I’m not only a high school World History teacher, but am also one of the 320 million American citizens you represent. After seeing the interview where you said Andrew Jackson was very upset
about the Civil War, despite the fact that he was dead several years before it
began, I realized how necessary it is that you have at least one basic lesson
in World History. The lesson I’ll present is the first lesson my students get
when we start to discuss World War I, at the beginning of 4th
quarter.
Everyone in Europe knows, and some Americans know, World War
I was sparked when Archduke Ferdinand, of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated by
Gavrilo Princip, a member of a radical, nationalist organization in Serbia. Princip shot and killed Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary,
and also his wife Sophie, while they were riding in the backseat of a car in a
ceremonial motorcade through the streets of Sarajevo. You can picture JFK being
shot in the convertible in Dallas? This was just like that, just with a much
older car.
Before we go on, let me reassure you that Austria-Hungary is
no longer a country, so don’t worry about reaching out to their King, or
Emperor, or whatever sort of leader you think might be in charge over there.
While Ferdinand's assassination was the spark, most Europeans know, and a few Americans know, this wasn’t the cause. There were four causes of World War I, which can be
easily remembered by the mnemonic (memory device) MAIN. The M stand for
Militarism. The A stands for Alliances. The I stands for Imperialism. The N
stands for Nationalism. Let’s look at these four causes.
Militarism: If you have a knife, but your biggest enemy has
a gun, you want a bigger gun. If you have a bigger gun, your enemy wants an even bigger gun. If your enemy gets that bigger gun, you want a fully-automatic,
military-grade rifle, with night-vision scope and laser sight. When you get
that, he gets something that can shoot from the sky, and so on, and so on… Nations do the same thing. England had the biggest navy at the time. Remember that the sun never set on
the British Empire? It takes a lot of ships to keep control over that many
territories in the world, so their navy was enormous. Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm wanted to have a navy that was
larger than the two next strongest navies combined -- England and whoever was next. So Germany started building
ships and submarines at break-neck pace, and when Great Britain saw Germany increasing its navy, they started building more ships, because England wanted to remain the largest navy in the world. You see
how this might cause an endless escalation of arming the world’s greatest
powers? Besides England and Germany, others in the area got nervous about all the naval power surrounding them, so they started ramping
up military production as well. One doesn’t spend millions of Marks, Rubles,
Franks, Pounds, or Dollars on weapons, with no intention of using them. I tell my students it would be like spending the entire school budget on the football team, but never having it play a game. Where you spend your money tells people where your priorities lie. Channeling that much money to your military demonstrates a readiness to deploy that
military.
Alliances:
You’re familiar with NATO. Sometimes you tell us you think it’s a good
thing. Other times you tell us you think it’s a bad thing. It didn’t exist prior to World
War I. But there were some verbal agreements between gentlemen. The Czar of
Russia, the Kaiser of Germany, and the King of England were all…. get this… first
cousins! Yep. Queen Victoria was their grandmother. Yes, THAT Queen Victoria. You’re
probably familiar with Victorian architecture and Victorian fashion. All of
that came into vogue when Queen Victoria was in power in England. Three of her grandsons would eventually rule three of the greatest powers in the world, and they’d go to war against one another. Alliances are good when someone has
your back. You know that if someone attacks you, your ally will be behind you. But alliances like this had never existed before, so when war began they
created a surprising effect, like a brush fire suddenly turning into a massive
conflagration across Europe. Soon countries all over the world were at war.
The United States knew better than to get involved. At first. We wanted no part
of such a horrible war, we didn’t cause it, and we didn’t need to enter it. But
we were very happy to increase our manufacture and sales of weapons and planes.
Our economy grew by leaps and bounds once the fighting began. Wars are nothing
if not exceedingly profitable, for some.
But I digress. The economics of war is another issue for
another class, so I won’t get into that lesson here. Long story short, the
leader of Austria-Hungary was furious at the assassination of his heir, so he
declared war on Serbia. Russia was an ally of Serbia, so Czar Nicholas of Russia declared war on
Austria-Hungary. Germany promised to defend Austria-Hungary, so Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm declared war on his own cousin, Czar Nicholas, in Russia. King George in England entered the conflict on the side of
Serbia and his cousin Czar Nicholas in Russia, also declaring war on his own first cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany, and on it went until dozens and dozens of countries all over
the world were fighting.
