The First World War and How We Think Right Now

The going perception of adulthood is that once we are grown, we’ll never have to do elementary school homework, nightly, ever again. School-age children debunk this assumption very effectively! It is hard not to notice how a little age and a lot of spiritual growth changes one’s thoughts about things we may have learned in the past, when we see them again as adults. If I asked you about the First World War, you’d probably immediately think of World War I, the conflict centered on Europe, that started in 1914. World War I is recorded in secular history books as a war that started because of an assassination and “Imperialistic” foreign policies held by the affected countries. A closer look at these foreign policies brings to light that the first world war, was actually a war waged based on a mindset of racial superiority and greed.

The Berlin Conference of 1884 sounds almost like the worlds fair of 1933 in its innocence. All of the European Countries involved in World War I were represented at this conference and the United States was asked to attend as well. The subject of the conference was the systematic division, invasion and conquest of the entire African continent, by the empires of Europe. Although 10 million Africans lost their lives in these conflicts, there is nothing recorded in contemporary history books to illustrate that an actual genocidal war with Europe is how there came to be so much strife and poverty in African nations. Up to the late 1800’s, European nations colonized coastal areas of the African continent. The Berlin Conference’s agenda was supported many of the technological advances of the industrial revolution, but none more than the machine gun. Up to this point, the sheer density of the population and land mass of the African continent made interior colonization virtually impossible. The machine gun changed all of this.

The Irony of the Conference and World War I is that the very machine guns that the European nations used to kill, steal and destroy the wealth of Africa became the same guns that they turned upon each other in what was described as the war to end all wars. The United States government was invited to participate in this invasion, but had limited direct involvement, having come out of its own civil conflict over wealth stolen from African nations, 20 years earlier with the American Civil War. The curse of aggressions between these nations eventually led to another destructive world war.

The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent and killed millions. Now, when I see movies like the Terminator or Avatar, I know these things actually happened to my own people. By the time independence returned to Africa in 1950, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily….Sound familiar?

The “Let It Go” crowd, as I like to call them, have no idea how deep this history of blood runs and are quite happy to remain as they are, with their heads buried in the sand. Why did we go into Iraq? Why are we so cavalier killing so many people on a mistake? Why are we not outraged that corporations here make billions of dollars for war profiteering? Why? Because, for some in this world, blood is less valuable than money. History teaches us that this is a pattern. It teaches us that engaging in violence is a great way to appropriate resources or labor, to hold up another group’s standard of living. School yard rules, with missiles and bullets.

It’s time for our country to wake up and realize, God is not mocked. As a nation, we cannot claim to be Christian and then wage war for profit. God is not mocked. We cannot destabilize one race of people for the gain of another. God is not mocked. History teaches this over and over again.