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The World's War
A unique account of the millions of colonial troops who fought in the First World War, and why they were later air-brushed out of history.
Every major battle fought on the Western Front, from the First Battle of Ypres to the Second Battle of the Marne, was fought by Allied armies that were multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Yet from the moment the guns fell silent the role of non-white soldiers in the ‘Great War for Civilization’ was forgotten and airbrushed out by later historians.
THE WORLD'S WAR quotes extensively from soldiers’ diaries and other eye-witness sources, bringing to life the searing experiences of the hundreds of thousands of non-white troops whose bravery contributed to the final Allied victory.
Every major battle fought on the Western Front, from the First Battle of Ypres to the Second Battle of the Marne, was fought by Allied armies that were multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Yet from the moment the guns fell silent the role of non-white soldiers in the ‘Great War for Civilization’ was forgotten and airbrushed out by later historians.
THE WORLD'S WAR quotes extensively from soldiers’ diaries and other eye-witness sources, bringing to life the searing experiences of the hundreds of thousands of non-white troops whose bravery contributed to the final Allied victory.
355 pages, ebook
First published August 1, 2014
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December 18, 2020I found this a wide ranging (but inevitably not wide ranging enough ) but shallow book, an interesting addition to reading, remembering or thinking about the First World War , it accompanied a TV series which I did not see, but since that was only a little series - maybe a couple of hours of documentary, while the book is over 400 pages, I am fairly confident that you get more out of the book.
The first chapter carries most of the analysis. There he argues that we can legitimately call the First World War the First World War, rather than bow to the claims of the Dutch 80 years Independence war, the Seven Years War, the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and renumber our world wars entirely, because "it was the first in which peoples & nations from across the globe fought & laboured alongside each other" (p.15), as far as I recall that was true of those earlier wars too, though granted not to the same extent. His main thrust which I think will not surprise many was that there has been considerable white washing of the First World War, Olusoga attributes this mostly to the impact of the literary war in which memoirs and novels written by white soldiers and officers have crowded out much of the reality of the war and narrowing the collective memory, equally there was a certain amount of racism involved from the start.
Racism, in an absolutely shocking twist, is the dominant theme of the book. The forgotten soldiers of the sub-title are the non-white ones. Different states had differing sets of racist assumptions, Olusoga in his book considers Britain, France, Germany, and the USA. It strikes me now that Olusoga does not quite develop this fully, for example I get the impression now that Britain and France before the entry of the USA had untapped manpower reserves - in the colonies, and in China (whose government repeatedly offered soldiers to the allies) but chose, or was blind to them, from racist assumptions, in that sense this is a shallow book but perhaps also a fertile one, I hope it will inspire further questions and investigations.
Germany seems to be the simplest case, it had acquired colonies rapidly and with considerable brutality, featuring the genocide of several peoples in modern Namibia and views tended to be the most extreme, Africans had to be assumed to be sufficiently brutal and savage to necessitate the brutal and savage treatment given to them in order to rapidly consolidate colonies, as a consequence of this German soldiers were particularly terrified when the French deployed Black African units as shock troops, and after the war the use of African troops in the occupation of the Rhineland was whipped by by the Nationalist press as a particular outrage - this even got some international traction, that story ends with the sterilisation of a generation of mixed race children, born in the Rhineland, during the Nazi period.
The USA as one might expect was also extravagantly racist to the extent that there were even lynchings of black US soldiers carried out in France by their US white comrades, the surprise was given Olusoga's description of the situation in the USA and the opposition to arming and training African Americans that two divisions were actually designated as combat troops even though General Pershing tried to get rid of both of them and when the French absorbed one African American division the US military authorities insisted that they be treated worse than white soldiers. Curiously African Americans had served in combat relatively recently in the Philippines and in Cuba, perhaps this is an example of how rapidly attitudes can change. Typically a contrasting set of racist assumptions worked in the favour of Native Americans who were assumed to be naturally noble savages with a warrior culture.
Britain as one might expect given the diversity of its colonial empire and the depth of its colonial history had a complex set of overlapping race theories, there was an assumption about a hierarchy of cultural sophistication that place Indians below white people but above Africans, this was overlaid by a belief in martial peoples - that certain peoples were intrinsically more warlike, tougher and made better soldiers than others, this was a particularly finely tuned racism in which particular peoples might be valued for particular military roles but not others. In practise in India the martial races were those who had supported the British during the business of 1857 while those who had fought against the British were regarded, curiously as non-marital , in an interesting twist a proposal to garrison India with troops from Africa was dismissed as likely to be too shameful for Indians. While in Africa, the martial races were those like the Zulu who had fought against the British - they however could not be recruited as soldiers because of the attitudes of the South Africans .
The French shared the view that there were martial and non-martial peoples however the size of the French population - far smaller than that of Germany and the heavy losses sustained in the first few months of the war created wide spread support for those who called for wide spread recruitment of soldiers in Africa, although the French tended towards the view that racial characteristics could through French colonial dominance and tutelage be ameliorated, they also held that Africans were too stupid to learn to speak French properly and therefore could not be trained to undertake sophisticated technical roles but because of their innate savagery they could be used as front line shock troops to scare the hell out of the enemy.
Alongside this Olusoga points out that the First World War was a war of construction, and the western front effectively was a pair of long thin cities stretching from the sea to Switzerland. Trenches had to be dug, railway lines built to service supply dumps, supplies had to be brought up to combat lines, hospital and camps had to be established, port facilities had to be manned all of which required an immense supply of labour, trees had to be felled and processed into duck boards and pit props. The First World war was both for Olusoga an enormous construction project that attracted men, particularly from underdeveloped economies, to become paid labourers; and the need for labour meant that any desire to serve among subject or allied peoples could be usefully channelled in to labour corps. This acted to re-enforce racist attitudes so for example white men from Australia or South Africa joined combat units, while black men went into labour units. Labouring roles were not safe, as they could be within artillery range.
