World War I
Read this overview of World War I. One of the important areas it covers is the "social trauma" brought on by the war and the difficulty of recovery from the conflict.
Religion and the War
Bertrand Russell blamed the war on religion, arguing that "the First World War was wholly Christian in origin" and that opposition came from Socialists who were "anti-Christian". (Russell, 1957) "The three emperors," he says, were "devout, and so were the more warlike of the British Cabinet". Phillips points out that:
When hostilities began, German churchmen preached holy war in the east against Russia and in the west against "atheistic" France. Britons, however, singled out the Kaiser, and became manic over the return of the "Hun" and the threat to world civilization, against which God had marshaled his chosen people. The most extreme blessing of the cannons came from the bishop of London, A. F Winnington-Ingram, who called the war "a great crusade - we cannot deny it - to kill Germans". He advised The Guardian that "you ask for my advice in a sentence as to what the church is to do. I answer - MOBILIZE THE NATION FOR A HOLY WAR". (Phillips, 2005)
The Kaiser also
"pretended to be a Muslim sympathizer to bolster his alliance with
Turkey". (Phillips, 2005) Germany had been more sympathetic towards the
Ottomans, who were increasingly in debt to the Allied Powers, assisting
with technology and aid.