we'll definitely be shunted to the pub.

[+Hasse Wind]

The beginning or the end of WW1 will probably receive very little media coverage where I live. We didn't directly participate in the fighting, but did manage to win our independence, thanks to the collapse of Imperial Russia in 1917. But for countries that were directly involved and suffered greatly in the war, it's understandable that there will be events related to the war. But I still think that it's not a very good idea to particularly remember the year 1914. The end of the war didn't bring any lasting peace either, but at least the four years of madness stopped then.