All in all, it is a fairly cheerful book as you can imagine. It goes some way to enriching or complicating, a conception of the war. By about mid way through the book I had that sick WWI feeling of the utter pointlessness of the war, as Olusoga discussed how Germany relied on fermenting colonial rebellion, particularly through having the Ottoman Caliph declare a Jihad, to bring Britain and France to the negotiating table such was the disparity in resources. A brief way of looking at the war is through three novels Der Weltkrieg (1904) - that conflict between any two European states would led to a world war because of the system of alliances, Greenmantle (1916) - that a German victory required the expansion of the war to the colonies of the allies, and The War of the Worlds (1897) read as a colonial parable in which the technologically superior crush those with inferior technology. Olusoga points out with regard to the last point that Kitchener and other senior officers had achieved devastating victories in colonial small wars through the use of early machine guns, but could not apply their own experience to conceive of what this would mean for any war between two similarly equipped European armies. The result as we know is history.
The first chapter carries most of the analysis. There he argues that we can legitimately call the First World War the First World War, rather than bow to the claims of the Dutch 80 years Independence war, the Seven Years War, the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and renumber our world wars entirely, because "it was the first in which peoples & nations from across the globe fought & laboured alongside each other" (p.15), as far as I recall that was true of those earlier wars too, though granted not to the same extent. His main thrust which I think will not surprise many was that there has been considerable white washing of the First World War, Olusoga attributes this mostly to the impact of the literary war in which memoirs and novels written by white soldiers and officers have crowded out much of the reality of the war and narrowing the collective memory, equally there was a certain amount of racism involved from the start.
Racism, in an absolutely shocking twist, is the dominant theme of the book. The forgotten soldiers of the sub-title are the non-white ones. Different states had differing sets of racist assumptions, Olusoga in his book considers Britain, France, Germany, and the USA. It strikes me now that Olusoga does not quite develop this fully, for example I get the impression now that Britain and France before the entry of the USA had untapped manpower reserves - in the colonies, and in China (whose government repeatedly offered soldiers to the allies) but chose, or was blind to them, from racist assumptions, in that sense this is a shallow book but perhaps also a fertile one, I hope it will inspire further questions and investigations.
Germany seems to be the simplest case, it had acquired colonies rapidly and with considerable brutality, featuring the genocide of several peoples in modern Namibia and views tended to be the most extreme, Africans had to be assumed to be sufficiently brutal and savage to necessitate the brutal and savage treatment given to them in order to rapidly consolidate colonies, as a consequence of this German soldiers were particularly terrified when the French deployed Black African units as shock troops, and after the war the use of African troops in the occupation of the Rhineland was whipped by by the Nationalist press as a particular outrage - this even got some international traction, that story ends with the sterilisation of a generation of mixed race children, born in the Rhineland, during the Nazi period.
The USA as one might expect was also extravagantly racist to the extent that there were even lynchings of black US soldiers carried out in France by their US white comrades, the surprise was given Olusoga's description of the situation in the USA and the opposition to arming and training African Americans that two divisions were actually designated as combat troops even though General Pershing tried to get rid of both of them and when the French absorbed one African American division the US military authorities insisted that they be treated worse than white soldiers. Curiously African Americans had served in combat relatively recently in the Philippines and in Cuba, perhaps this is an example of how rapidly attitudes can change. Typically a contrasting set of racist assumptions worked in the favour of Native Americans who were assumed to be naturally noble savages with a warrior culture.
Britain as one might expect given the diversity of its colonial empire and the depth of its colonial history had a complex set of overlapping race theories, there was an assumption about a hierarchy of cultural sophistication that place Indians below white people but above Africans, this was overlaid by a belief in martial peoples - that certain peoples were intrinsically more warlike, tougher and made better soldiers than others, this was a particularly finely tuned racism in which particular peoples might be valued for particular military roles but not others. In practise in India the martial races were those who had supported the British during the business of 1857 while those who had fought against the British were regarded, curiously as non-marital , in an interesting twist a proposal to garrison India with troops from Africa was dismissed as likely to be too shameful for Indians. While in Africa, the martial races were those like the Zulu who had fought against the British - they however could not be recruited as soldiers because of the attitudes of the South Africans .
The French shared the view that there were martial and non-martial peoples however the size of the French population - far smaller than that of Germany and the heavy losses sustained in the first few months of the war created wide spread support for those who called for wide spread recruitment of soldiers in Africa, although the French tended towards the view that racial characteristics could through French colonial dominance and tutelage be ameliorated, they also held that Africans were too stupid to learn to speak French properly and therefore could not be trained to undertake sophisticated technical roles but because of their innate savagery they could be used as front line shock troops to scare the hell out of the enemy.
Alongside this Olusoga points out that the First World War was a war of construction, and the western front effectively was a pair of long thin cities stretching from the sea to Switzerland. Trenches had to be dug, railway lines built to service supply dumps, supplies had to be brought up to combat lines, hospital and camps had to be established, port facilities had to be manned all of which required an immense supply of labour, trees had to be felled and processed into duck boards and pit props. The First World war was both for Olusoga an enormous construction project that attracted men, particularly from underdeveloped economies, to become paid labourers; and the need for labour meant that any desire to serve among subject or allied peoples could be usefully channelled in to labour corps. This acted to re-enforce racist attitudes so for example white men from Australia or South Africa joined combat units, while black men went into labour units. Labouring roles were not safe, as they could be within artillery range.
