September 25, 2016 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Even when world population was less than 1000 million, world resources was short
Correlating the world history between 1800s and early 1900s with the microbial behavior discussed previously makes for a fascinating exercise.
In the early 1800s even when the world population was less than 1000 million (today India alone is 1200 million mouths), the empires were jittery about resources.
The scarcity was further compounded by greedy and ambitious monarchs such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Otto von Bismarck and the likes of these.
The Franco-Prussian war of the 1870 had already set the tone for things to follow.
It was fought by the Kingdom of Prussia (which included present day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic) along with the North German Confederation against the second French Empire.
The British and French Empires took the early lead in warring and colonizing thanks to their early industrialization.
Germany was always lagging behind.
Once after it united as a single entity in 1871 Germany began to seriously pour in significant economic resources to build the German Imperial Navy to compete and be a bulwark against the mighty British Royal Navy.
It was a case of that good old arms race for the world naval supremacy.
Britain seeing the dangerous ambitions of Germany began to get snug and cosy with France (its formal enemy) and Russia (never a good friend of the British Empire) forming an alliance that is known as the Triple Entente.
Remember that all 3 were empires themselves having overlapping interests.
Germany not to be left behind and alone reached out to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.
As if the West and the Central Europe was not enough of a mess already, there entered a third player that would initiate a chain of events leading to the mother of all wars.
It was the Balkans rightly called the "Powder Keg of Europe".
The Balkans is a patch of land (peninsula to be accurate) in South East Europe that is surrounded by Adriatic Sea in the west, Mediterranean and Marmara seas in the south and Black sea in the east.
Up north it is attached to the land mass of East Europe.
The problem with the Balkans is that politically and geographically it is stuck between frying pan and fire.
Almost all the major powers of that time namely the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Italy and British Empire exerted their spheres of influence and even staked claim over it.
It was yet again a classical case of struggle for limited resources by too many players.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 killed around 140,000 on the side of the French Empire and around 29,000 on the side of the German Empire
Bedtime Story
Even when world population was less than 1000 million, world resources was short
Correlating the world history between 1800s and early 1900s with the microbial behavior discussed previously makes for a fascinating exercise.
In the early 1800s even when the world population was less than 1000 million (today India alone is 1200 million mouths), the empires were jittery about resources.
The scarcity was further compounded by greedy and ambitious monarchs such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Otto von Bismarck and the likes of these.
The Franco-Prussian war of the 1870 had already set the tone for things to follow.
It was fought by the Kingdom of Prussia (which included present day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic) along with the North German Confederation against the second French Empire.
The British and French Empires took the early lead in warring and colonizing thanks to their early industrialization.
Germany was always lagging behind.
Once after it united as a single entity in 1871 Germany began to seriously pour in significant economic resources to build the German Imperial Navy to compete and be a bulwark against the mighty British Royal Navy.
It was a case of that good old arms race for the world naval supremacy.
Britain seeing the dangerous ambitions of Germany began to get snug and cosy with France (its formal enemy) and Russia (never a good friend of the British Empire) forming an alliance that is known as the Triple Entente.
Remember that all 3 were empires themselves having overlapping interests.
Germany not to be left behind and alone reached out to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy.
As if the West and the Central Europe was not enough of a mess already, there entered a third player that would initiate a chain of events leading to the mother of all wars.
It was the Balkans rightly called the "Powder Keg of Europe".
The Balkans is a patch of land (peninsula to be accurate) in South East Europe that is surrounded by Adriatic Sea in the west, Mediterranean and Marmara seas in the south and Black sea in the east.
Up north it is attached to the land mass of East Europe.
The problem with the Balkans is that politically and geographically it is stuck between frying pan and fire.
Almost all the major powers of that time namely the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Italy and British Empire exerted their spheres of influence and even staked claim over it.
It was yet again a classical case of struggle for limited resources by too many players.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.in/
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1871 settled the "German Question" and set the stage for its imperialistic ambitions
The Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 killed around 140,000 on the side of the French Empire and around 29,000 on the side of the German Empire
No comments:
Post a Comment