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Britain Should Not Have Fought in the First World War

Intelligence Squared

The First World War: A Moral Crusade for Freedom and Democracy

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The Kaiser's Germany had the biggest socialist party in Europe, its strongest trade unions and its most developed welfare state. In 1900, 22% of German men were entitled to vote and in Britain, 18%. So it's a very strange claim that we were fighting for democracy against a country that was actually more democratic than we were. And when you look closely at our allies, the idea of the First World War as a moral crusade evaporates completely. How on earth could we have been fighting a crusade for freedom and democracy, shoulder to shoulder with Tsarist Russia?

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