All in all, it is a fairly cheerful book as you can imagine. It goes some way to enriching or complicating, a conception of the war. By about mid way through the book I had that sick WWI feeling of the utter pointlessness of the war, as Olusoga discussed how Germany relied on fermenting colonial rebellion, particularly through having the Ottoman Caliph declare a Jihad, to bring Britain and France to the negotiating table such was the disparity in resources. A brief way of looking at the war is through three novels Der Weltkrieg (1904) - that conflict between any two European states would led to a world war because of the system of alliances, Greenmantle (1916) - that a German victory required the expansion of the war to the colonies of the allies, and The War of the Worlds (1897) read as a colonial parable in which the technologically superior crush those with inferior technology. Olusoga points out with regard to the last point that Kitchener and other senior officers had achieved devastating victories in colonial small wars through the use of early machine guns, but could not apply their own experience to conceive of what this would mean for any war between two similarly equipped European armies. The result as we know is history.
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August 14, 2019A brilliant work. Olusoga has disinterred the deliberately erased stories of the literally millions of non-white, non-European troops who fought in WW1 on both sides, and the results are jawdropping. Both in the incredible untold/forgotten stories (the Indian VC winners and the Battle of Henry Johnson are astounding) but more in the incredible racial bigotry at play, as both sides weighed up the need for men with the equally urgent need to keep the myth of racial superiority alive in their empires. Which led to the British eg refusing offers of battalions, putting trained soldiers to work digging trenches, segregating and maltreating people who had often come at their own expense to volunteer for the Empire they were supposed to be part of, and them erasing them afterwards to the extent that black troops were literally not given graves, just a mass memorial, in direct contravention of the War Graves Commission's mission statement.
It's honestly sickening at points. The chapter on America exporting its vile race hate to Europe and the way black soldiers were treated during and after the war is beyond anything I'd expected, and I thought my expectations were low. It is really hard not to conclude that the rest of the world should have just sat back and watched Europe and white America kill each other. Especially since Olusoga demonstrates how the racial policies applied by Germany, Britain and America in the war led directly into the development of Nazi racial theory, internment camps, deliberate genocide, and apartheid.
Eye-opening and extremely necessary. Everyone should read this.
It's honestly sickening at points. The chapter on America exporting its vile race hate to Europe and the way black soldiers were treated during and after the war is beyond anything I'd expected, and I thought my expectations were low. It is really hard not to conclude that the rest of the world should have just sat back and watched Europe and white America kill each other. Especially since Olusoga demonstrates how the racial policies applied by Germany, Britain and America in the war led directly into the development of Nazi racial theory, internment camps, deliberate genocide, and apartheid.
Eye-opening and extremely necessary. Everyone should read this.
September 18, 2023
This is a must read book for anyone interested in WWI and the overseas empires of the UK, France and Germany and also about the racist assumptions underlying so much of the way people thought and acted back then, but also the extraordinary differences and contradictions amongst the various countries and the way they treated and thought about people of colour.
I can't help reproducing the following from the book's jacket:
"Every major battle fought on the Western Front, from the First Battle of Ypres to the Second Battle of the Marne, was fought by Allied armies that were multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Yet from the moment the guns fell silent the role of non-white soldiers in the 'Great War for Civilization' (sic) was forgotten and airbrushed out by later historians."
In resurrecting and placing centre stage once again the coloured soldiers of empire Mr. Olusoga has written possibly the most important new work on the first world war. Of course he is not the first author to cover this subject, just as he wasn't the first to write about Imperial Germany's genocidal activities in Namibia, but he has brought them to the attention of a mass readership in works of clear readable prose backed by enough footnotes and references to ensure his accounts have forced this part of the history of WWI back into prominence. Not simply the role of colonial troops and the labour battalions of Chinese workers can no longer remain unacknowledged in term of WWI but must also be recognised as having an influential part in shaping the post WWI world and the growing anti-colonial movement.
Of course it easy to say that this particular campaign, or these particular colonial soldiers have not adequately been dealt with by Mr. Olusoga - that such complaint can be made is a testimony to his work dragging a forgotten subject back into the limelight - he has revealed how much there is still to discover about events which many would have said had been covered from every possibly point of view. There are always new points of view and forgotten ones to be rediscovered. WWI destroyed and created worlds not only in Europe but across the globe. Thank goodness some of the many varied participants are being rediscovered.
I can't help reproducing the following from the book's jacket:
"Every major battle fought on the Western Front, from the First Battle of Ypres to the Second Battle of the Marne, was fought by Allied armies that were multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Yet from the moment the guns fell silent the role of non-white soldiers in the 'Great War for Civilization' (sic) was forgotten and airbrushed out by later historians."
In resurrecting and placing centre stage once again the coloured soldiers of empire Mr. Olusoga has written possibly the most important new work on the first world war. Of course he is not the first author to cover this subject, just as he wasn't the first to write about Imperial Germany's genocidal activities in Namibia, but he has brought them to the attention of a mass readership in works of clear readable prose backed by enough footnotes and references to ensure his accounts have forced this part of the history of WWI back into prominence. Not simply the role of colonial troops and the labour battalions of Chinese workers can no longer remain unacknowledged in term of WWI but must also be recognised as having an influential part in shaping the post WWI world and the growing anti-colonial movement.
