World War I: Superior Western Civilization

World War I was a blow to the ideals of a “superior” Western civilization and to global socialism because advanced civilizations resorted to basic human nature. Before World War I, “…mankind seemed to have moved beyond the time when disputes were settled by war” (Foner 722), with much of disputes between countries being settled with reason. The fact that issues could be resolved without violence in Western civilizations gave them an air of superiority—that violence was how uncivilized people solved their problems. However, World War I proved that Western civilizations, no matter how progressive or advanced, were “no better” than other countries—it had gotten to a point where the countries had resorted to violence to solve their problems. The