100 Years Ago Today

The guns fell quiet on the Western Front and the War to End All Wars ended:

It was called the Great War, but as Yoda says, "war does not make one great" and this one took the lives of 10 million soldiers and another eight million civilians.  British and French casualties were 3-4 times that in WWII.   In addition, the war was a contributing factor to the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918, which killed tens of millions more.

WWI also radically transformed the global political map:

* The break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire resulted in the creation of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and Poland was reestablished as an independent nation after being dissolved and annexed by its neighbors in the 1790s.   Serbia consolidated its territorial gains into the greater Yugoslavia.

* The war weakened the Russian Czars, leading to Russia's early departure from the conflict, the Russian revolution, and the rise of the Soviets.

* The French and  British carved up the Ottoman Empire and created the boundaries of Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, and Palestine.  The effects of these arbitrary lines on a map are still felt today.

* The allies imposed very harsh punitive sanctions on Germany, creating deep resentment and economic conditions that gave rise to the Nazis and WWII just 21 years later.