Tensions, Alliances, and War

Prior to World War One, Otto von Bismarck devised a series of alliances in an attempt to keep peace. These alliances drew more and more countries into the war until it was a full-scale war. The effects were devastating. Also, tensions with Germany prior to the war were not addressed and left to boil over. Even if Franz Ferdinand had not been assassinated Germany would still have launched its attack.

This past summer, Russia invaded the small country of Georgia. Tensions in Georgia, especially over joining NATO, aggravated Russia who did not want Georgia to join NATO. Also, Georgia wished to escape Russian aggression by itself after being rejected by NATO. Both sides armed themselves and Georgia being a strong ally of the United States drew us into the argument. Tensions ran similar to the Cold War and could have erupted into another war of superpowers.

This lesson from WWI has the potential to avoid some world conflicts and possibly some wars. Tensions should be dealt with before they go to the brink and turn into conflicts and wars. It also reinforces George Washington's farewell speech warning against entangling alliances.

Paul Nash: We Are Making a New World

Artist Paul Nash survived both world wars and had deeply antiwar views. He enlisted in World War One and was sent to the Western Front. There, he fell into a trench, broke a rib and was marked for home. While recovering in London, though, Nash expanded his front-line sketches and produced a series of drawings about the war. His sketches were well received and he was made an official war artist. He used his seemingly pro-war art to hit hard the horrors of war.

This particular work pictures the sun rising on "No Man's Land." Nash uses a bright background to create a false sense of hope. The sun rose every day during the war and will always rise again the next. However, the war and devastation raged on with no respect for "a new day, anything can happen." The sunrise did not bring relief or hope; it only showed the horrors that were hidden by the darkness and revealed new horrors that occurred overnight.

No Man's Land is also shown as being formed and changed by the war. No Man's Land was most likely nothing like this before. However, the war has taken its toll and is changing the landscape just as much as it changed the world in general. The land mimicked the changing world by showing the upheaval of the old world, the gory of the change and eventually the rebirth of the new. However, the new may not be as good as the old and the scars of war will last forever.

Between the two main elements of his work, Nash reveals his antiwar views and drives home the harsh realities of the war. The sun will always rise no matter what carnage has overtaken the world and the world will always be changed and molded into something else but not without sacrifice, bloodshed and a hard recovery.

No More than a Mask

Although the artist of this piece is unknown, it still reveals the feeling of the World War I period. The piece is in greyscale that represents the absense of identity, life and humanity. It also enduces the sense of horror and hopelessness that the soldiers faced every minute they were at war. The background is empty with the exception of the ghastly weapons the soldiers are holding. Also, jagged lines like barbed wire, lacerations, weapons and running blood cover the soldiers.


The soldiers themselves are a horrifying site. Their uniforms cover every part of them and do not reveal any skin, hair or sign of a human under the uniform. Their helmets create a sense of uniformity and dark simplicity instead of individuality. However, the most important piece of the uniform was the gas mask. The masks play on the idea of skulls with large, blacked-out eye shields that look alien instead of human. The filter part of the mask reinforces the mutant look of the mask. A man's face is the most human, personal and identifying part of him. The masks completely covered this feature and removed the personality from the human. Humanity became the past because there was no way to tell that a human was behind the suit. It was the suit that was trained to kill and wanted to kill. Soldiers killed other suits, not other people. The human was not seen until the suit was removed from the already dead body to serve the needs of those still living. After, there were no burials for the dead because it would be suicide to leave the trenches. The now exposed soldiers decayed as the living were forced to stare at the bodies.


The horrors of war were countless, but this image represents the crime against humanity and dehumanization that occurred during the war. This image only begins to describe what the soldiers had to face every day.
(I apologize for the unknown author and quality of image :\)