“German defeat in the Great War is predominantly attributable to the mistakes of the Prussian-German military elite.” Explain why you agree or disagree with this statement. The Great War was supposed to be a short, victorious war for Germany, one that would be over by Christmas but despite Germany’s early successes in the First World War she eventually suffered defeat in 1918. It is a popular argument that this defeat was due to the weaknesses and incompetence of the German military elite and there is much to support this. However there are other factors such as weaknesses shown by Germany’s allies, the strength of the Entente and the growing discontent of the Germans at home, that can also be attributable to Germany’s failure. German defeat in the Great War was largely down to the incompetence and mistakes of the German Military Elite.
It has been argued for a long time if Germany is to blame for causing world war one. This essay will argue if Germany is responsible for the first world war which took part in 1914-1918. There can be different opinions to this question but it is hard to blame only one contry for such a big war. German government was very eager to rule the world and be part of the big countries in Europe, especially like Great Britain. This ruling is inadequate and can make the other countries aggressive and full of hatred.
The feeling swept especially throughout Britain that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh, and Germany should be able to make some amendments to its more extreme elements. The British were not willing to go to war, nor prepared. However Appeasement regardless of the reason failed as it only encouraged Hitler. The result of the appeasement policy was that Britain and France did nothing more than diplomatically protest when Hitler violated the peace treaty. Hitler then announced to the world he was following a policy of re armnent in March 1935 by largely increased military manpower though conscription and announcing the creation of the Luftwaffe of 2500 planes.
It also served from the start to lift Allied morale. Thus, the Germans had made a big mistake by provoking the Americans to enter the war. In the end, the two front war proved too difficult for Germany. The Allied push continued, with the British advancing in the north and the Americans attacking through the Argonne region of France. While the Germans were losing their forces on the
The new weapon napalm was used to burn villages many lives in Vietnam were lost as they were in South Africa. Both countries were both ruins and its people were angry as is shown in the language of the two poems. Both these poems are full of bitterness. The black poet who wrote Nothing’s Changed uses a vicious irony “we know where we belong” to show that he feels blacks and whites will never truly reconcile. His pent - up rage is expressed again in the final stanza “ Hands burn for a stone, a bomb to shiver down the glass”.
Otto Von Bismarck (Hitler’s hero).in 1871 Otto Von Bismarck established Germany as a country by winning the Franco Prussian war. And doing that created Pan German nationalism. Another pan Germanic idol was Martin Luther, he protested against catholic churches as he thought they were flawed and wrong due to indulgencies (buying your way into heaven), he strongly expressed his anti-Catholic views by hammering his 95 thesis (problems with the Catholic church) to the door of a church. This began the protestant reformation. The Volk were also very fond of Beethoven, a German composer, however Hitler’s favourite composer was Richard Wagner and he used his music in death camps right before they would be killed.
Was Churchill justified in using the strategic bom • Russia had been pushing for a seconf front in Europe which would involve an amphibious landing. Churchill had had several disasters with amphibious landings (Gallipoli/ Narvick) and knowing it was an area of weakness leant towards the bombing campaign • Churchill understood that an amphbious landing could potentially result in the loss of thousands of British lives (lack of resources and weak army) and using the bombing campaign instead would "deal" with Germany quickly without the loss of as many British lives. • In the context of the time, Btisain has been bombed by Germany and many had suffered. Many people in the general public probably fely Germany deserved to be bombed after the destruction of towns like Conventry and areas of London. • Was a way of loweing morale and hindering German progression in the war, targeting their resources and factories.
Venezuela’s prison La Sabeneta is one of the worst prisons due to that they have one guard to every 150 inmates. Corruption and bribery is normal with the staff and 624 hurt and 196 murdered in 1995 shows the brutality of the prison when an inmate had a gun battle with the inmates. La Sante prison in France is well known for its high suicide rate with 124 suicides in just 1999. Some have even eaten rat poison to escape from living there. Many have become slaves while others only leave their cells for 4 hours a day.
Owen compares soldiers fighting in war to sick old men because it shows that soldiers are like outcasts from society. At the top left of the poster, the image shown represents the difficulty and the terrible physical outcomes, soldiers found travelling on ground particularly in sludges as Wilfred Owen states in the first stanza: “Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge” The use of the word Knock-kneed is alliteration for emphasis, a hard, staccato sound to echo the harsh mood of these lines and soldier’s misery. It stresses echo the brutality of the soldiers’ destruction, their transformation from healthy young men into ‘beggars’ and ‘hags’. The use of the word coughing compares men to sick women, showing how they are unrecognisable; they have lost their masculinity, youth, health and therefore are now deemed to be outcast’s within the society. The word sludge is onomatopoeia to imply how heavy and difficult the ground is to cross for soldiers.
This angered the German public as they thought that the government’s plan would just make living harder if they did increase the taxes. Taking advantage of this, Hitler told the public that the reparations and the Treaty of Versailles was to blame for Germany’s hardship. When America recalled all the loans that they gave Germany, Germany was left in immense debts. This proved Hitler’s point that the reparations and the Treaty of Versailles were wrong. After that the people of Germany began to vote for Hitler because the Weimar government had proved itself useless and Hitler was the only one offering a way out.