Pro-Russian rebels claim to have shot down a Ukrainian spy drone just a
few miles from the site of the MH17 disaster.
Reports speak of footage released on Youtube by the self-proclaimed
Donetsk Peoples' Republic – showing a
military craft lying in a field near the rebel-dominated city of Donetsk in
eastern Ukraine. Not all lands are
peaceful – there is conflict in Ukraine; bloody wars in Syria, Iraq and Gaza –
people get killed, and regions suffer….
The role of war in causing tumult in the lives
of people needs no elaborate description – wars are bad; blood and gore of
violent conflicts; death, mutilations
and injuries; curfews, scarcities and rations; cruel torture of captured, sexual
assaults and more ………. War throws up lot of turmoil. Those regions which witnessed actual
conflicts would know it much better than those who only read the history. South India, and more specifically, Tamil
Nadu, fortunately has not witnessed wars for centuries. More of that towards the end of the
post… but the news on War as reported in
Daily Mail and many other Western media is that – exactly 100 years ago
tomorrow, Britain stumbled into a war that
was to change the face not just of UK but of the whole of Europe, and
perhaps the rest of the World forever.
It was an era of upheaval, revolution, bloodshed and conflict unimaginable to
the Britons who cheered when it was decided to fight the Kaiser on August 4,
1914. It is no exaggeration to say that the effects of the Great War are still
being felt.
World War I (WW1) the global
War centered in Europe - began on 28th
July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. Millions were killed in that
deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes,
including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the
world's economic great powers which were assembled in two opposing alliances:
the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the
Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These
alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy,
Japan and the United States joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and
Bulgaria the Central Powers.
Although a resurgence of imperialism was an underlying cause, the
immediate trigger for war was the 28th June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav
nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set off a diplomatic crisis and
international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked. Within
weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the
world. On 28th July, the
Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation for the invasion of
Serbia. After years of fighting, the war approached a resolution after the
Russian government collapsed in March 1917, and a subsequent revolution in
November brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers. In Nov 1918,
the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to an armistice, ending the war in victory
for the Allies. By the end of the war, four major imperial powers—the German,
Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires—ceased to exist.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s death, at the hands
of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret society, set in train a
mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in the world's first
global war ~ and then there was the remarkable sequence of events that led
inexorably to the 'Great War' - a name that had been touted even before the
coming of the conflict. Remember that
India was under colonial rule and naturally got sucked into the conflict. Around a million of Indian troops had to
travel overseas to alien lands fight alongside Britons and thousands lost their
lives. Besides fighting against
Germany, Indian divisions were also sent
to Egypt, Gallipoli and esopotamia against the Ottoman Empire. The Indian army
at this time was drawn mainly from the middle peasantry, recruited from the
north and north-west of India partly on account of the "martial
races" theory of the British which suggested that some races or castes
were inherently more warlike than others.
The Great War threw history off its supposed
course of progress and enlightenment. It recalibrated the world. It destroyed
empires, undermined the power of those who survived, fomented revolutions,
broke class systems and social orders, and created a new superpower in the
shape of America. There are remnant dark shadows of the War that happened 100
years ago… Britain got away lightly …. Getting back to Wars in South India – the First Carnatic War
(1746-1748) was triggered by War of the
Austrian Succession; in this conflict the British and French East
India Companies vied with each other on land for control of their respective
trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and Cuddalore, while naval forces of
France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The Battle of Wandiwash was a decisive battle
in India during the Seven Years' War. The Count de Lally's army, burdened by a
lack of naval support and funds, attempted to regain the fort at Vandavasi; was
attacked by Sir Eyre Coote's forces and decisively defeated. The French general
in Jan 1761. Wandiwash is the Anglicised pronunciation of
Vandavasi. The Third Carnatic War fought between the French and the British.
After making substantial gains in Bengal and Hyderabad, the British, after
collecting huge amount of revenue, were fully equipped to face the French in
Wandiwash. Battle of Wandiwash involved capture of Chingleput, Thiruvannamalai,
Tindivanam … and was one of the land battles between two European powers
occurring thousands of miles away from Europe.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
3rd Aug 2014.
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