Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist Oct-Nov 2018 | Seite 30

COVER STORY
LESSONS FROM THE GREAT WAR:
INEVITABILITY VS INSTITUTIONS
BY ARPIT CHATURVEDI*
A
hundred years have passed since the Great War ended
with the Armistice that was signed on "the eleventh
hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"
in 1918. Refl ections on this centenary can be approached
through various perspectives. One can ponder on the
undeniable profundity of the event; how peace is so vital for
human sustenance; and how war ends in inevitable human
suff ering no matter who the victor is. Afterall, the death
toll of the First World War totaled up to nearly 40 million
with more casualties on the side of the victorious allied
forces - approximately 10 million, lesser on the side of the
defeated central powers (approximately eight million), and
an equivalent number of civilian casualties on both sides due
to direct belligerence or disease. At the same time, one can
also dwell on how ephemeral peace can be – evidenced by the
aftermath of the treaty of Versailles, the failure of the League
of Nations and the precipitation of the Second World War. We
can endlessly study the consequences of the Great War – the
fall of the four behemoth aristocracies: the Romanovs, the
Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, and the Ottomans; the rise of
revolutionary forces in the form of Bolshevik Revolution in
Russia, the Mexican Revolution, the Egyptian Revolution,
a German and even a Mongolian Revolution; and the
construction of new national identities and nation states such
as the Weimar Republic, the Republic of Turkey, and other
successor states such as Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia,
and Yugoslavia. However, the greater question that underlies
our curiosity to study these historical episodes is what we can
learn from them. Can such bloody and large-scale warfare be
averted? Or are we doomed to be stuck in a cycle of war and
30 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 10 • Oct-Nov 2018, Noida