the great war

Recently, there has been quite a bit of news regarding the one-hundred-year anniversary of Ottoman destruction of the Armenian people during World War I.  This got me to thinking about something that has been on my mind some over the past few years.  Why does World War II hold a significant place in American memory and consideration, but World War I does not?

I figured for a long while that the reason for World War II's place in the American heart when compared to other wars was due to the fact that it came into being when film-making was in a bit of a golden age.  There is a lot of reasonable-quality film of everything from the battles over the Pacific to D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge to the dropping of the atomic bombs, so this was the first opportunity people had to really experience the war.  I now think it is something different.

When it comes to war people like to know that they are on the right and noble side.  They like to know that the sacrifices that are being made are virtuous stands against a grievous evil, and that there is no question that what is being done is necessary.  Unlike most conflicts, World War II has this in spades.  Between the genocide committed by the Nazis and the atrocities of the Japanese, it is easy to see the Allies as the white knight against the obvious Axis evil.  I believe this is also why so many movies have been created using World War II as a setting.  The story teller doesn't have to waste any effort at all establishing who the good and the bad guys are.  It is also a nice shortcut to positive feelings of patriotism.

World War I was completely different, though.  Countries were dragged into war, not because of some overwhelming moral imperative, but rather because they had treaties allying them with other countries that had already declared war.  The United States was only drawn in when its trading interests to the United Kingdom were threatened by Germany, so the primary purposes of entering the war were economic (and revenge for the sinking of the Lusitania).  To an objective observer there was no honorable side.  Looking from the outside, there were only sides who sent millions of soldiers off to die horrible deaths in order to protect their political and economic interests.

Had I understood this about the Great War I think I would have been more interested in it.  The complexity of the politics leading up to the war, and the ludicrous inability of nations to take appropriate steps to avoid their own destruction is fascinating.  The fact that World War II can be blamed on the economic fallout that followed World War I indicates that the one only happened due to the other.  The entirety of history and everything that has happened in the world in the last hundred years has been a direct result of the poor decisions that were made in the lead-up to World War I.

It is simply astounding that the shape of the world today can be directly tied to decisions a few world leaders and diplomats made over one hundred years ago.  You never know how far-reaching one decision or series of decisions will be.