The Super Summary of World History (105 page)

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    P. 184 et seq,
The Stakes of Power, 18945-1877
, Nichols & Berwanger, 1982

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    Women are not a “minority” because they outnumber men; however, the US Supreme Court classified them as a minority (granting them the status of a protected class) because they have traditionally been treated as a minority. Once again, we have a court imposing a total fiction on the people through the use of its power to tell the nation what the Constitution means.

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    “Only” one war, the Spanish American War in 1898 . . . oh . . . and a small invasion of Mexico when Pershing was chasing Poncho Villa.

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    For example, the Illinois legislature passed laws controlling railroad rate setting because railroads favored large terminals over smaller ones, and either would not service small terminals or would charge a lot more to service them. These kinds of practices favored larger shippers over small ones, and effectively gave the large city merchants a decided advantage over the small merchants due to the price of transporting goods to market. See p. 210-226 et seq,
The Stakes of Power 1845-1877
, Nichols & Berwanger, 1982.

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    US battleships were named after states.

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    Note that the internal combustion engine is still the mainstay of automobile transportation in the twenty-first century (2010), and it was invented in the eighteenth century. It seems that we managed to perfect the mechanical dinosaur.

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    Notice that the Rose Bowl was being played before the invention of powered flight!

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    In 1903 the first powered aircraft flight took place, and in 1969 men landed on the moon; thus, in 66 years people went from a flying a few seconds to a space flight of incredible complexity and distance. This kind of progress is commonplace in the world today. In fact, it may be the most significant thing in the 21st Century.

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    Through the so-called
Concert of Europe
.

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    A holdover from King Louis XIV, the French Revolution, and Napoleon.

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    The term “battleship” means the largest fighting ship afloat carrying the most guns. In 1900, naval war planners envisioned battleships as the key to gaining and maintaining naval superiority at sea. Because these ships had the largest caliber guns that could fire further than the guns on lesser ships they would rule any sea battle. The battleship could start firing sooner, and even one battleship shell could devastate an enemy vessel. It was thought columns of these huge ships would line up and fire away at each other thus determining who would rule the oceans. The importance of better cannons had been recognized since the invention of artillery and its placement on ships. King Henry VIII of England invested in developing the best cannons in the world, and the best ships to carry them; thus, putting England ahead in the early naval race. Until WWII, England held that lead. During WWII it became evident that the time of the battleship was passed.

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    The joke was that Prussia was an army with a state, rather than a state with an army.

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    Immediately after the Civil War the North had a massive army and navy, among the largest in the world. This was quickly reduced in size because of American isolationist policies.

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    The Redeemers were southern whites who wanted to end Reconstruction and take over the reins of power in the Old South. The goal was to put the future of the South back into southern hands and get the North out of southern affairs. As the Redeemers took over southern governments, they attempted to re-establish the culture of the pre-civil war South where the rich ruled and the poor did what they were told. The only substantial differences were the rich now constituted more than the planter classes as new industrialists were prominent in the social order, and they were careful not to openly offend the powerful North for fear of the legislative consequences.

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    Oddly enough, the terrible Civil War in America had given black men the vote, but not women of any race.

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    In the United States, the press may outright lie and not be in violation of liable laws. The US Supreme Court has set an “absence of malice” standard; that is, the press may lie about a public figure if they do not act with malice—knowing the story is false and publishing it with the expressed purpose of harming the individual. Under this standard, the press may print almost anything about a person as long as they qualify as a public figure.

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    Why the change was always for additional complexity is hard to explain.

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    If this sounds like god, you are right. The government was god on earth (Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan, 1651) and the overman was the natural outcome of that fact. To Nietzsche, god did not exist; only the human existed, and the superior human’s will was everything. Note how “the will” has replaced rationally, morality, and logic. All that is irrelevant, only the overman is relevant. Sounds like Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh, etc etc

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    This morality changes with the whims of the majority; thus, no truth. The Christian religion holds there is one truth, that truth which is revealed by God in the Bible. By definition, for Christians, man cannot know truth—it must come from God.

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    Yes, it can be manipulated, even in 1864, by moving things in the scene; however, even in 1864 this was discouraged.

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    In 1895, France Lumiere opened the first public cinema.

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    The Triple Entente because the original parties were England, France, and Russia

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    Many smaller nations were involved.

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    Except for the Panic of 1873 previous depressions or recessions had lasted one to two years on average. The Great Depression lasted about ten years and was worse in the United States of America than other Western countries. Some claim the US did not recover from the Great Depression until the 1950s (it depends on how war production is calculated).

