Colonial expansion, and military, industrial, and intellectual dominance in Europe. Remember, the Germans didn't want to just have A place in the sun, but rather THE place in the sun.
German History during this time mainly owes itself to two people: Otto Von Bismark and Adolf Hitler . WWII was fought for revenge, the others were clearly territorial disputes and as for WWI, it was bound to happen, the whole black hand assasination thing was just an excuse.
I disagree. Bismarck - OK. But Hitler was a product of this time, not a maker. And apart from that, please don't claim that Germany owes anything to Hitler. Thank you.
I would see the period of 1914 - 1945 as the second Thirty Years War, because, as was already said here, WW2 was very much caused by the results of WW1.
The era of Imperialism certainly can't be considered a "German Long War". There were numerous power struggles and smaller conflicts, usually between colonial powers and the colonies.
I believe that "the use of the term long war" is reasonable.
It is only a partial truth; but it is a valid perspective.
I believe that by the middle of the 19th century; the german (actually Prussian before 1870) military and upper classes had concluded that they were the dominant continental army
and sought to politically isolate their opponents one by one
and then win a quick war. This worked very well with Austria,
and France (who were foolish enough to be provoked into declaring war when the Germans had prepared already).
It first went wrong in 1914; when a small professional britiish expeditionary force was able to stop the pomerian elite
by rapid fire and end the Schlieffen plan.
The Prussians and Germans had deliberately had their tall soldiers marry tall women to produce taller soldiers.
This strategy might have worked in ancient or medieval days.
However the development of repreating rifles obsoleted it.
A 6ft 6 to 7 foot pomerian was a bigger and easier target.
I think of it more as the end of the "Eurocentric" world, in that period Europe reached it's greatest height as a dominator of the planet, and then fell to the post WWII Bi-Polar world.
@ Stefan Haertel
I disagree. Bismarck - OK. But Hitler was a product of this time, not a maker. And apart from that, please don't claim that Germany owes anything to Hitler. Thank you.
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