I am starting to hear complaints about Germany and how Germany can cause trouble for the European Union. Well Germany is strong and always comes back. It is one of the most resilient of nations. I saw that Germany is the strongest of the European nations, economically that is. In this day and age money, resources, and strong collective government are the powers that be. In Germany's case it is all of the above and a historic power that seems to defy the odds.
Going back when Germany was called Prussia, it was a kingdom of many provinces and kingdoms. Although they were not all under one roof they were of a common cause.
France and Prussia were always at odds with each other and most often Prussia would and could handle France rather effectively. However it was almost laughable when France declared war on Prussia in 1871 and was within weeks so totally defeated it was scary. The end of this war was basically that the army of France was after a few weeks held hostage by the Prussian military and the French Emperor was held hostage as well. As you can see that went nowhere for France and was a massive embarrassment to them. However, since all the members of the Prussian military and government were in France at the time it was decided to put all of the parts of Prussia all under one roof .
This was done under the careful control of General Hindenburg. This was also done in Versailles, since they had just totally defeated France they formed their own new government in the most important place in France's history. It was a great moment for the new country called Germany.
Germany grew by leaps and bounds in so many ways. Few people have ever really thought why Germany always has had a powerful army. In all of its history it has always been so. Why you may ask?
Simple, Germany has no natural defenses, therefore it has always needed and produced a very powerful army. always more powerful than many other nations.
Under the control of Wilhelm II, Germany became a massive powerhouse economically, militarily, and politically. The power of Germany scared one of the nations that had grown increasingly jealous of her. That was England and although the German and the English monarchy were very closely related. (Wilhelm II was Queen Victoria's favorite grandson) England could not allow Germany to be the leader of Europe. So they carefully set up the Kaiser to a arms race. It all began in the later part of the 19th century. By 1905 First Lord of the Admiralty Jackie Fisher pushed to have the HMS Drednaught constructed. this ship was the first ship to be a all big gun ship. It started an arms race with Germany producing an equal amount of massive ships on both sides. England still had a small lead in the navy, but had totally been outranked by the German military.
By 1914 there were some ruthless people on England's side pulling many kinds of stunts. Perhaps one of the worst was Winston Churchill. We honor him today for his fiery courage in WW2, but in WWI he was just an English version of Dick Chaney. He did everything in his power to start a war and in time he was successful.
WWI was awful for everyone. What is most important was it was a war over NOTHING. It was a mess for Europe and it was plain to see that England and France were losing to Germany. It was then the United States came in.
I feel it was a most stupid action. It would have been nice to allow Germany to deal with those who had caused her so much grief. I think that had Germany won in WWI, the world would have been nicer. But finally after several nations teamed up, Germany was defeated.
Then there was the Treaty of Versailles. Remember that place? That was where Germany had been founded. That is why this rape of Germany took place there. The Treaty was a sham, and all it did was guarantee that it would lead to another war.
All this treaty did was take everything of value that Germany had and give it to everyone else. Then they charged Germany billions of dollars for starting the war that they did not start. In their quest to be fair to everyone there at the treaty. The Allies kicked out or would not deal with certain groups, people or nations. Such as Germany, Russia, Korea, Viet Nam, Pretty much all of the Middle East, and more. Since this was a peace conference it was though that they would like to hear from other occupied countries such as Korea and Viet Nam, but they did not give a damn. They were creating their dream of global control.
As expected, Germany lost everything.
The hatred for France which was in charge of this conference and of whom charged Germany so much was un-matched by the Germans. The hatred only grew when France and Belgium invaded Germany in 1923 and made the economy of Germany totally crash. Don't hear about that often do we?
It looked like Germany would never rise again. But due to the terrible treatment of Germany by France it festered into Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a fantastic speaker and leader. He and his party brought Germany out of the depths and got a heartbeat. By 1933 he was in charge and in five years from that time Germany had the greatest economy in Europe. Nominated 2 times for the Nobel Peace Prizes, Hitler made Germany the greatest military in the world, but at what cost? It was a frightening moment. Cause in Hitler's mind he had a lot of issues to settle. Specially with all of the countries and peoples that he believed damaged Germany in WWI. So all the good that Hitler did originally was lost with his crazy ideas about race, mythology, and war. However he did make one interesting prediction. He said that after his death and the end of the war, Berlin would be divided, but would in time come back together and become a powerhouse of a country again.
By 1945 Germany was a totally destroyed nation again. This time however, there were no buildings or industry. Just ruin. By the 1950's and the cold war Berlin was indeed divided and by the 1960's there was a physical wall between east and west Berlin. Germany was growing slow, but how do you restore a country or major city if you only have half of it?
In 1989 the wall came down. Germany was re-united, and everyone expected Germany to fall apart because it would have to take care of the other side of Germany so long neglected. But as time went on, Germany rose and grew.
By the late 1990's it was a force to recon with . As the 21st century has come it is very clear that Germany is back and stronger than ever. She is the greatest economy in Europe. For a country so badly devastated so many times, it has proved to be one of the most resilient, powerful, and remarkable nations in the world.