The Moment Germany Became The Villains In WWI
And turned the world wars into good versus evil
When we look back on the First and Second World Wars, the conflicts are often framed as a battle between good and evil. The forces of democracy versus the forces of authoritarianism. This idea that wars were being fought between a “good” side and a “bad” side is a 20th-century invention. Before that, great power conflict was simply a fact of life.
Wars of empire, in which the British Empire, Ottoman Empire, and French Empire fought small colonies and fragmented people, were common and expected. But no one really saw the French as “evil” or the British as “bad” for pursuing their geopolitical aims. Sure, some people hated the imperial powers because of their actions, but empires were seen as largely neutral on the world stage. (This can be seen by how often alliances switched between the 17th and 20th centuries, with major countries often changing alliances on the fly. A country could not so easily switch between power blocks if one was seen as evil compared to another.)
The change in perception came in the 20th century and primarily began with one unfortunate incident in the earliest days of World War I. The Germans gave their foes the propaganda they needed to paint them as the “bad guys.” Instead of simply being an empire pursuing…
