Ukraine is About Oil. So Was World War I

[Savannahmann]

59. Mr. Freeman couldn't be more wrong if he tried

World War I was the result of rising tensions. There was always a ballance of power in Europe. Germany controlled the most powerful ground army, and thus was the power to be reckoned with on land. Britain controlled the seas with thier fleet. So long as nobody threatened Germany's Ground Army control, and no one threatened the British Control of the sea, there would be little chance for a major war.

German Kaiser Willhelm felt that Germany was not considered a powerful enough force, and deduced that it was the absence of a serious Navy that allowed Germany to be ignored. After all, racisim showed that German Culture, technology, and dedication was superior to all others. So Germany started building ships. Big powerful ships that would easily match the British.

France knew it could not defeat Germany alone. So they negotiated a treaty with Russia to come to the aide of each other in the event of war.

Britain saw the danger of a German Imperial Fleet challenging them for control of the sea, and formed a loose agreement that was an alliance for all intents and purposes with France, but not Czarist Russia.

Now, Germany saw the danger of Encirclement, surrounded by enemies on all sides. The only allies she had was Austria and Italy. Toss in the meglomania of the Kaiser, and you have a recipie for disaster.

Oil became an issue when Germany tried to sway Mexico to join them in the war which would have cut off a major source of Oil to the British Navy. But Oil wasn't the first major shortage that the combatants had. The Germans started the war with a six month supply of Nitrates, vital components of both gunpowder and explosives, on hand. This was considered sufficient as any war was certain to be over in a few weeks or at most four months. Thomas Angel had demonstrated this in his book after all.

If the Germans had not developed the ability to pull nitrogen out of the air and convert it to a suitable nitrate the war would have ended after the first year when the Germans had nothing to go boom left.

It was German meddling in Mexico that would eventually draw the Americans into the War despite the determination of Wilson to avoid the war and continue in neutrality until the belligerants stopped acting like children.

If anything caused the first World War, it was arrogance. The Frence arrogantly believed they could defeat the Germans no matter what plan the Germans had. The Germans arrogantly believed they could defeat France in thirty days. The British arrogantly believed that six divisions of troops would make all the difference in the world against an army that had more than a million trained men in uniform. The Russians arrogantly believed that they could fight the war like it was not the age of machine guns and cannon.

Everybody was wrong, and everybody suffered.

Read The Guns of August for a nice overview of what caused the war. It is said that it was one of JFK's favorite books and was part of the reason he managed to avoid World War III over the Cuban Missile Crisis.