Child's Book of 1. WHY THE WAR CAME AND HOW IT WAS FOUGHT CAUSES OF THE WAR The Age-old Struggle Between Democracy and Autocracy Which Was at the Root of the War THERE 'HERE are two kinds of nations in the world: those which believe that governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed, and those which believe that kings receive their power from God and that they may use it over people who have nothing to say about its use. The first is a democracy; the other is an autocracy. The war of the nations which is just ended was one of democracy against autocracy, and that really means that it was a war of the free people of the world against masters and their bondsmen. At one time all the great nations of the world had kings. Strong men were able to seize the leadership of a country and to hold it and pass it on to their sons, so that the people came to accept one family as rulers. The people themselves were oppressed. They paid heavy taxes to the rulers and enjoyed little or no benefit from them. Naturally they began to grow dissatisfied. In some countries-England, for example-leaders sprang up among the people and bit by bit the rulers lost their power. rulers lost their power. As early as 1215 King John of England signed the Magna Charta which transferred power from king to people. THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT Years went on. The idea of free government had taken root in the minds of people, but it never really bore fruit until the last part of the eighteenth century. Then in 1776, in Independence Hall the thirteen American colonies of Great Britain revolted against the imposition of a tax which the colonists. considered unjust; they went to war, and were victorious. They went to war because their principles of freedom and justice were at issue, and when they had established these principles and created the United States of America they made a free republic based on the doctrine that power comes from the people and that government exists merely to administer CONTAGIOUS DEMOCRACY After the American democracy came into being, other nations of Europe were inspired toward the ideal of government in which the people should have a voice, Copyright by Underwood & Underwood Westminster Abbey Although Great Britain is nominally ruled by a king, it is to-day one of the most democratic governments in the world. The King of Italy holds his power as the result of a war in which the Italian people won their freedom from With Houses of Parliament, House of Commons and Austrian rule. Even Russia would no doubt ultimately have reached a more liberal form of government, since the people were constantly revolting against House of Lords, in the foreground. tives. France delegates power to the Chamber of Deputies, and England to the House of Commons and the House many was a thoroughgoing autocracy with the Kaiser as the supreme autocrat of Europe. THE UNFORGETABLE AUGUST, 1914 The story of the first weeks of the war is one which the world will never forget. Peaceful villages were turned into smoking ruins, and families became refugees fleeing from the gray terror of the oncoming German hordes. 66 In everything the Germans did were the marks of careful planning and deliberation. Germany wanted war. Why? In the first place, she had come late into the family of nations and the best regions for colonization and exploitation in the temperate zones were occupied by other powers. She needed territory, and then more territory; she wanted what the Kaiser called a place in the sun." But Germany had other reasons for wishing war. She knew that a successful war meant large indemnities from the conquered territories; she believed the teachings of her philosophers and statesmen that war was necessary to weed out the weak and establish the rule of the strong; she wished to impose her civilization, or Kultur, upon all the world; in short, she was determined to become the dominating nation of the world. We are all familiar with the words "Pan-Germanism" and "The MiddleEurope" project. They belong entirely to Germany. They tell the story of Germany's ambition. "Pan-Germanism": her belief in the superiority of the German race, and her determination to promote the Germanization of the world. "Middle-Europe project": a federation of states-Austria-Hungary, the Balkans, Turkey, Rumania, Greece, Denmark and Sweden, Holland, all of central Europe; this vast territory to be under the control of Germany. In preparation of this plan of a Middle European Empire Germany had secured a concession to build the Berlin-toBagdad Railway-which was to run from Berlin, through Austria, through Constantinople, to Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. It was a huge scheme; when the war came a large part of it had been completed. Serbia, one of the little Balkan states, lay in the way. Germany or Austria must control Serbia and Bulgaria, through whose territory the Berlin-toBagdad Railway had to run. Bulgaria and Serbia were at swords' points. Bulgaria had made a secret treaty with Germany which promised that she should have large grants of territory in case of a successful war. This territory had to come out of Serbia. Serbia knew it and naturally was not disposed to be under the domineering control of either Germany or Austria. So an excuse for putting Serbia out of the way had to be found. It came when the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated by a Serbian student while he was visiting Sarajevo, in Bosnia. Together Germany and Austria decided that this was "The Day" for which they had waited to begin their conquest. Austria made intolerable demands upon Serbia. They were demands that no brave and self-respecting nation could grant. Germany's hand was cleverly played. The events of August, 1914, moved swiftly. Russia, Serbia's ally, intervened. Germany announced that if Russia took sides with Serbia against Austria she must face Germany, too. And so it went. France, Russia's ally, stood ready to aid her. Germany invaded Belgium, a neutral country, in order to get at France. Belgium resisted, and as a result German troops began to devastate the country with |