Review article

The lessons of the First World War

Rudolf Davorin ; Zavod za znanstveni i umjetnički rad Pregledni znanstveni rad HAZU-a u Splitu, Split, Hrvatska

Abstract

In author`s point of view, to be able to fully understand the world we live in today, it is imperative to thoroughly study and have knowledge of the events that took place both, during and after the First World War, including the resolutions adopted by the prominent European statesmen one hundred years before, at the Congress of Vienna held from 1814 to 1815. This is crucial because the beginning of the 21th century is greatly remindful of the beginning of the 20th century, and correspondingly, contemporary international relations are remindful of the ones in the period between the Congress of Vienna and World War I. In international relations over the past hundred years, everything has changed and everything has remained the same. What lesson has the First World War taught us? Do statesmen of today, especially the leaders of major powers and superpowers, like the United States of America, Russia and China, take it into account ? Are local and regional disputes, military, economic, borderline, religious, and cultural conflicts, forcible entries into territories of independent states, radical political, religious and revolutionary movements threatening to cause the World War III? Can peripheral and local crises, like the assassination at Sarajevo in 1914, start a fire of the Third World War? Never in the history of mankind has the awareness of irrationality of wars been stronger and, at the same time, the world has never been in greater danger of selfdestruction . One must constantly be aware that the impact of the nuclear war cannot be limited solely onto the territories of the countries at war. The world we live in is stuck between a lasting peace, future that is still not here and history filled with armed conflicts, that we still have not put behind us. Therefore, we are left with the most important lesson of the two World Wars: the womb breeding wars is still fertile.

Keywords

Congress of Vienna; First World War; Great Powers; Permanent Members of the Security Council; Foreign Affairs; Fegional Conflicts; Threats to World Peace

Hrčak ID:

135047

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/135047

Publication date:

17.12.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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