Imperialism:
When I say that countries all over the world were fighting,
I mean that every British colony around the world was fighting for Great
Britain, every country colonized by the French was fighting for France, German
colonies fought for Germany. You get the idea. Additionally, there were conflicts between European nations over the borders and land
claims of lands they claimed in Africa and Asia. "If your land lies on that side of the river, and my land on this side, who controls fishing, transportation, and dumping of waste in the river?" England controlled India, Egypt, Palestine, South
Africa, Canada, Australia, Iraq,… Let’s look at what some of the other
countries around the world were called at that time. There was the Belgian Congo, French Indochina, German
West Africa… Africans and Asians may have had no interest in the war engulfing Europe,
but since they weren’t in control their own destinies, they were dragged in.
Nationalism:
German leaders were saying things like “Germany First!”
English leaders were saying, “England First!” French leaders were
saying, “France First!” Nationalism, in wartime, isn’t just a
celebration of one’s own culture. It’s a rejection of other cultures.
If Germany is awesome, as so many Germans believed, then France and Russia and
Italy and Spain must suck. If everyone feels that every other culture sucks, it’s
not too hard to see everyone who is “other” as inferior, even to the point of
being worthy of elimination. Nationalism can be very galvanizing, and while
pride in one’s country is a fabulous thing, condescension toward other
countries can be a very dangerous thing.
Relevance:
I’m only telling you this lesson because it’s important to
learn from the past, and I can’t believe all these causes of war are coming together
again in such a glaringly obvious way. Here’s how you are contributing to all four
factors.
Militarism: By telling the entire world that you’ll cut
spending on absolutely everything, from children’s health care, to after school
programs, to school lunches for impoverished children, to our world-renowned
National Parks Service, to the National Endowment for the Arts, to Sesame
Street – but are willing to increase spending and hiring in the military, you’re
giving the rest of the world a reason to strengthen their own militaries. Guys
like Kim Jong-Un can point to American military build-up and justify his own
nuclear weapons testing. So can China. So can Pakistan. So can every country we
make nervous right now, which somehow recently started to include Australia – a
mind-boggling development if ever there was one.
Alliances:
If two boys offend and provoke each other, they’re likely to
get into a fist fight at school. But if one boy has several friends behind him,
the other boy probably won’t throw a punch. You may not see it this way, but most people see leaders
of nations as grown-up boys who still offend and provoke each other, and
sometimes want to throw punches. Having allies is a deterrent to war. When
Saddam Hussein, a grown-up bully, invaded Kuwait in 1990, he had to contend with a huge coalition
of countries rushing to Kuwait’s defense. Little, tiny Kuwait! The United Nations member nations
sent soldiers and weapons, bombed the bejeezus out of the Iraqi military, and
saw Kuwait’s sovereignty restored to them. Vulnerable countries, like Kuwait (and Israel), need strong allies, or else they’d be easily dominated. We might have the
mightiest military in the world, but we still need our allies. Russia is up to
no good, China never has our best interests in mind, and there are so many other
countries who would "love to see those smug, arrogant, American assholes
finally get what’s coming to them.” You might not like the phrase at this
point, but we truly are “Stronger Together.” So let’s be nicer to our allies,
ok? (Seriously. Would it have killed you to shake Angela Merkel’s hand?)
The “I” for “Imperialism” seems outdated. The era of European
nations controlling most of Africa and Asia is over. We might better substitute
the “I” in M-A-I-N for words like “Ignorant,” or “Incompetent,” or “Idiotic.”
