Was it really so peaceful prior to 1914? (page 2)

fleaman uk

are a great many historians who discuss the world from 1848 (time of the european revolutions) and 1871 (time of eurpoean nation building) and how those events to occur. It was anything but a surprise

I totally agree..it was inevitable after the Franco/prussian War of 1870/1that France was always looking for revenge.

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0858225.html

That and the Anglo French entente cordiale of 1905 established the blue print for German militaristic aims.

I always think that Russell was incredibly lucky in choosing 1914 as a pivotal Date ,but it was inevitable for 30 Years before then (or more)that a huge War was going to break out in Europe at any time and the signing of that treaty confirmed this...

So the upshot would be that the war was no surprise at all...and the constant pushing and diplomatic pressure of European nations made sure that the pre (Great)war Years were anything but peaceful.....

carla

Do you have a copy of "Sign of the Last Days-When?" by Carl Olof Jonsson & Wolfgang Herbst. Here are the chapters-

Our 20th Century-Time of the End

Famine-Is it Worse Today?

Earthquakes and Historical Facts

Pestilences- Past & Present

Some Remarkable Facts about Wars

Is Today's 'Increasing of Lawlessness' Unprecedented?

The Myth of the Composite Sign

What will be the sign of Your Coming?

Appendix A: Correspondence with Seismologists

etc.. available on most of the exjw sites. carla

jgnat

UP to 1914 there were veterans of earlier skirmishes like the Boer war and the Crimean war who were ready to fight again.

What changed is not the frequency of war (we’ve always done it) instead technology made it possible to destroy masses of people at once. War stopped being glamorous.

GetBusyLiving

The funny thing about the date setting of the 1800's was that Christ's return was predicted by somebody practically every year for a while! The paranioa for the beginning a large war was in the air so thick you could taste it.

GBL

the_classicist

You're forgetting the wars just before WWI:

Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) 190,000

The Boer War (1899-1902) <100,000

Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) 150,000

Among others.

sonnyboy

It seems as if we're living in the most peaceful time in history.

Oh no! Peace and Security!

roybatty

You're forgetting the wars just before WWI:
Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) 190,000
The Boer War (1899-1902) <100,000
Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) 150,000
Among others.

American Civil war....over 600,000 died.

AlanF

The notion that "things are just so bad today!" is as old as humanity. The genius of Charles Taze Russell, his fellows of the Adventist mindset, and many Fundamentalists from the 19th century to today, has been in capitalizing on this notion to gain followers.

I have a book called The Good Old Days--They Were Terrible! (Otto Bettmann, 1974) ( http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0394709411/qid=1119551571/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-3617365-8571039?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 ) which describes late 19th century life in America in gory detail. Only the rich had "the good life", while the poor existed in conditions that would bring massive outrage from the socially conscious today.

If you do an online search for a string like "the good old days weren't so good" you'll get tons of interesting comments.

From a website called "the incipient posthuman": http://www.incipientposthuman.com/here.htm

"The belief that society is in decline is a permanent characteristic of every era. People have always believed they lived in a crumbling world." -- Jack McDevitt, Author

"Every generation has been convinced that it's seeing the beginning of the end. Tablets dug up in Iraq from 3000 B.C. say the same thing." -- James P. Hogan, Author

A couple of other interesting sites:

The Good Old Days Weren’t So Good http://www.liberator.net/articles/SloanGary/GoodOldDays.html

Letting Go Of the Past http://www.cybercollege.com/fog29.htm

AlanF

FairMind

Was WWI the worst war the world had ever seen? Was it really the first world war?

American Civil war....over 600,000 died.

More Americans died in the War of Northern Aggression (nothing civil about it) than in all other wars combined up until the Vietnam conflict.

The Black Death!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3293095

Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, emphasized what AIDS has done to the world since the early 1980s, stating that within this relatively short period of time, AIDS has (already) killed more than 20 million people, a figure that surpasses any single cause of death in modern history. NPR's Richard Knox reports from the first day of the conference.

The paranioa for the beginning a large war was in the air so thick you could taste it. GBL

GBL you're a lot older than than I thought if you can remember back then.

ithinkisee

This is a good non-apostate link (Salon.com) that quotes from the Olaf book "Sign of The Last Days - When?"

http://blogs.salon.com/0001561/stories/2003/01/15/theLastDaysInThe14thCentury.html

All this information is great! Thanks! Keep em coming ...

(I think I need to get that book.)

-ithinkisee

Was it really so peaceful prior to 1914?

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