Anyone else feel WWI doesn't receive the attention it deserves?

[von_Bismarck]

The roots of the holocaust are in the european middle ages.
In medieval Europe, many persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades — when Jews all over Germany were massacred — and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain. Jews were frequently trialled and put to death for a variety of imagined religious offenses against Christianity. On many occasions, Jews were accused of a blood libel, the supposed drinking of the blood of Christian children in mockery of the Christian Eucharist. Jews were also falsely accused of torturing consecrated host wafers in a reenactment of the Crucifixion. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Martin Luther's teachings inspired and deeply influenced Protestant traditions and culture. He was widely known for his writings about the Jews, the nature and consequences of which are the subject of much debate among scholars, many of whom have characterized them as anti-Semitic. He stated that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues and schools burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed.
During the time of the great war and the 20's, the jews were very integrated in most of Europe, however, that changed with the rise of the Nazis.


Overall
Your history lesson is very erroneous, Mazz.

[Jelly]

Way to break someone's opinion xD

[Kator Viridian]

The roots of the holocaust are in the european middle ages.
In medieval Europe, many persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades — when Jews all over Germany were massacred — and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain. Jews were frequently trialled and put to death for a variety of imagined religious offenses against Christianity. On many occasions, Jews were accused of a blood libel, the supposed drinking of the blood of Christian children in mockery of the Christian Eucharist. Jews were also falsely accused of torturing consecrated host wafers in a reenactment of the Crucifixion. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Martin Luther's teachings inspired and deeply influenced Protestant traditions and culture. He was widely known for his writings about the Jews, the nature and consequences of which are the subject of much debate among scholars, many of whom have characterized them as anti-Semitic. He stated that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues and schools burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed.
During the time of the great war and the 20's, the jews were very integrated in most of Europe, however, that changed with the rise of the Nazis.


Overall
Your history lesson is very erroneous, Mazz.

Well there wasn't many trials at all ... more of Bung them in a hole in the ground so they can't escape and then set fire to it:

Spoiler

[close]

And as for Martin Luther, he was an inspirer for but never took part in the protestation movement as he simply wanted a reformation on the current Catholic system to be rid of things like indugances and Pluralism .. he far from wanted a splitting of the church at the time.

But back onto WWI, probably not mentioned due to more of the heavy intake of other nations. WWI lacked really the "World" part of its name, WWII on the other hand can go right across the globe due to the large involvement that took place at such early datings to the begining of it.

The big involvment of nations from across the globe in WWII really spurred the historical focus over "The Great War".

[Nipplestockings]

The roots of the holocaust are in the european middle ages.
In medieval Europe, many persecutions of Jews in the name of Christianity occurred, notably during the Crusades — when Jews all over Germany were massacred — and a series of expulsions from England, Germany, France, and, in the largest expulsion of all, Spain. Jews were frequently trialled and put to death for a variety of imagined religious offenses against Christianity. On many occasions, Jews were accused of a blood libel, the supposed drinking of the blood of Christian children in mockery of the Christian Eucharist. Jews were also falsely accused of torturing consecrated host wafers in a reenactment of the Crucifixion. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, Martin Luther's teachings inspired and deeply influenced Protestant traditions and culture. He was widely known for his writings about the Jews, the nature and consequences of which are the subject of much debate among scholars, many of whom have characterized them as anti-Semitic. He stated that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues and schools burned, money confiscated, and rights and liberties curtailed.
During the time of the great war and the 20's, the jews were very integrated in most of Europe, however, that changed with the rise of the Nazis.


Overall
Your history lesson is very erroneous, Mazz.

Well there wasn't many trials at all ... more of Bung them in a hole in the ground so they can't escape and then set fire to it:

Spoiler

[close]

And as for Martin Luther, he was an inspirer for but never took part in the protestation movement as he simply wanted a reformation on the current Catholic system to be rid of things like indugances and Pluralism .. he far from wanted a splitting of the church at the time.

But back onto WWI, probably not mentioned due to more of the heavy intake of other nations. WWI lacked really the "World" part of its name, WWII on the other hand can go right across the globe due to the large involvement that took place at such early datings to the begining of it.

The big involvment of nations from across the globe in WWII really spurred the historical focus over "The Great War".

Ww1 did not lack the world part of its name, I'm not sure where you're getting that from. World War 1 was fought in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe.

[Duuring]

Come to think of it, shouldn't we call the Napoleonics a world war too?

[Ililsa]

Come to think of it, shouldn't we call the Napoleonics a world war too?

Winston Churchill has referred to the 7 Years War as the First World War, as it took place in India, off the coast of Africa, in the Americas and in Europe.

I've never considered the Napoleonic Wars to have the same scope.

[Duuring]

The Napoleonics took place from Argentina to Australia, from Sweden to South Africa, and that's when not counting the war of 1812 as a part.

[Docm30]

Argentina and Australia? The British invasion of Buenos Aires and the Rum Rebellions aren't in any way a part of the Napoleonic wars, if that's what you're referring to.

Anyway, virtually all of the fighting was contained to continental Europe and involved no non-European countries. That and the fact that the Napoleonic wars were not a war, but several spread over a decade.

[Rowaan]

Well, due to the better British schooling system, when it came to my GCSE's in history, we were taught about the history us brilliant british kids are just dying to find out about: Germany 1918-39.