Of course it easy to say that this particular campaign, or these particular colonial soldiers have not adequately been dealt with by Mr. Olusoga - that such complaint can be made is a testimony to his work dragging a forgotten subject back into the limelight - he has revealed how much there is still to discover about events which many would have said had been covered from every possibly point of view. There are always new points of view and forgotten ones to be rediscovered. WWI destroyed and created worlds not only in Europe but across the globe. Thank goodness some of the many varied participants are being rediscovered.
September 10, 2017
An excellent and very enlightening history of World War 1, showing how a seemingly European conflict drew in people from right across the globe, with their involvement either at the forefront of battle or in a supporting role.
It is very important to keep in mind that the first shots fired in the First World War occurred in Africa and one should also remember that the war was also fought in Asia.
Sadly the role played by many of people from many diverse cultures and countries have been either downplayed or completely airbrushed from history.
This is a book well worth reading that shows the global nature of the so called 'Great War'.
It is very important to keep in mind that the first shots fired in the First World War occurred in Africa and one should also remember that the war was also fought in Asia.
Sadly the role played by many of people from many diverse cultures and countries have been either downplayed or completely airbrushed from history.
This is a book well worth reading that shows the global nature of the so called 'Great War'.
Read
August 8, 2024DNF @ p. 78. Here’s the truth - this is just too emotionally engaging for bedtime reading 🙃
I would definitely recommend, it’s fascinating! But I bought it in hopes it would be just boring enough to put me to sleep, and it has absolutely failed at that, so back on the shelf it goes.
I would definitely recommend, it’s fascinating! But I bought it in hopes it would be just boring enough to put me to sleep, and it has absolutely failed at that, so back on the shelf it goes.
April 22, 2019
The very title ‘World War One’ should be enough to remind us that this was a global conflict, and anyone with even the remotest interest in modern history will have retained enough scraps of info from our education and reading to vaguely reinforce that.
However the author historian David Olusoga is right to point out that for the most part our minds are drawn to images, stories, histories and even war poetry, that fills our mind with thoughts of a vast clash between essentially white Eurasian armies. Other sorts of faces and other conflict zones in Africa, Asia and the Middle East seem just at the edge of our vision if at all.
This book brings those other faces and lands in the conflict into very sharp focus but even its 425 pages can’t do justice to them all.
What is often the most startlingly is the scale. One can vaguely recall the involvement of Indian troops or African colonial soldiers and labourers but the actual numbers involved are staggering and even shocking. Particularly shocking when the book describes at the end of the war how a German memorial to their African forces vastly underplays the huge losses of native African combatants in their forces. In parallel the text describes UK officials baulking at the cost of giving the large number of African militarily conscripted carriers individual graves.
But it’s not a book simply about numbers, there is an equal focus on individuals such as Indian brothers Mir Dast and Mir Mast, one of which wins a VC while the other may have won an Iron Cross. There is also a detailed parade of the thoughts and approaches of European politicians and generals towards non white forces in the conflict, and few of these leaders come out of the narrative smelling of non racially biased roses. However the French do a little better than most and there is simply insufficient room for the book to say much about the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Italian leaderships.
However the author historian David Olusoga is right to point out that for the most part our minds are drawn to images, stories, histories and even war poetry, that fills our mind with thoughts of a vast clash between essentially white Eurasian armies. Other sorts of faces and other conflict zones in Africa, Asia and the Middle East seem just at the edge of our vision if at all.
This book brings those other faces and lands in the conflict into very sharp focus but even its 425 pages can’t do justice to them all.
What is often the most startlingly is the scale. One can vaguely recall the involvement of Indian troops or African colonial soldiers and labourers but the actual numbers involved are staggering and even shocking. Particularly shocking when the book describes at the end of the war how a German memorial to their African forces vastly underplays the huge losses of native African combatants in their forces. In parallel the text describes UK officials baulking at the cost of giving the large number of African militarily conscripted carriers individual graves.
But it’s not a book simply about numbers, there is an equal focus on individuals such as Indian brothers Mir Dast and Mir Mast, one of which wins a VC while the other may have won an Iron Cross. There is also a detailed parade of the thoughts and approaches of European politicians and generals towards non white forces in the conflict, and few of these leaders come out of the narrative smelling of non racially biased roses. However the French do a little better than most and there is simply insufficient room for the book to say much about the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Italian leaderships.
January 26, 2018
I'm really glad that I read this and I learnt a lot. It's super informative and about a really important topic. The writing wasn't all that gripping though and, as Olusoga is covering such a vast topic, at times it became a bit too dense for me. But I am really glad that I've read this and I want to search out the documentary that he presented about this topic.
January 9, 2025
Great read. Albeit a tough/ intense/ heavy read on the atrocities of war and the unheard voices that came out of ‘the world’s war’.
So many gripping tales from the story of SS Mendi, Chinese labour, Henry Johnston, and Walter Tull.
You will definitely read about something you have not heard of from WW1.
Would 100% recommend if you rate non-fiction war books. Eye opener!
So many gripping tales from the story of SS Mendi, Chinese labour, Henry Johnston, and Walter Tull.
You will definitely read about something you have not heard of from WW1.
Would 100% recommend if you rate non-fiction war books. Eye opener!
January 31, 2019
The First World War had more firsts than one is typically cognizant of. The White code of combat - that no coloureds would be brought into their battlefield - was superbly broken. Many Chinese - who saw blacks for the first time in their lives had to fight with common cause in say, France against Arabs who too were in the Jihad declared by the Kaiser of Germany (lol?). Class, race, religion, gender - the First World War threw a challenge at all of them. The War to End All Wars transcended the continent by dragging the world into it. Olusoga loves the details. There are white women who are in awe of burly Punjabi-speaking Sikh men; and there is Charles Mangin who was willing to throw countless Africans in the hearth of battle for France's demographics were too fragile; there are Germans who after losing, want to keep face by exposing France's base decision to bring in negroid 'rapists' into the European continent. The book whitewashes nothing - the racism of the white man simply drips overwhelmingly. The hailed Woodrow Wilson cannot escape, not even Adam Hochschild's hero, ED Morel. The book is beautiful and horrifying at the same time.