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    How warring parties define victory can control how the war and its aftermath are handled. Remember Carthage? And when we get to WWII think about how “unconditional surrender” effected the Allied war effort. Same for Vietnam and Korea.

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    Russia apparently made this promise to support its Slavic “neighbor,” as Russia was also a Slavic nation; however, it makes little sense. Russia was not in a geographic position to render sufficient aid to Serbia before it was overrun. The only reason to support Serbia was to
prevent
a war, and this Russia could not do if Germany was in the picture. The smart move was to threaten mobilization and then do nothing. If Serbia was crushed so be it, but somehow the Czar thought a war with Austria-Hungary AND Germany was OK. Could it be the alliance with France gave him false hope? Anyway, his actions were stupid. So were the Kaiser’s, the British, and later the USA. With so many dumb guys ruling major powers maybe the war
was
inevitable.

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World
War
I,
Keegan, 2000, Vintage Press. Keegan, excellent, as always, on WWI and its causes, and the importance of time.

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    “Everything” meaning the survival of the German nation.

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    The all-important factor to the involved nations, it seems.

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    See: John Keegan,
The First World War,
2000
Vintage Press.

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    The disconnects are many: the jump from the German plan to the battle of the Marne is too attenuated—who knew a gap would open up? Also, push the argument to the extreme; if the Marne was most important battle, then the gap was the most important gap, and the aircraft flight spotting the gap the most important airplane and flight in history, and the pilot the most important pilot, and the gas in the tank the most important gas, and the truck that delivered the gas the most important truck, and the truck driver the most important driver, and his mom the most important mom, etc It get ridiculous very quickly.

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    The same thing happened in the American Civil War around Petersburg—and they were using rifled muskets.

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    “No man’s land” was the area between the two opposing trench lines, so called because neither army controlled it.

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    These figures are all approximate.

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    Literally. British posters depicted gorillas wearing German helmets grasping fainting women while their teeth dripped blood.

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    This was conditioned upon US entry into the war on the English and French side.

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    The two German generals had been promoted to head the entire German war effort because of impressive successes against Russia.

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    The previous Allied attacks had been on relatively narrow fronts; this allowed the Germans to shift reserves to the endangered area without having to worry about assaults elsewhere.

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    Some call this the
Spanish flu
. Earlier estimates of deaths were in the 50 million range, but newer estimates raise the total to 100 million.

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    If we multiply the 1919 dollar amount by forty to try and adjust for inflation since that year we get: (32 x 40 =
1,280 billion dollars
. You can see the amount is gargantuan, especially when we recall Germany spent herself into bankruptcy during the war just like the Allies. Where was Germany going to get that amount of money? Why the multiple of 40? A new car in the 1920 era was about $500, and a new car today is about $20,000. 20,000 divided by 500 = 40. A very rough estimate and filled with assumptions . . . I know. It is just a way to get an idea of how much money we are really talking about.

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    USSR = the
U
nion of
S
oviet
S
ocialist
R
epublics.

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    Europe was showing signs of recovery by 1932, and some recovery was underway in 1933. In the USA these years were among the worst of the depression era. See: p. 332 et seq,
The Third Reich in Power
, Evans, R., Penguin, 2005

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    The same year Hitler came to power in Germany.

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    Or anyone for that matter. In our world humiliation of nations doesn’t seem to matter so much; however, in 1919 Europe it mattered a lot. The war guilt clause in the Versailles Treaty infuriated the Germans. A popular song in Germany was Deutschland uber Allies (Germany over the Allies); now, that thinking comes from people seeking revenge. Be smart reader, do not humiliate anyone and your life will be much easier. And you were told history couldn’t teach you anything . . .

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    The Germans did not actually pay the repatriations. Loans from the US and England allowed the Germans to pay with the loans rather than their gross national product. The Germans received more in loans than they were required to repay. The amount of repatriations was also adjusted down several times.

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    Churchill was lord of the admiralty until the disaster at Gallipoli, which he had underwritten, and was then fired; later, rehired (appointed) head of munitions. As one can see, in 1900’s England the same leaders just stayed on in new roles. Recall the Versailles treaty said Germany could not have an army, an air force, or a navy of any size. IF the Allies would have prevented Germany from re-arming, no WWII. How hard would that have been? Once the Allies became aware that Germany was acquiring arms just go in and take over. After all, what would they stop them with?

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    After 1919, a fellow could be out of work AND sober. What could be worse?

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    Remember the abolition of slavery? This is the same concept.

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    For statistics on the 1920s through the Great Depression see
http://www2.census.gov/
; however, this site is hard to use as the data is simply in a list by year, and it is difficult to tell what you are calling up until it is on the screen. Typical government operation.