While the underlying causes of the greatest war in all history must be traced far back into the centuries, the one great object of the conflict which was precipitated by the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, in Bosnia, at the end of June, 1914, is the ultimate determination as to whether imperialism as exemplified in the government of Germany shall rule the world, or whether democracy shall reign.
Whenever men or nations disregard those principles which society has laid down for their conduct in modern civilized life, and obligation and duty are forgotten in the desire for self-advancement, conflict results.
Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's greatest wars have in the main been conflicts of ideals—democracy being arrayed against oligarchy—men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and military domination.
In the World War, which terminated with the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918, which painted the green fields of France and Belgium red with blood, and swept nations into the most significant and bitter struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial Government of Germany, by men and nations who claim that humanity the world over has rights that must be observed.
Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of her government by ruthlessly trampling upon her neighbors and assuming that "might is right."
The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering from an exaggerated ego. Her trouble was psychological. The men who study the strange workings and twists of the human mind which land some men in the institutions for the criminal insane, agree that when any man becomes obsessed with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which makes him a dangerous creature.
Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism and almost everything else had been sacrificed to this idol. The very first appearance of Germans in history is as a warlike people. The earliest German literature is of folk-tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of the manly virtues of the heroes.
It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and musicians among the Germans, but their warlike side must never be forgotten. The entire race is imbued with the military spirit, the influence reaching to every phase of national life. All that was best in the nation was raised to its highest efficiency through military training, but in the accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohenzollern, which is responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected much and produced millions of creatures who are but human machines, taught to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their acts might produce, whether right or wrong.
In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the world democracies defined militarism as an arrogant, or exclusive, professional military spirit, developed by training and environment until it became despotic, and assumed superiority over rational motives and deliberations.
This attitude was reflected in the conduct of the Kaiser, who, as illustrative of the point, is quoted at the dedication of the monument to Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having said, "We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our forty-two millions inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a single stone of what my father and Prince Charles Frederick gained."