October 19, 2021
Well written and full of interesting bits & pieces which can be researched further. Like the style of writing too, makes history approachable.
July 22, 2023
An exceptionally well researched book. It helps fill in the huge gaps in the original narratives of the first world war which omit references to the huge contribution made by the black communities of the old empire.
November 7, 2021
We (YT) people really are the worst. This is an important book that needs to be added to the unbalanced cannon of WWI literature and research.
February 23, 2023
A well written, well researched, balanced book. It was a delight to read and I highly enjoyed this volume. One can tell the author was writing a companion piece to a tv series, as many of the chapters and sub chapters begin with vivd, descriptive " word pictures" that serve as introductions to topical places or events . It is in the tradition of the best of BBC scholarship.
Where the book has flaws, I suspect it is only insofar as the author relied too heavily upon recent " summary" scholarship. Some of the authors of the works cited had axes to grind and while events are not presented inaccurately, there are sometimes degrees of emphasis that are exagerated. For example, the racially murderous role of US MPs outside of French ports is given great creedance, whereas if one has ever looked at the actual summary reports of what was going on, it is clear that a " wild west zone" was in effect by the Fall of 1917 and the US MPs battled local gangs, organized crime and corrupt local officials as well as corrupt troops and officers.
Rafael Schecks' work (which is the basis of much of the last chapter) on Wehrmacht atrocities in 1940 was presaged by a conversation he and I had at the Bates College Holocaust Conference in 1997. It relies upon a web forum discussion on the World War Two history site that was very extensive and drew upon French and German sources in much greater depth, including photo albums. Schecks' numbers of murdered African French troops in 1940 are almost certainly too high and one must also include the massacres of Polish (ESP. Polish) French, Belgian and British troops ( notably by the SS) to get an inclusive picture of those events. Not that this excuses the virulently racist Nazi massacres of 1940, but it points more towards a German style of warfare ( " prisoners slow us down") that was sometimes practiced in the West up until the Battle of the Bulge and the Malmedy massacre. ( After Malnedy the Americans made it very,very clear that retribution would be swift and severe and officers would be held personally accountable).
The biggest flaws I found were two fold. First, the tradition of Africans, often ex-slaves, in the French army went back to Napoleons' time. Indeed, Alexandre Dumas' father even became a General! More importantly, African French regiments (!) fought in Russia in 1812 and some brave, veteran souls were even at Waterloo.
Secondly, the contribution of the French North African/Arab/ Muslim troops was grossly underplayed in this book. In part, this is because there isn't a lot of English scholarship on these troops, despite their fame ("Zouaves") in the " Beau Geste" era. Nontheless, in 1870-71 French North African troops fought in several very famous battles, including Woerth, where one regiment suffered 94% casualties and single handedly wrecked the attacking German assaults. Such was their fame in the pre-1914 era, that there is a vivid account by Bastealt of an elderly, bemedaled Algerian gentleman standing on the sidewalk in Munich as a company of Bavarian Life Guards marched past on their way to what was then called Feldenhalle plaza. The mounted Company Major, a veteran of the Franco Prussian war , spotted the man and immediately surmised he was a veteran of Woerth. Drawing his sword, he saluted the veteran, pommel-to-nose and blade slashing downwards as he passed. The entire company presented arms -not an easy thing to do whilst goose stepping in rigid lines- a salute usually only reserved for higher officers, aristocracy or Royals.
There was only one blatant mistake I could spot- the analysis of painting of " the Black Stain " is filled with errors. The school house was an actual place, the light fixture is an actual light fixture, not a " Germanic spider" and the medal the boy is wearing is not the Legion of Honour, but a very common Catholic school " Excellent pupil" medal commonly awarded up until the 1940s. One can tell by the ribbon, angled arms and size. They are often sold on Ebay even today. Thus the painting is not so much a view of hyper-militarism, as a depiction of Catholic, Conservative, ultra Nationalist French society-the sorts of people who swore Dreyfus was guilty. This is not the authors' fault, but he relied upon an art historians' analysis that was superficial.
On the whole, a book well worth reading. Bravo. Bravo!
Where the book has flaws, I suspect it is only insofar as the author relied too heavily upon recent " summary" scholarship. Some of the authors of the works cited had axes to grind and while events are not presented inaccurately, there are sometimes degrees of emphasis that are exagerated. For example, the racially murderous role of US MPs outside of French ports is given great creedance, whereas if one has ever looked at the actual summary reports of what was going on, it is clear that a " wild west zone" was in effect by the Fall of 1917 and the US MPs battled local gangs, organized crime and corrupt local officials as well as corrupt troops and officers.
Rafael Schecks' work (which is the basis of much of the last chapter) on Wehrmacht atrocities in 1940 was presaged by a conversation he and I had at the Bates College Holocaust Conference in 1997. It relies upon a web forum discussion on the World War Two history site that was very extensive and drew upon French and German sources in much greater depth, including photo albums. Schecks' numbers of murdered African French troops in 1940 are almost certainly too high and one must also include the massacres of Polish (ESP. Polish) French, Belgian and British troops ( notably by the SS) to get an inclusive picture of those events. Not that this excuses the virulently racist Nazi massacres of 1940, but it points more towards a German style of warfare ( " prisoners slow us down") that was sometimes practiced in the West up until the Battle of the Bulge and the Malmedy massacre. ( After Malnedy the Americans made it very,very clear that retribution would be swift and severe and officers would be held personally accountable).
