World War I

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The intervention of the U.S stopped that big German offensive in 1918, the failure of which led to the collapse of the German's on the Western Front and made the end of the war come much sooner. So that's a good thing IMO...

O/c it was a terrible, pointless and stupid war (and Germany was just as responsible as everyone else) but that's not the issue here I think... and pretty much every European power was Imperalist back then, but in different ways.

As for the treaties... Germany's territorial losses (especially to Poland) were entirely justified. The problem was French greed over reperations.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I find the Australian contribution at Versailles rather amusing. Our PM, Billy Hughes, was Welsh, as was the British PM (Lord George). They shouted at eachother in welsh about nobody knows what, because no-one else in the entire palace spoke welsh. Also, he was one of the major opponents of Wilson's internationalism ideas and was probably, after the french, the person who wanted to punish the 'bloody krauts' the most. As a reward, Australia got a colonial empire...Papua

Ah yes... Billy Hughes... how many political parties was he in at various stages in his career? Something like 6 in total IIRC...
At one stage he produced a comically distorted map showing pretty much all of the islands north of Australia touching Australia...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It is worth pointing out the US never really did enter the war on the side of the Allies. It simply declared war on Germany, but did not join the Allies. Much like Finland was only at war with the Soviets in WWII.

U.S troops were fighting on the same front as French or British troops you know...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Wrong. Genocide was never really practiced even by the worst Cecil Rhodes type; it was in some German colonies though. Germany was also imperialist within Europe; the treaty of Brest-Liovsk is a good example...

And however bad the adminstration of India was (and it was dire) it was actually one of the *better* run colonial posessions (as hard as that might be to believe) at the time... much better than (say) the Dutch East Indies or French West Africa.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Explain how Danzig, a city with 95% German population, being given to Poland is justified.

Danzig wasn't given to Poland; it was basically made into a Free City under the protection of the League of Nations. Why do you think there are now two major ports in that area?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

BRTD: I've told you this a couple of times, but British Imperialism in Northern Ireland ended in 1921 with the partition. Northern Ireland was a de facto independent country until the collapse of Stormont in the early '70's.
And there has never been any need to protect the Protestants in NI; quite the reverse in fact... under Stormont, Catholics were treated in a way similer to Blacks in the Deep South prior to the end of segregation. Intially British troops were sent to NI to protect Catholics from the Protestant majority.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What you say may be true, but try telling that to an Irish republican. Most of the ones I've met (which is quite a bit over here, I've always found it interesting how Irish Americans had so much concern over what was going on in their ancestral country than most Americans do), talk about it being "the last remnant of the British Empire, the Occupied Six Counties, etc."

The Unionists are just as insane... "everything is a Popish plot", "the Pope is the devil" yadda, yadda, yadda. Both sides are stuck about four hundred years ago in the past...

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Northern Ireland wasn't exactly a haven of liberalism either. Abortion laws there are actually more restrictive than in RoI.