God, could it get any worse? (Okay, maybe it could).
Hitlers rise to power is fairly interesting, but learning about the Spartacists and the Freikorps and all this other mundane stuff we frankly don't give a flying fuck about seems a little pointless. We avoid all the interesting bits like actually learning about WW1 and WW2 like the plague. Granted, they are all important events that led up to WW2, but as adolescent teens we want a bit more action.

That takes up 2/3 topics we learn about, the final topic is Vietnam. Yeah, it's pretty interesting but we don't really learn about the warfare side of things, just the politics/civil side of things (fairly interesting, we go into the things like kent state, the various songs and things). The most we learn about warfare are S&D missions and all the operations that took place, not the weapons, gear etc that people like me are probably more interested in.

To sum up, the British school kids that I have talked to want to learn about more interesting things: perhaps the British empire or the colonial period. (Fairly nationalistic approach but...meh).

[Ililsa]

I had the honour of learning about US history when I did my GCSEs, mostly a very vague overview of the 19th century.

I got a D.

All I got out of it was the insistence on saying 'manifestiny' instead of manifest destiny.

[MazZ]

Your history lesson is very erroneous, Mazz.

Could not agree more, although this history lesson was more than 5 years ago and I could be switching up things xD.
As far as the holocaust goes, wasn't the correct (my mistake) term because that term is specifically bound to the genocide committed by Germany in WW2.

I was talking about war crimes (equal to genocide) committed on russian soil.

And the museums we visited was indeed not connected to WW1 but to WW2.

[joer5835]

In my class, we spent more on WW1 than on WW2, but that's because our teacher thought we already knew too much about WW2. But like everybody, just the reasons and effects of the war, not actual tactics, weapons etc. The closest thing we got to that was watching All quite on the western front (1930 version).

THe thing in my school that annoyed me the most was when we talked about the industrial revolution, we only talked about how terrible the conditions and the wages were. Yeah, I know that by 2 lessons, now can we get into some 19th century politics and imperialism?

[Humlenerd]

[...] But thats Germany. You learn alot about Nazis and how bad they are and how guilty you should feel, but you don't actually learn anything proper about Germanys history. (In the part of Germany where I live, might be different in other parts.)

I always thought you were Swedish 
Anyways, what you learn in school is controlled by politicans, and they are always having a political agenda. In Germany(I guess), the agenda is to make Germans feel shame for something their ancestors did. I mean, where I live, in Norway, several newpapers revealed that social studies school books were written in a very socialist way, which also favoured the EU.

Germans should learn about WW1, and about the very important events etc. which happened afterwards. Like the Kapp Putsch, about the Freikorps, about the Baltic Freikorps(which almoast managed to conquer Estonia) etc. But this should be thought in a neutral way. Indenpendent thinking is good thinking.

[Allasaphore]

Holocaust literally means "total destruction", Merriam-Webster says it is a "a mass slaughter of people; especially : genocide" in our context. The Armenian Genocide may then be considered a holocaust, though we tend to think of the Jewish Holocaust of the 1930's/1940's when we say the word. Literally, the Armenian Genocide is "a holocaust" but not "the Holocaust". Depending on your definition of "large", Hiroshima and Nagasaki may be considered holocausts, as may any other slaughter or obliteration with fire one can find in human history.

Antisemitism existed in Europe long before the Second World War, and existed in places other than what would become Germany. For example, the nineteenth century saw Jews expelled to the westernmost regions of the Russian Empire, along with pogroms against them. They were completely expelled from Spain following the completion of the Reconquista if they refused conversion to the Catholic faith. Even during the Crusades, the religious fervor fueled the slaughter of thousands of Jews across the Holy Roman Empire and France, and had been denounced as "Christ-killers" beforehand. Simply put, antisemitism wasn't new at the turn of the twentieth century.

Now, WWI deserves recognition because of the sheer change it ushered into Europe. The French Revolution was a wound to the Old Regime in Europe, but WWI sealed its fate. It was the fall of empires, with new governments being set up in their steads, a redrawing of the maps of Europe. I suppose it also deserves to be noted that this was the final war where cavalry played any major role, as the Polish cavalry during WWII was unable to help protect that nation from occupation. It's always a wonder to look at the diplomatic web that initiated the Great War, though.

With regards to the origins of WWII, I would go back to 1871 at the very least, if not further. The loss of Alsace-Lorraine and the humiliating defeat suffered by the French would have been fresh in the minds of soldiers on the Western Front, with reclamation of that region as a goal in the peace terms following WWI. We could go to say that the causes of WWI came about with the recession of the Ottoman Empire, and the Austrian Empire's (Austria-Hungary 1867-1918) acquisition of portions of the volatile Balkans. It's up to debate, really.

[Nipplestockings]

I agree mostly except

The loss of Alsace-Lorraine and the humiliating defeat suffered by the French would have been fresh in the minds of soldiers on the Western Front

No it wasn't. Men fighting on the western front could not have cared less about the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, which happened over 40 years before the start of world war 1, meaning the only people who would have actually remembered it would be middle aged men who did not fight in the war, or politicians who tried to use the reclamation of Alsace-Lorraine as a rallying point for French troops. Most soldiers on the western front were young boys on the verge of manhood (16-25) years old approximately, and they had no emotional connection or any reason to care about an event that happened long before their times.

Of course politicians did care, and even if they were too young to remember as well they were certainly aware of it and were eager to get back at Germany for it, but there weren't really any soldiers fighting on the western front who remembered it.