#44 War and Global Capitalism in Structural Change

The World in Turmoil, 1914 to 1945: War, Revolution Crisis and Destruction: Part II

The global relations of power were altered fundamentally after the turbulent period between 1914 and 1945. In 1914, Britain was the world’s leading industrial state. She controlled the global infrastructure for trade and finance on which the world’s stability depended. Thirty years later in 1944 and 1945, Britain had lost nearly everything she had fought for over the previous 400 years. The USA took over global leadership. Worse, as far as Britain was concerned: she was about to lose control of her huge global empire and become again a small island nation in the North Atlantic. Her colonies would all be returned to their indigenous peoples over the following 15 to 20 years. Britain, like all the colonising European empires, would become akin to a 'vassal state'.

The 30 years of war between 1914 and 1944, and the economic turmoil of the entire period, have been dressed up in media, and history books as if each major European country had not taken a purposeful leading role after 1914 to expand their then existing empire. Each country, except for Russia, (a special case due to the successful revolution) attempted to expand their empires after the first conflagration ended in 1918. At the time, and through these years, the colonial European powers had not yet understood what had changed; they all continued to play the game of world politics as if the basics were the same as in 1914.

But the fundamental state structure which had ruled millions of peoples disappeared over these years. Three territorially huge, mainly pre-industrial empires, alongside their feudal ruling classes, had been swept away after 1918: The Ottomans, Austro-Hungary and Russia. The newer industrial empires - Germany, Britain, Holland and France - were still in place by 1918, alongside their pre-1914 ruling classes. Their empires too would be swept aside after 1945.

The global financial structures that made global capitalism work throughout the 19th century - the Gold Standard that had ruled the global order up to 1914 - had fragmented. The pre-1914 financial global structure, which had created stability for the world's industrialising nations to trade and invest, did not now work. The economic and financial chaos which characterised the years between 1918 and 1939 lacked the necessary international mechanisms to create a stable world for trade and finance.

The Jarrow Crusade - In 1936, mass unemployment and extreme poverty in the north-east of England drove 200 men to march in protest from Jarrow to London. Retrieved from the National Media Museum via Flickr.

Finally, the 1939/45 war destroyed the last remnants of the world as it had been in 1914. The days of empire, as had been practised since 1492, were finally over. Central Europe and Japan were completely shattered by 1945, and the outcome was a system to alter the competitive national game that had been played for so long. Only Britain retained a semblance of its former self, with its complex ruling classes still in place. The USA would henceforth lead the world. The USA, to their credit, had understood why the period 1918 to 1939 had been so chaotic and put in place a wide range of international institutions to order and control world trade, banking, and much more. By 1944, the final death throes of the old colonial system of the 19th-century system had still to be played out, reflected by the wars in Vietnam, Korea, Kenya, Algeria and more.

Geopolitical structures changed dramatically during this period. The ideology in which it all took place also changed. Race as the key component of ideology, which had ordered men’s and women’s thoughts, was discarded and a new ideological frame of reference was created by the Americans, and accepted by their European allies or vassals. In the new world, the Cold War was to guide geopolitics. Ideologically, the USA was henceforth in charge; they would determine the set of ideas that were to guide the world’s stage and make the world safe for private ownership of capital.

Did the unparalleled destruction of people and property from 1914 to 45 herald in a new world order? Or were the methods of running the world altered while the means and goals were of the same character as before 1914? These are big questions that will in future blogs need answers.

The 1914-18 War

What was this war about; why was it fought? If you listen to the news and celebrations that occurred at its end you are unlikely to be any wiser. Why were the belligerent nations of Europe willing to expend a generation of young men to fight this war? This is one of the key questions we will be asking.

The war itself has a huge volume of varied histories. Historians continue to pour out new articles and books. The focus is largely on the origins of the war, which I covered in the previous blogs, and on the battles: Passchendaele, Verdun, Amiens, or Caporetto. In each battle, hundreds of thousands of young men were killed. Emphasis is often put on the new weapons of war, the tanks, machine guns, and aeroplanes. The British side had huge advantages in terms of men, calling on Australians, New Zealanders and Indians, which the Germans obviously could not do. The emphasis in the 21st century is understandably on the uselessness of the loss of life.

1915, Head and shoulders seated portrait, taken at one of the Brighton hospitals for wounded Indians. Caption note continues: 'A hero, Bhaz Gul of the 59th Scinde Rifles was promoted in the field for gallantry at Neuve Chapelle. The story of his gallant exploit is as follows. With an officer and two other men he was in a captured German trench at Neuve Chapelle when volunteers were called for to rescue some wounded men who were in front of the trench. He volunteered and although exposed to heavy fire, succeeded in rescuing one man, and went back again to rescue a second, when he was hit by a German bullet, and severely wounded'. Retrieved from the British Library via Flickr.

“World War 1. An Indian convalescent depot. Photographer: H. D. Girdwood.” The British Library via Unsplash.

The loss of life among young men by 1918 was beyond the imagination of people living in 1914. And today this war, including the one following, is played out in terms of nationalism, between good and bad countries. Writers have been over-keen to lay blame on 'the other side'. People find it difficult to contemplate that their own leaders might have been responsible for the carnage, as I discussed in the previous few blogs.

One of my core themes is to follow through on the insatiable desire for colonies and the immense fortunes that were made out of ruling foreign lands. These thirty years is certainly about this central theme. Colonial wars, and the defence of existing colonies, had until this period been a key theme of all the belligerents. The struggle for colonies had also always been a struggle between the European powers, but always fought outside Europe. The 1914/18 war was the first time the struggle took place inside Europe.

