After World War I
“Apocalypse: Never-Ending War” tells the story of the years that followed the First World War, the collapse of empires, and the fateful rise of totalitarianism. Years that foretell the coming of another disastrous war. For four years, from 1914-1918, the world seemed hellbent on total self-annihilation. The First World War was an apocalyptic war that claimed over 50 million lives, civilian and military. Those who survive come to realize the world of the past century has now disappeared into an abyss of suffering. Millions of soldiers, the shell-shocked, the amputees, the disabled, will spend the rest of their lives trying to make sense of their years in hell. Parents are in despair at the loss of their children, families destroyed, millions of widows and orphans left to survive any way they can. In 1919 at Versailles and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and in 1920 at Trianon, the victors forge peace treaties that they claim will restore balance. But those who have pinned their hopes on a transition from war to universal peace are to be deeply disappointed. Hatred, fear, and resentment re-emerge from the depths of societies traumatized by war and the tumultuous transformation that results from the world’s map being re-drawn. The vanquished, facing terrible reparations, look for promises of hope, stability and order, even at the cost of personal freedom. The climate is ripe for the emergence of authoritarian forces, exacerbating ethnic nationalism, and opening doors to the worst of human nature. Extreme ideologies take root in Germany and Italy, and spread from there.
_______
Credit: DW
