Friday, October 01, 2010

What About Armistice Day, Then?

Good news: on Sunday, the First World War will finally be over. From the Telegraph:

The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies.

The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.

Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.

Events from nearly a hundred years ago, still haunting us today. Given that my generation can't even be bothered to remember the significance of November 11, 1918, I imagine this will go by with little more than a smirk and raised eyebrow, if that.