June 28, 1914. Shots fired in Sarajevo

[traveler52]

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are assassinated in Sarajevo. The Serb Nationalist Gavril Princip fires the shots that will plunge the world in what will later be called, "The War To End All Wars."

By 1918 the world is changed forever. Gone is Austro-Hungrian Empire, along with the Ottoman Turks.

In Russia, Czar Nicholas along with his wife and family are killed. Russia falls to the evil that is Communism. Germany and Austria supported a man we call Vladimir Lennin. It will decades for this evil to fail.

Millions are dead.

I would ask all members of this forum to take time and remember those killed in this war. They served, stood up and defended our country. These Young Men and Women stood for their country. They lie in Flaunders Field, they died loving their country. They died fighting for their country.

To remember those who were gassed (my Grand Father among them, he later became a Methodist Minister). I can remember Rev. H.M. Lewis, fighting for the very breath he needed for his sermons. He never stopped. He preached the word of his Living God. He made me proud. He died in 1985, after preaching his last sermon.

To remember the millions dead, the horror that what became World War One. The horror of WWII was shallow in comparison to WWI. No quarter given, none taken.

I respectfully ask those members of this forum who had family in that war, take time to honor what they did. They saved our very lives.

I ask all members of this forum to remember, the sacrafice of those Americans in France who died. To remember those who suffered the Gas Attacks. To remember, that without those who are willing to serve, Democracy will never survive without those willing to step up and defend it.

They saved our lives.

May they lie in honored peace, where the poppies grow.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Back a few years ago when somewhere in the media they were trying to pick the 20th century's Man of the Century, my pick was Gavril Princip. Based on the sum total of the effect his one act had on the world in that century.

 

[uscitizen]

It was Obama's fault!

 

[Avatar4321]

It was Obama's fault!

please don't interject partisanship into this. We aren't talking about that here.

I can't believe it's 96 years. it will be 100 before we know it.

 

[traveler52]

When we look at the Map of Europe of 1914, and the Map of Europe today, the effects of that war linger on. The Balkan States, the former Cezch Republic were craved out after the surrender of Germany/Austria Hungry.

The British "White Paper" that spelled out the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine came after WWI. Japan was able to control of much of South Pacific because of European/American Indifference to dreams of a Japanese Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Hitler played on Nationalism and the Germanic belief in superiority to become leader of that country, and then used sheer force of will to re-arm Germany and in doing so, start the Second World War in Germany. Japan invaded Manchuria in the early 1930's, which was the real start of that War.

In Europe, Germany tested Blitzkeig in Spain, against Stalinist Russia, Russia lost.

The United States decided to opt-out and trust in those "Two Big Oceans" to protect America from any conflict in Europe.

World War One shaped the modern world.