14-18

14-18 : « after, nothing was ever the same as before. »

On 4 August 1914, a little over a month since the assassination of the heir to the throne, Archduke of Austria Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo, the British minister of foreign affairs, Sir Edward Grey, predicted, « The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time. » The eclipse was to last four long years, thrusting humanity into a brand-new era.

« Half a century has gone by and the trauma of the Great War has still not been erased from the body and the soul of all nations, ours first and foremost. [...] After, nothing was ever the same as before, [...] In short, the immense political, economic and social events that have since disrupted the world [...] are the direct consequences of the colossal revolution spawn by weapons, and where the human race has come to lose a balance it has never since recovered. »
(Charles de Gaulle, speech given on 11 November 1968)

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