Perhaps rather than the Atlantic being a ‘divide’ it’s the bridge between Western Europe (ie the UK and France) and North America. Certainly it was this bloque that outlasted Germany in the First World War and, together with Russia defeated it again in the Second World War. Then this bloque prepared to face a potential onslaught from Russia that fortunately never came.
If the motivation for the World Wars and perhaps earlier struggles was economic rather than ideological then does that explain why there wasn’t a NATO-Warsaw Pact war? There was no economic motivation? What about all the proxy wars in the third world? No ideological motivation there either?
Britain was losing its World domination and was relegated from first Power to third Power status by ww1 and ww2. Hew Strachan might talk like Whitehall but he's seriously onesided.
In what world did Britain have third power status in WWI? The Royal Fleet alone completely smashed the Tirpitz Plan (which, admittedly, had its faults), forcing the Reichsmarine to rely more heavily on U-boat campaigns after Jutland, which in turn brought the Americans into the war. Still without access to the Atlantic, the British blockade prevented German intervention and thus enabled two million American soldiers to cross to France. No third power would have ever been able to contain the arguably most potent military at that time in a way Britain did. I'm German, btw, just in case anyone wants to accuse me of a British bias ;)
Perhaps rather than the Atlantic being a ‘divide’ it’s the bridge between Western Europe (ie the UK and France) and North America. Certainly it was this bloque that outlasted Germany in the First World War and, together with Russia defeated it again in the Second World War. Then this bloque prepared to face a potential onslaught from Russia that fortunately never came.
If the motivation for the World Wars and perhaps earlier struggles was economic rather than ideological then does that explain why there wasn’t a NATO-Warsaw Pact war? There was no economic motivation? What about all the proxy wars in the third world? No ideological motivation there either?
Britain was losing its World domination and was relegated from first Power to third Power status by ww1 and ww2. Hew Strachan might talk like Whitehall but he's seriously onesided.
In what world did Britain have third power status in WWI? The Royal Fleet alone completely smashed the Tirpitz Plan (which, admittedly, had its faults), forcing the Reichsmarine to rely more heavily on U-boat campaigns after Jutland, which in turn brought the Americans into the war. Still without access to the Atlantic, the British blockade prevented German intervention and thus enabled two million American soldiers to cross to France. No third power would have ever been able to contain the arguably most potent military at that time in a way Britain did.
I'm German, btw, just in case anyone wants to accuse me of a British bias ;)