Kelly Millers History of the World War for Human Rights | Page 5

terminated by the signing of the armistice November
11, 1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war
known to history, and is destined to so profoundly influence
civilization that we see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat

similar wars in the past were the campaigns of Alexander; the wars that
overthrew the Roman Empire and the Napoleonic wars of a previous
century; but this one war surpasses them all, measured by any scale that
can be applied to military operations. It was truly a World War, thus in
a class by itself. Beginning in Central Europe, twenty-eight
nations--nearly all of the important nations of the world--with a total
population of about 1,600,000,000--or eleven-twelfths of the human
race--became involved. It cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000
more suffered bodily injury; the money cost was about
$200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in untold suffering
caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that attended it? Or who can
measure the property loss, considering that the fairest provinces of
Europe were swept with the bezom of destruction?
Rightly to judge the real significance of such a world struggle, we must
consider conditions that made it possible; study the issue involved
stripped of all misleading statements; review its course and weigh the
nature of the profound changes--geographical, political and
economic--that resulted. We shall find that this war was the
culmination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of
government--impossible to longer co-exist--met in deadly conflict; and
that civilization itself was the stake at issue. We shall see that beyond
the wreck of empires and troubled days of reconstruction now upon
us--through it all approaches a wonderful new age. Autocracy has
crumbled; a higher form of democracy will arise and in peaceful days
to come the nations of the world will rapidly advance in all that
constitutes national well-being.
THE GERMAN STATES.
The early history of Germany is a confused panorama of a thousand
years, during which time Central Europe was a country of numerous
separate states, many of them at times coming together as a more or
less closely knit confederacy under the lead of a powerful state, only to
fall apart into a mass of confused units at a later date. It is interesting to
learn that among the Teutonic knights of that early time, none was
more noted than Count Thassilo Von Zollern who founded the house of

Hohenzollern, that played such an ambitious role in European history,
the house whose downfall was one of the dramatic results of the war.
THE RISE OF PRUSSIA.
At its height the German Empire consisted of a union of twenty-five
Germanic states of various grades and the Reichland of
Alsace-Lorraine under the leadership of Prussia, by far the most
important state of the Empire. The foundation of Prussia's greatness
was laid by Frederick the Great in 1763 when he tore Silesia from
Austria in an entirely unprovoked war. He wished to enlarge the
bounds of Prussia, he coveted Silesia, so he took it. In that deed of
spoliation we see manifested the spirit that has animated official
Germany since that date. Not only is the House of Hohenzollern
descended from the Robber Knights of old, but the same is true of the
military caste of Germany generally. Recent centuries have cast only a
thin veneer of modern thought over essentially medieval conceptions of
national rights and duties.
THE DAYS OF BISMARCK.
For a century after the reign of Frederick, Prussia remained the most
prominent Germanic state in Europe. Then we come to the days of
Bismarck. He is regarded as a remarkable statesman. He himself
delighted to be known as the man of "Blood and Iron." Judging from
his acts his one motive in life was to advance the power and influence
of Prussia. In the decade 1860-1870 he instigated three wars,--with
Denmark in 1864, with Austria in 1866, with France in 1870,--not one
of which was justifiable. The war with France was occasioned by
deliberately changing the wording of a telegram--in itself
friendly--from the King of Prussia to Napoleon III, knowing it would
result in war. All were short wars, all resulted in victory for Prussia and
consequent increase in territory. Under the glamour of the great victory
over France in 1871 came the formation of the German Empire.
THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
Thus there suddenly arose in Central Europe, in the place of the weak

confederation of earlier years, one empire of great actual strength,
generously endowed as regards territory, and at the head of that empire
was a state that alone of modern states most resembles Rome of early
centuries, that ruled the Mediterranean world, imposing on the
conquered people of that section her language, her laws and her
customs. Like her great prototype, we now know that official Prussia
regarded