In 1919, Britain came close to a workers’ and soldiers’ uprising. But it’s not a story the official WW1 commemoration wants to highlightMore
here.
The truth behind Britain’s rush to war, 1914 - Douglas NewtonA German deserter's war experiencesA people's history of World War I - Howard Zinn1918-1930: Mutiny and resistance in the Royal NavyAnarchists before the military tribunals, 1914-1918Why Blackadder Goes Forth could have been a lot funnier 1917: The Etaples mutiny- A short history of one of the early big mutinies of British troops in Europe as World War I came to an end.
Did teenage anarchists trigger World War I? What were the politics of the assassins of Franz Ferdinand on 28 June 1914?The Origins of Nationalism in the ProletariatWorld War I - further reading guidesome facts I like to drop:
WWII also could've have been stopped by the West before it even started. Going back decades, the United States and Japan had been pushing one another on who would control the Pacific for trading routes and oil. So Japan had been on the ups since 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria (for an anarchist perspective, look into the Shinmin Autonomous Region which was crushed by 31-32; we're talking huge confederation of autonomous villages), push its way against the Soviet Union, China, Indochina (controlled by the French), and Pacific islands.
The United States had ruled the Phillipines since 1900 or so, and they didn't exactly ask nicely. United States fears for its own colonies, embargoes Japan of oil, they get pissed and bring the US into World War II. And while the United States focuses on events like the Batan death-march, they turn around and indiscriminately murder 100,000 Tokyo civilians in a single night. (Movie to fuck you up about that: Grave of the Fireflies). Japan and United States was not about peace, it was about who was the biggest dick on the playground.
Now to Europe, everyone basically knows the west tore Germany a new asshole, forcing it into terrible conditions, causing all sorts of fucked up reactions to ideological extremes, and the west liked fascists more than communists. Had the west not stood aside in the face of fascism, instead of propping up the corporations/companies as they did, Europe may have come away with a different fate.
Everyone was very much in the throes of a fight against communism, so prop up every other douchebag and his friends across the world to stop what may be happening within your own borders. So the United States holds a better resource advantage in supporting Britain, aside from being ideological supporters, and starts giving them weapons well before the war starts, of course a territorial issue between European nations would drag in their supporters across the globe as well. And if you look at all into the history of the Nuremburg trials, a number of Nazis got off of their crimes, like submarine captains, who were going around blowing up civilian and freight ships, because the west was doing the same. Then tie that to the outright destruction of places like Dresden with 25k civilians dead. Following the war, the west also arbitrarily chopped up the Middle East for its oil revenues. US gets Saudi Arabia, Britain gets Iran, and they split what's in the middle (I forget the name of the treaty that was).
What separated it though, was that no one was ready for the absolute slaughter the fascists had taken about across Europe, which dwarfed the American brutality.
I also did a lot of research study into the American Civil War that I can get into but it's sunday, I have friends to be drunk, and alcohol to be met.