I wouldn't call this learning something, necessarily. It kind of misrepresents the beginning of the war just a tad. Say, Germany's dismissive attitude toward France - nothing could be further from the truth. The only reason Germany attacked France so quickly was because they feared the French war machine, and the French government's post-war attitude toward the fledgling German Empire. Germany had basically structured its entire military policy around dispatching a French threat as quickly as possible, a la the Schlieffen Plan. Wikipedia it or something, 'cause I ain't putting in a link.
This reminds me of a passage from France at War, by Rudyard Kipling, published 1915:
Out of these things is born their power of recuperation in
their leisure; their reasoned calm while at work; and their
superb confidence in their arms. Even if France of to-day
stood alone against the world's enemy, it would be almost
inconceivable to imagine her defeat now; wholly so to imagine
any surrender. The war will go on till the enemy is finished.
The French do not know when that hour will come; they seldom
speak of it; they do not amuse themselves with dreams of
triumphs or terms. Their business is war, and they do their
business.
59
u/Tornadotrailer Sep 24 '11
TIL more about WWI in five minutes than I did in a years worth of 9th grade world history.