world war 1 was about conquest and empire building

7/25/2019 World War 1 Was About Conquest and Empire Building

1/3

WORLD WAR 1 WAS ABOUT CONQUEST AND

EMPIRE BUILDING, NOT A DEFENCE AGAINST

GERMANY.

I have read a piece by Peter in one of our new papers, informing us of

the relics of World War 1 in East Africa. I am sure like many fellow

Africans were not aware of this colonial memorabilia. I personally

believe that such relics should be preserved as it is of our history on this

continent. In the same vein, I think its very important to get that history

corrects and a correct history is one that is written from a peoples point

of view. As !om "boya said, #ANational without history is like a face

without a nose.

$ormally history is written by a victor, in this case our colonial masters%

Its our responsibility to reinterpret it from our perspective, and

otherwise it remains #&I'(!)*+.As a hristian, World War I was

fought from 1-1 to 1-1/ and resulted in the death of ten million men,

fifteen million insecure while nine million became prisoners of war.

Almost all were working class people. It was a war between European

powers, so why did we get involved0 !he adage goes When

elephants make love the grass suffers because some of these powers

23ritain and 4ermany5 had invaded and grabbed our territories

26imbabwe as a good e7ample5 8ust as they had done on the Indian sub

continent and elsewhere.

!hus it is that our territories became a terrain for the fight and that our

men, Africans and Indians died in these battles. And let it be clear we didnot #volunteer to fight for a great cause We were forced into it.

World War I was hailed in bourgeois history as a war to end all wars.

Well, events since have proved otherwise. !he e7ercise for the war ran

through a whole catalogue of prete7ts from humanitarism war through a


2/3

struggle for a survival and defense against 4ermans. !he reality was

different, !he war was a clash of empire, a war to re(divide the global

fought between great capitalist states and of these, the 3ritish empire

was the largest, the most rapacious and most powerful. In the course of1-thcentury, the 3ritish state had e7tinguished the independence of more

countries than the rest of the greatest powers put together. !his was

accomplished by massacre, rape and pillage I!! would have had a lot

of work then5. !he Indian sub 9continent, 3urma, Afghanistan, !ibet,

and other countries had been invaded and con:uered.

!he 3ritish controlled )pium trade and in hina, it stands as one of the

worst crimes of the 1-th

century. !he biggest pri;e of World War I for3ritain was getting hold of the oil fields in the "iddle East, some of the

riches in the world.

)ur own continent had been arbitrarily divided apportioned to the great

hyenas in chaired by *ev ?on

3ismarck and scramble for Africa started0 3y the time the @ndpan

African congress took place in 1-1- to claim for 3lack space in the

racist world, some of their land had been already grabbed at home.

World war I enabled victorious 3ritain to take over 4ermany controlled

territory of !anganyika and incorporated it into 3ritish East Africa,

ganda was already a 3ritish Protectorate. !he rest is history%

)ne may ask, what about our valiant men who were coerced and forced

into this war between European powers and for which many died. We

know what imperialist soldiers were materially rewarded with our lands,

our labour etc, the African soldiers were not recogni;ed, yet their role as

soldiers and porters was an essential to the war effort. 4ermanys defeat

been presented by military historians as a hard fought struggle to the

bitter end.


3/3

!he truth lies elsewhere, it was the gradual change of altitude by the

front line soldiers resulting in waves of draft dodging, dissertations

mutinies and voluntary surrenders which finally ended the war. !he

revolution that followed this mass disobedience brought down threeEuropean empires and the )tto man empire of !urks. 3y the time the

Americans 8oined WWI in April 1-1B, almost half the Crench army had

over stayed its home leave, deserted or mutinied. "any soldiers lost

moral and enrollment by 1-1B fell from 1. million soldiers to D.

million. Fike $apoleon when he was defeated at the battle of !rafalgar

and said that #even the brutes 2fools5 have learnt something0

It is therefore important for us to always present history from ourperspective, otherwise distortions will not help this generation to

understand the impact of colonial hangover, they may think the role of

missionaries was to take us to heaven but that would be one of the points

on Agenda but I am sure it was A.).3 2Any )ther 3usiness5, the truth

was about raw materials and human labour before industriali;ation.

Again before $apoleon 3ornapate died in 1/@1, he told his children

study history reflect on it it"s the true philosophy.

#$II%WE $&E'(EN

# (I$&)*I#N, '#N #+*I!#NI$& *-! #/#*)0E1

world war 1 was about conquest and empire building

Documents