THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 1917 – PART ONE The First World War destroyed three empires, bankrupted one, severely strained another and enriched only one of the major participants. It was the most cataclysmic event in the history of modern Europe and left a legacy of bitterness that was to erupt again twenty years later. The Congress of Vienna after the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars established a pattern in Europe that kept the peace for a century. The wars that did occur – the Crimean and those of German unification – were local and did not spread across the continent in the way that the Thirty Years, Seven Years and Napoleonic wars had done. But much had changed since 1815, when Germany consisted of four kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg), six grand duchies, six duchies, eight principalities, four cities and Hanover (ruled by the British kings until 1837). Then in 1864 the Schleswig-Holstein Question brought war between Prussia and Denmark.
THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 1917 - PART ONE
THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 1917 - PART ONE
THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 1917 - PART ONE
THE THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES 1917 – PART ONE The First World War destroyed three empires, bankrupted one, severely strained another and enriched only one of the major participants. It was the most cataclysmic event in the history of modern Europe and left a legacy of bitterness that was to erupt again twenty years later. The Congress of Vienna after the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars established a pattern in Europe that kept the peace for a century. The wars that did occur – the Crimean and those of German unification – were local and did not spread across the continent in the way that the Thirty Years, Seven Years and Napoleonic wars had done. But much had changed since 1815, when Germany consisted of four kingdoms (Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg), six grand duchies, six duchies, eight principalities, four cities and Hanover (ruled by the British kings until 1837). Then in 1864 the Schleswig-Holstein Question brought war between Prussia and Denmark.