For example, sending a few people to South Korea to poison his half-brother out
of paranoia at losing his authority is something a crazy leader like Kim
Jong-un would do. Similarly, rejecting the Climate Change findings of the world’s
entire scientific community, while believing the batshit crazy rantings of
Alt-right media outlets, is a sign of an unhinged person. Concocting a story
about being wiretapped by Obama, while dismissing all of the evidence to the contrary, is akin
to Kim Jong-un’s paranoid approach to the world. But while it might be tempting
to reassign the letter “I” to mean Ignorant, Ill-informed, Imbicile, I regret
to inform you that it would be premature. Imperialism seems ridiculous in a 21st
century context, but when Kim Jong-un tests his missiles and fires up the people of North Korea, he’s
warning them of American Imperialism. When Osama bin Laden recruited his
radical followers, he cited American Imperialism. Americans see ourselves as
the defenders of Democracy, and as the champions of free people around the world.
Other nations see us setting up military bases in Saudi Arabia in 1991, to
repel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and then never leaving. Other nations saw us lead
the international effort to demilitarize Iraq, but then after Iraq had
dismantled their weapons program, the United States overthrew their leader,
against the opposition of the United Nations and our closest allies, and then
we helped set up an Iraqi government that would serve our own interests. When the
government of Iraq fell, looters broke into museums and ran off with priceless
antiquities, because our soldiers weren’t commanded to protect those things. Our
soldiers were given orders to secure the oil wells, and they did that brilliantly. Why
would any other nation dismantle their weapons program after seeing what happened to Iraq? America is not trusted by several countries around the world, but Mr.
President, your rhetoric takes things to a new and terrifying level for
everyone. You said of Iraq, “We should have kept the oil. I would have kept the
oil.” That’s what an imperialist would
say. It suggests to other nations that the United States can decide whether to “keep
the oil” or “let them keep it”. In no way does it convey to them that their oil
is THEIR oil. Your statements raise a lot of anxiety in every nation that is
less powerful economically or militarily than the United States. That would be
every other nation in the world.
Nationalism: I don’t need to say much about this. “America
First” isn’t very original. We’ve heard it before. Can you guess who said the
following statements? “Germany First!” “Italy First!” “Russia First!” “Japan
First!” If you guessed, “Those were the statements of the craziest dictators in
the history of the world, and their nationalist ideas led to a loss of life and
treasure at a level no one could ever have imagined,” you’d be correct. I love
my country. I mean it. I LOVE the United States. It’s magnificent, and
fantastic, or as you’d say, “really, really great.” I am so proud of American
inventiveness, a Constitution that has been the model of all Democratic
countries around the world, the American flag planted on the moon, the automobile, the telephone, the electric light bulb, the Personal
Computer, the Internet, and the ideals of liberty and democracy we stand for
and defend. There’s nowhere in the world I’d rather call home. But being a
proud American does not require that I think Mexicans are murderers and drug
dealers and rapists, or that Iraqis owe us anything, or that all Muslims hate
America, or that refugees are dangerous. Being a proud American doesn't make me likely to look out on a crowd and
point to someone while saying, “Look at my African-American over there!” Being a proud American doesn't lead me to use the name "Pocahontas" as an insult. My being a proud American is
the opposite of those things. My being a proud American allows me to see the
Mexican, and the Iraqi, and the Muslim, the African-American, the refugee, and the Native American as neighbors
in a diverse and ever-interconnecting world.
I hope this little history lesson helps you make some
important decisions in the years ahead, as you continue to lead the country I have been so
proud to call home for my whole life. Unless it is in fact your goal that we
end up in a world war (and I'm not ruling that out, considering the economic incentives that lie therein), there are some ways you should tweak your never-ending
campaign rallies to avoid stirring up anti-foreign sentiment. I’d be happy to write your speeches, but I fear that you’d go
off script and let “the Donald” shine through, so it would be far better If you just
start seeing things the way they really are – enemies as enemies, allies as
allies, scientific facts as facts, journalists as truth-seekers, and so on.
If you found this helpful, please let me know. I’ve got
other lessons to share – lessons on the long-term and world-wide detriment of “trickle-down
economics” in America, the incredible economic benefits for all that arise from
increasing the minimum wage, the fabulous economic positives of moving to renewable
energy, the history of the world’s great religions, the disastrous consequences of school privatization with public funds, and the importance of a
free press in a democracy. Best wishes for the rest of your term. We’re all
resting our hopes on you!!
Sincerely,
Karina Doyle – proud American
