1914-1918

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Much of the ongoing strife in the Middle East can be directly related to the borders unwisely drawn after WWI in the post-Ottoman Empire era. In the far future it is possible that historians will view the period from 1904-20?? as a continuum of war with common root causes interspersed with modest periods of peace/cold war.
 
Very true, and Margaret MacMillan's book "Paris 1919" gives a good overview of the aftermath. However, I wanted to share that article because it touches on the terrible human cost of war, by showing what it did to one family.
 
My grandfather (British, served in one of the Yorkshire regiments) was seriously injured at the battle of La Somme in 1916, survived by holing up in a shell crater until the battle was over after getting hit leaving the trenches. Sat out the rest of the war due to his injuries. Almost everyone he knew growing up who was in that regiment was killed. Unfortunately I remember little more, and he was not one to talk at length about it. His big hope for me was that I would never experience the horror of war.
 
As Sir Edward Grey (1st Viscount Grey of Falladon) said at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914:

"The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our life-time".

Some may say that we're still waiting...
 
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