The biggest flaws I found were two fold. First, the tradition of Africans, often ex-slaves, in the French army went back to Napoleons' time. Indeed, Alexandre Dumas' father even became a General! More importantly, African French regiments (!) fought in Russia in 1812 and some brave, veteran souls were even at Waterloo.
Secondly, the contribution of the French North African/Arab/ Muslim troops was grossly underplayed in this book. In part, this is because there isn't a lot of English scholarship on these troops, despite their fame ("Zouaves") in the " Beau Geste" era. Nontheless, in 1870-71 French North African troops fought in several very famous battles, including Woerth, where one regiment suffered 94% casualties and single handedly wrecked the attacking German assaults. Such was their fame in the pre-1914 era, that there is a vivid account by Bastealt of an elderly, bemedaled Algerian gentleman standing on the sidewalk in Munich as a company of Bavarian Life Guards marched past on their way to what was then called Feldenhalle plaza. The mounted Company Major, a veteran of the Franco Prussian war , spotted the man and immediately surmised he was a veteran of Woerth. Drawing his sword, he saluted the veteran, pommel-to-nose and blade slashing downwards as he passed. The entire company presented arms -not an easy thing to do whilst goose stepping in rigid lines- a salute usually only reserved for higher officers, aristocracy or Royals.
There was only one blatant mistake I could spot- the analysis of painting of " the Black Stain " is filled with errors. The school house was an actual place, the light fixture is an actual light fixture, not a " Germanic spider" and the medal the boy is wearing is not the Legion of Honour, but a very common Catholic school " Excellent pupil" medal commonly awarded up until the 1940s. One can tell by the ribbon, angled arms and size. They are often sold on Ebay even today. Thus the painting is not so much a view of hyper-militarism, as a depiction of Catholic, Conservative, ultra Nationalist French society-the sorts of people who swore Dreyfus was guilty. This is not the authors' fault, but he relied upon an art historians' analysis that was superficial.
On the whole, a book well worth reading. Bravo. Bravo!
November 28, 2020
A timely analysis and exposition of the extent, experiences and involvement of non-Europeans in the First World War. Although I have read quite a number books on the conflict, few have acknowledged the extent to which black and asian soldiers and support workers were involved in every aspect of the war. It is an impassioned indictment of the racism of the time, which saw their contribution marginalised and frequently erased from the historical record.
It is particularly good on the role of imperialism and how this factor crucially influenced the deployment and treatment of blacks and asians during the war. It shows the fear that there was amongst the imperial elites that arming and training non-whites from the colonies might subvert the established order on their return home. It exposes the double standards applied and lengths that were gone too in order to segregate them from both white European soldiers and civilians - particularly females.
They were good enough to fight and die or labour for their imperial masters but they had to know and accept their subordinate place. As I say, a timely reminder of racial attitudes and prejudices that still survive in Europe and the US.
It is particularly good on the role of imperialism and how this factor crucially influenced the deployment and treatment of blacks and asians during the war. It shows the fear that there was amongst the imperial elites that arming and training non-whites from the colonies might subvert the established order on their return home. It exposes the double standards applied and lengths that were gone too in order to segregate them from both white European soldiers and civilians - particularly females.
They were good enough to fight and die or labour for their imperial masters but they had to know and accept their subordinate place. As I say, a timely reminder of racial attitudes and prejudices that still survive in Europe and the US.
April 4, 2015
The book covers much of the same ground as Olusoga's excellent documentaries that the BBC first screened in August 2014. Both book and documentaries showcases a largely overlooked aspect of WWI - the contributions of non-Europeans (other than the U.S.) to the war efforts of European countries as soldiers and civilian personnel as well as the effects of the war on the European colonies. Both are aimed as an interested lay public. This is reflected in Olusoga's style of prose that makes for an easy read and is interspersed with anecdotes that illustrate the general points. The book nevertheless provides plenty of references including to primary sources and more academic literature for those who want to dig deeper.
January 5, 2015
An extremely interesting book that does an excellent job of drawing attention to a neglected area of history and of calling out the dominant narratives of WWI for their eurocentricism. It is occasionally a little clunky in style, but by and large it is compellingly written, as Olusoga combines stories about individuals and sweeping birds-eye view explanations, interspersed with modern events that reflect back on the war. Would highly recommend.
May 5, 2015
This book accompanies David Olusoga's excellent TV documentary concerning the contribution made to the First World War by colonial troops and African Americans. The racism that prevailed after the War was shameful denying many courageous men and women their rightful place in history. This book helps to set the record straight and should be required reading for all those interested in the story of the First World War.
February 20, 2024
A must read. So eye opening, interesting and shocking!
June 13, 2023
The World’s War: Forgotten Soldiers of Empire by David Olusoga
The lowest standards of human behavior distinguish the imperialist Europeans and their cousins in the United States from most others in history. This book, while it may not set out to show this, does indeed reinforce it.
The principal idea Mr. Olusoga tries to educate readers that the "Great Powers" expended many lives of colonized people on various fronts of World War I (also known as The Great War). Typical of the unidirectional extractive relationships the colonizers established, it was not sufficient that they extracted all the minerals, agricultural and other wealth. They extracted the very lifeblood of the colonized people for the sake of their imperial designs. Not only were those who gave their lives and service NOT thanked, the author shows that, at the highest levels of the imperial governments, these soldiers were reviled, their very existence was denigrated and in the end, all recognition of their contribution was erased. These governments turned their own racist propaganda machines against these troops who laid down their lives for the empire.
