Veterans Day
- Tony Boccia
- 3 minutes ago
- 3 min read
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, an armistice went into effect in the First World War. Extended several times until the peace was finally signed in June 1919, the armistice nevetheless held, and the Great War came to an end. In time, November 11th was celebrated as Armistice Day, with statues, Unknown Soldier memorials, and monuments being erected or dedicated around the world. In the ensuing years, Armistice Day has given way to Veterans Day in the United States, however it is worth looking at the effects of World War One, apart from the usual holiday tropes.
The Great War lasted four years, three months, and two weeks and cost an estimated 8.5 million combatant lives and 13.5 million civilian lives. More British, French, and Italian soldiers died in the First World War than died in the Second. The first use of chemical weapons, the first large-scale employment of industrialized, mechanized warfare, and the dawn of the airplane as a weapon all occurred during this conflict. The Armenian Genocide took place during this time. A flu pandemic erupted toward the end of the war, killing somewhere between 25 and 50 million people worldwide.
The First World War sparked the Russian Revolution, and ended the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, German, and Ottoman Empires. India started on the road to independence, and the Great War made independent-minded nations of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Japan gained a leaping head start on its Pacific empire, and America broke out as a world power. Irish nationalism was reinvigorated, and Poland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia were created as independent states. Zionist ideals rapidly expanded during this period.
The failure to end the Great War amicably or definitively led to another world war just 20 years later. The impacts of this failed peace settlement can still be seen today, most easily in the Balkans, Ukraine, and the Middle East. The origins of Naziism, the foundations of the Cold War, and Chinese nationalism all begin in the aftermath of the First World War. It is a mistake to think that the First World War ended on November 11, 1918; it continued on in the Russian Civil War, the Turkish War of Independence, and the Egyptian Revolution, among many other conflicts.
The list of men who returned home from the front and the peace conference with ideas of war, freedom, nationalism, and pride who would go on to shape the remainder of the 20th century in statesmanship, war, politics, and the arts is staggering: C.S. Lewis. T.E. Lawrence. David Ben Gurion. Ernest Hemmingway. Mustafa Kemal. J.R.R. Tolkien. Adolf Hitler. John Nash. Charles DeGaulle. Harry Truman. Ho Chi Minh. Lu Zhengxiang. Josef Tito. Otto Dix. Benito Mussolini. Ernst Junger. In these names we can hear the whispers of the Second World War and with it the rise of the Greatest Generation, and our Veteran’s Day.
No matter where you may find yourself in the world, chances are you are not very far from a memorial to those lost in the First World War; perhaps a battlefield marker, or a monument to some event or person. From Mons to Micronesia, Namibia to New Jersey, Dublin to Donbass, the First World War shaped the 20th century, and continues to affect us today.
If you have a story of the Great War, or want to share a monument, marker, or memorial that you've seen, let me know! We're always looking to add locations to the website. Pacific History Guide is dedicated to connecting you with local and regional history, where you are.
Keep discovering. and remember those who served on today's Veteran's Day.
