Summary of Winston Groom's A Storm in Flanders

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 The origins of the First World War can be traced back to 1870, when Germany unified itself into a nation. Prior to then, Germany had been a collection of twenty-five kingdoms and principalities loosely governed by the state of Prussia, which was presided over by Kaiser William I.

#2 The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of world peace. The prosperous Gilded Age saw the development of the telephone, electric lights, automobiles, motion pictures, manufacturing advances, and luxury transatlantic shipping.

#3 Germany was also extremely concerned about its security. It had been in conflict with its neighbors almost since time immemorial, and in 1879, it forged an alliance with Austria-Hungary.

#4 The first thing Kaiser William II did after becoming emperor was to dismiss Bismarck, the man who had carefully laid out Germany’s foreign policy. He had long had his own ideas about how Germany’s future in world affairs should progress.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669372875

IRB Media

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Insights on Winston Groom's A Storm in Flanders

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 17

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The origins of the First World War can be traced back to 1870, when Germany unified itself into a nation. Prior to then, Germany had been a collection of twenty-five kingdoms and principalities loosely governed by the state of Prussia, which was presided over by Kaiser William I.

#2

The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of world peace. The prosperous Gilded Age saw the development of the telephone, electric lights, automobiles, motion pictures, manufacturing advances, and luxury transatlantic shipping.

#3

Germany was also extremely concerned about its security. It had been in conflict with its neighbors almost since time immemorial, and in 1879, it forged an alliance with Austria-Hungary.

#4

The first thing Kaiser William II did after becoming emperor was to dismiss Bismarck, the man who had carefully laid out Germany’s foreign policy. He had long had his own ideas about how Germany’s future in world affairs should progress.

#5

The German kaiser, Wilhelm II, was a military nut, and he made sure the German Army was well equipped with the Gatling gun. The German Army was not only able to master the Gatling gun, but also incorporate nearly 12,000 of them into their fighting battalions by the time World War I broke out.

#6

The French and Russians began courting the Germans, offering them loans and other emoluments. In 1892, as Churchill stated, the event against which the whole policy of Bismarck had been directed came to pass: Germany and Russia agreed to a dual alliance under which each would aid the other if attacked by another country.

#7

The sun rose on the new century, and with it, tensions between Germany and her neighbors increased. The Germans began to muscle in on the more desirable colonies of North Africa, which might have led to an early outbreak of world war.

#8

In the spring of 1909, Germany began to threaten France and Britain that if they did not agree to the German demands, they would go to war. The French and British began to fear that Germany would attack them through Belgium, which was a neutral country, and they began to strengthen their defenses.

#9

The invasion-through-Belgium strategy was what the Germans had in mind.