In the most sickening display of hypocrisy, African-American soldiers from the United States were subjected, as a matter of government policy, to the same racist policies of Jim Crow and segregation while, “fighting for democracy.” If that wasn’t bad enough, Mr. Olusoga explained, upon their return to “the greatest democracy in the world,” they were subjected to many abuses for wearing their military uniform, including the sickening and disgraceful American crime against humanity of mass public lynching while law enforcement stood by and watched. This was their reward for service to their nation. Many of these lynchings of service men were coordinated by a domestic terrorist group that is still active in the United States today: the Ku Klux Klan.
I came away from this book feeling sick, literally. This is not the first time I have read about the crimes against humanity perpetually perpetrated against people of color. All sides conscripted and even enslaved Africans throughout the war. For instance, the death rate for enslaved porters on the African campaigns was astronomical. So the Europeans showed they did not have the capacity to develop standards of human contact over time. Whether the help was as combat soldiers or manual laborers for digging trenches, whether they were from Africa, India, China or Vietnam, the lives of those serving counted for less than the lives of white people. As the author points out, this was part of the documentary record of the war; a well documented fact of the policy of the imperial powers.
You might wonder, if I found these truths so sickening and distressful, why continue reading - or even recommend this book? There are at least three reasons:
1) It is well-written, meticulously documented, detailed and accessible to any ordinary reader.
2) Facing these truths is the only way to begin the process of recognizing the harm done in order to be awake to ways it is continuing and the possibly of repairing the damage.
3) I did learn plenty of new information.
One section went into great detail describing how Germany tried to foment jihad in the Muslim colonies of France and the United Kingdom. Although I’ve read some histories of World War I and listened to Dan Carlin’s excellent podcast “Hard Core History,” this was the first account I’ve read which went into such depth concerning Germany’s alliance with the Ottoman empire. Mr. Olusoga shows how, with no regard for their base levels of hypocrisy, the Germans tried to have people of color throughout the Muslim world fight on the side of their profoundly racist nation. So while the book was disturbing, it was a unique learning experience for a lay-person such as me.
Also, although it was not specifically mentioned in this book, by the end of World War I four empires had come to a complete and ignominious end. The Romanov dynasty of Russia became the last monarchs ruling Russia because of the people rising against its tyranny. The Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs was finally dismantled. The German monarchy ended with the Kaiser abdicating and going into exile. The Ottoman Empire and its rulers also came crashing down. Contrary to Benjamin Disraeli’s assertion that “assassination never changed world history”, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand certainly did.
I highly recommend this book.
The lowest standards of human behavior distinguish the imperialist Europeans and their cousins in the United States from most others in history. This book, while it may not set out to show this, does indeed reinforce it.
The principal idea Mr. Olusoga tries to educate readers that the "Great Powers" expended many lives of colonized people on various fronts of World War I (also known as The Great War). Typical of the unidirectional extractive relationships the colonizers established, it was not sufficient that they extracted all the minerals, agricultural and other wealth. They extracted the very lifeblood of the colonized people for the sake of their imperial designs. Not only were those who gave their lives and service NOT thanked, the author shows that, at the highest levels of the imperial governments, these soldiers were reviled, their very existence was denigrated and in the end, all recognition of their contribution was erased. These governments turned their own racist propaganda machines against these troops who laid down their lives for the empire.
In the most sickening display of hypocrisy, African-American soldiers from the United States were subjected, as a matter of government policy, to the same racist policies of Jim Crow and segregation while, “fighting for democracy.” If that wasn’t bad enough, Mr. Olusoga explained, upon their return to “the greatest democracy in the world,” they were subjected to many abuses for wearing their military uniform, including the sickening and disgraceful American crime against humanity of mass public lynching while law enforcement stood by and watched. This was their reward for service to their nation. Many of these lynchings of service men were coordinated by a domestic terrorist group that is still active in the United States today: the Ku Klux Klan.
I came away from this book feeling sick, literally. This is not the first time I have read about the crimes against humanity perpetually perpetrated against people of color. All sides conscripted and even enslaved Africans throughout the war. For instance, the death rate for enslaved porters on the African campaigns was astronomical. So the Europeans showed they did not have the capacity to develop standards of human contact over time. Whether the help was as combat soldiers or manual laborers for digging trenches, whether they were from Africa, India, China or Vietnam, the lives of those serving counted for less than the lives of white people. As the author points out, this was part of the documentary record of the war; a well documented fact of the policy of the imperial powers.
You might wonder, if I found these truths so sickening and distressful, why continue reading - or even recommend this book? There are at least three reasons:
1) It is well-written, meticulously documented, detailed and accessible to any ordinary reader.
2) Facing these truths is the only way to begin the process of recognizing the harm done in order to be awake to ways it is continuing and the possibly of repairing the damage.
3) I did learn plenty of new information.
One section went into great detail describing how Germany tried to foment jihad in the Muslim colonies of France and the United Kingdom. Although I’ve read some histories of World War I and listened to Dan Carlin’s excellent podcast “Hard Core History,” this was the first account I’ve read which went into such depth concerning Germany’s alliance with the Ottoman empire. Mr. Olusoga shows how, with no regard for their base levels of hypocrisy, the Germans tried to have people of color throughout the Muslim world fight on the side of their profoundly racist nation. So while the book was disturbing, it was a unique learning experience for a lay-person such as me.