The outcome of the 1914/18 war itself was in doubt until the Americans arrived in 1917. Both sides were desperately short of food: the consequence of urbanisation. European countries were not self-sufficient in food; at least 50% of all food had to be imported. In both wars, the Atlantic seaways were fought over to stop the other side from importing food as well as munitions. By 1917 food supplies were in short supply on both sides; both the fighting men and the civilians were often hungry. Munitions and supplies of all kind were equally in short supply. Morale was low, and the fear of revolution was real.

The Americans arrived just in time, in late 1917, to tip the scales in favour of the British and French forces. The Americans supplied new young men, new arms, and food: a huge morale booster. By November 1918, Germany stood alone. Her allies had all disappeared. Germany had to defend her borders. Both sides had started to call up under-age boys as both were short of fighting men. Mutiny was not far away.

With the war ended, the victorious powers continued their avarice for new colonies and severely punished Germany as a new pretender for world power.

The War and Colonisation

All the belligerents of this first war intended to increase their colonies. The war aim was not just to be on the winning side; all the leaders of each nation-state wished to increase their global wealth and power. Today, it is almost forgotten that France, the Netherlands, Japan, Russia, Britain, Italy, and Germany owned and ruled very large chunks of the world in 1914 and they intended to increase their global holdings. Again in the 1939 to 1945 war, Japan, Britain, Italy, Germany and the USA hoped to increase their control over the world’s peoples and resources. Only one - the USA - was to succeed. The extension of colonies had been a primary war aim. The USA used the second war to transform themselves into a new world power.

In the First World War, Russia fought to deepen her colonisation of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and Ukraine. They became an army of occupation in these territories; which lead to mass migration as people fled across the Russian empire. Above all, Russia wished to take control of Constantinople (Tsargrad, as she called the city). Russia wanted unimpeded access to the Mediterranean through the Bosphorus. The Russians fought the Turks in the Transcaucasia mountains in 1914; both sides lost many tens of thousands of men, frozen in the mountain passes.

Germany sought to internally expand her land-based empire of central Europe, through continental Europe, as well as overseas, intending to occupy many of the peoples and countries occupied by the Russians.

Italy also had imperial dreams that she attempted to fulfil at this time. She invaded the Ottoman villages in 1911: today's Libya. The Italians thought the Arabs, Berbers and Jews of the area would welcome them... they did not. They also captured Somalia and Eritrea. Italy wanted land for settlers; only 30,000 moved to these territories in the end, after the war.

The Ottomans also saw the 1914 war as an opportunity to Europeanise their empire. The empire was made up of a huge number of diverse religious and ethnic peoples. Armenians Kurds, Jews, Christians, Arab Muslims and Orthodox Christians were living in the Turkish lands, and in the south were Sunnis, Shia, Alawites, Druze, and Greek Orthodox Christians; all of whom had experienced 400 years without war under Ottoman rule.

By the early 1900s, the Ottoman Empire was under dire threat from Italy in north Africa, and the peoples in the Balkans were demanding independence. The new military leaders under Mustafa Ataturk decided to Europeanise the Empire under the guise of war. The Armenian Holocaust originated at this time. Less well known is the large number of deportations and hangings of Arab leaders that began in 1915 in the Syrian and Mount Lebanon areas, which played into the hands of Arab opposition with Lawrence as their advisor.

The British, above all others, wished to develop their empire through the war. The British had dominated globally through the entire 19th century; by the 20th century, the arrogance of world power had taken hold of their leaders. Foremost was the desire to remove Germany as a competitor. Britain wished to subdue German growth and to weaken her so she became only a minor power within Europe. The British ruling classes had wider goals. These classes included her leading bankers, her politicians, the leaders in the City of London, the royal family and the senior military personnel, many of whom desired to forge closer links with the USA as they understood that Britain was too small alone to lead the world.

British global infrastructure provided the basics for a country that wished to obtain world power. This included control of many of the world’s islands, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Suez, Aden and many more in the Atlantic and Pacific, which gave the British navy suzerainty in the Mediterranean. Critical American and Canadian wheat and oil supplies came through Gibraltar. Gibraltar kept the Atlantic sea lanes open. Equally, control at Suez ensured the routes to India and China remained open.

Cecil Rhodes, one of the richest men of his time, expressed these global goals clearly:

“We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. The Colonies would also provide a dumping ground for surplus goods produced in our factories”

- Quoted with full reference in Richard Moore Escaping the Matrix, The Cyber journal Project 2005 page 2.

In a more nuanced and well-researched volume, Gerry Docherty and Jim MacGregor, quoted him from Rhodes’ last will and testament. Rhodes had written,

...of bringing the whole uncivilised world under British rule and the recovering of the United States to make the Anglo Saxon race but one Empire.

- Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War, Mainstream Publishing 2013 page 210

Of course, this is not proof that large numbers of the British ruling classes followed these ideas, nor that this is what they planned. As I discussed in the previous blogs, Hidden Histories is an excellent volume whose goal is to provide significant evidence that global colonial rule was conceived and carefully planned. Of course, Britain never got near to being the world colonial power in association with USA that Rhodes conceived and planned. It was perfectly logical that a small number of extremely wealthy and powerful men should think in these terms. World power creates arrogance at a level that is difficult to exaggerate.

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