I read the book as a teenager but seeing it in live-action was brutal. You forget that soldiers used gas and fucking flamethrowers on people, and they did it so their ruling class can get even wealthier.
Remembering that the causes of that war were about European empires trying to carve up Germany because capital had reached its zenith under the pre-war status quo unless it acquired new markets and territories to expand into was just eye-opening.
:eu-cool: :germany-cool: :france-cool:
:ukkk:
I don't think they were trying to carve up Germany as much as they were fighting for dominance of the colonial markets. The French had been alarmed by recent German industrial buildup and wanted to seize the moment while they still had comparable militarys to push Germany back down. The British had a long standing policy of sabotaging any other European power they saw as getting too powerful as well.
Germany by contrast was begining to resent it's own lack of colonial holdings