The History of the EuroWar The Germania 1848 - 1918

This year on the 4th of August 2014, we see the centenary of “WWI”, “The Great War”, “The War to end all Wars”. Firstly it was none of those things, It was not the First time the World saw mass conflict, It was not a World War in that not the whole of the world was at war, It was not a Great war, because by definition no war can be great, and lastly it was not the war to end all wars, because just twenty years later we did it all again.So what was it really about? Some historians tell us, “It was about German Imperialism”, others claim it was all about Military incompetence, some have suggested that the 14-18 conflict was down to political cowardice and stupidity, even more have suggested it was all about Germany's desire to capture the countries known as Middle Europe “Mitteleuropa”. But the two facts that I was taught in school about WWI were, (1) Germany Started the War. (2) Britain won the war. We were given the caveat “What else do you need to know”?When I asked:-Why did Germany start the war?What did Belgium have to do with it?How come if Germany lost both wars they were doing so much better than us Economically?If Britain won WWI, what happened to the British Empire?To these questions I got the “Dad's Army” response, 'Stupid Boy Clarke! Are you a Nazi? Go and see the headmaster for a six of the best.' Those six, which I do not remember as the best, were administered in front of the whole school, this in addition to my dyslexia effectively ended my academic career, and interest at age 13.My school year report for that year, the last I actually attended with any regularity written by R. H. Mayhew, our headmaster at Lord Wavell School in Farnborough read as follows:-'Clarke sets himself a pathetically low target and fails to achieve it'. R. H. Mayhew - HeadmasterThe only reason I think this did not affect me at the time or even later in life, was because at the time, neither my parents or I actually had any idea what he said, much less what he meant. But having dyslexia, and not being arsed, are not the same as being stupid.Here is what I now know for a fact, Germany did not start the 14-18 conflict, Britain did not win it, America did not join because of the sinking of the Lusitania, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Belgium.The 14-18 Conflict was a natural extension to the meteoric rise of the British Empire and its equally dramatic fall. It was about the conscience of the Germanic Peoples scattered across Europe and the World following the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was about the End of Serfdom and their Feudal Masters it was the beginning of what we now all take for granted. Freedom from Oppression, The Right to Work not the Requirement to Work, The Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.The British Empire did not last some 500 years as some historians have claimed, it rose dramatically at the beginning of the 19th century and one hundred years later it was gone, the concept of The British Empire did not enter into common usage until the 1870's it actually started after the Battle of Waterloo, it was a global, industrial and fiscal revolution that carried with it the baggage of Imperial feudal grandeur, baggage that by 1918 it could no longer afford or desired to carry.