Also, although it was not specifically mentioned in this book, by the end of World War I four empires had come to a complete and ignominious end. The Romanov dynasty of Russia became the last monarchs ruling Russia because of the people rising against its tyranny. The Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs was finally dismantled. The German monarchy ended with the Kaiser abdicating and going into exile. The Ottoman Empire and its rulers also came crashing down. Contrary to Benjamin Disraeli’s assertion that “assassination never changed world history”, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand certainly did.
I highly recommend this book.
May 10, 2019
The First World War is generally regarded as a “white” war. British, French, German and Russian soldiers fighting one another, all stemmed from Caucasian countries in Europe. What is all too often forgotten is the fact that a total number of over four million non-white people had an active role in the struggles of this war. Mostly citizens from the colonies of various European empires, these men of color either volunteered or were (violently) drafted to enter the battlegrounds of Belgium, France, Russia and various areas throughout Africa. Yet a hundred years later, all this is nearly completely forgotten; the entire era has mostly been reduced to English and French soldiers fighting Germans.
David Olusoga’s “The World’s War” rightfully shines a light on all the men who’ve been erased from common memory of the Great War.
Soldiers from India, Indochina, numerous areas of Africa, as well as native Americans from both the US and Canada, most of whom had never traveled far within their own land, nevermind traversing oceans to come in contact with entirely different cultures and climates – the First World War genuinely was a World war. And with these introductions to new colors of skin, religion and common uses, came clashes of culture next to the clashes of weaponry. The non-white soldiers might have felt unfamiliar with new cultures; but the Europeans – and later, military and citizens from the US – showed just as much lack of understanding, resulting in the most despicable forms of discrimination and racism.
The French and English parties needed all the manpower they could get, and the drafting of colonial troops helped when it became clear that their own number of soldiers wouldn’t cut it. In theory, these troops served the same army as their white comrades, but in reality matters were far less equal. The xenophobia and segregation which followed, adds a whole new layer of ugliness to an already atrocious era.
“The World’s War” is no easy reading material. But this is purely because of the stories being told, the meanness which is exposed, both during the war and in the years after it when troops returned home. The cruelty and discrimination didn’t end on the battlefield. Especially African American veterans experienced a huge increase in racial hatred directed at them when they returned from Europe.
But apart from the darkness of the material, on a technical and narrative level, Olusoga has written one of the most compelling, enlightening and surprising accounts of the Great War I’ve ever come across. It’s insightful, well-written and to the point, without ever becoming too academic or detached.
Also, it’s not just a summary of all the wrongs done to colored people during the war. There is just as much space reserved to simply describe how a man from India, Canada, Siam or South Africa choose to sign up, and how they experienced the events of 1914-18. What they were confronted with on the battlefield was unbelievably cruel and depressing, regardless of background or heritage. And after the accounts of Sassoon or Jünger, it’s refreshing to also listen to the words of Mall Singh, Mike Mountain Horse or Djemal Pasha.
Each of the nine main chapters distinctly focus on a single theme, making it easy to tell the episodes apart. The amount of research Olusoga has done for this project clearly shows, and it manages to unearth countless of unknown sides and stories to an already much-discussed-and-documented period of time. It makes “The World’s War” a very successful project and a book well worth reading. The subject deserves to be discovered, remembered and integrated in the collective - though forever incomplete - memory of this war.
David Olusoga’s “The World’s War” rightfully shines a light on all the men who’ve been erased from common memory of the Great War.
Soldiers from India, Indochina, numerous areas of Africa, as well as native Americans from both the US and Canada, most of whom had never traveled far within their own land, nevermind traversing oceans to come in contact with entirely different cultures and climates – the First World War genuinely was a World war. And with these introductions to new colors of skin, religion and common uses, came clashes of culture next to the clashes of weaponry. The non-white soldiers might have felt unfamiliar with new cultures; but the Europeans – and later, military and citizens from the US – showed just as much lack of understanding, resulting in the most despicable forms of discrimination and racism.
The French and English parties needed all the manpower they could get, and the drafting of colonial troops helped when it became clear that their own number of soldiers wouldn’t cut it. In theory, these troops served the same army as their white comrades, but in reality matters were far less equal. The xenophobia and segregation which followed, adds a whole new layer of ugliness to an already atrocious era.
“The World’s War” is no easy reading material. But this is purely because of the stories being told, the meanness which is exposed, both during the war and in the years after it when troops returned home. The cruelty and discrimination didn’t end on the battlefield. Especially African American veterans experienced a huge increase in racial hatred directed at them when they returned from Europe.
But apart from the darkness of the material, on a technical and narrative level, Olusoga has written one of the most compelling, enlightening and surprising accounts of the Great War I’ve ever come across. It’s insightful, well-written and to the point, without ever becoming too academic or detached.
Also, it’s not just a summary of all the wrongs done to colored people during the war. There is just as much space reserved to simply describe how a man from India, Canada, Siam or South Africa choose to sign up, and how they experienced the events of 1914-18. What they were confronted with on the battlefield was unbelievably cruel and depressing, regardless of background or heritage. And after the accounts of Sassoon or Jünger, it’s refreshing to also listen to the words of Mall Singh, Mike Mountain Horse or Djemal Pasha.
Each of the nine main chapters distinctly focus on a single theme, making it easy to tell the episodes apart. The amount of research Olusoga has done for this project clearly shows, and it manages to unearth countless of unknown sides and stories to an already much-discussed-and-documented period of time. It makes “The World’s War” a very successful project and a book well worth reading. The subject deserves to be discovered, remembered and integrated in the collective - though forever incomplete - memory of this war.
November 2, 2023
A terrific history from a terrific history writer, here shining a light on the marginalised and completely forgotten stories of those who fought and died, or simply laboured and died in the first global conflict of the 20th century.
As ever, to appease the chronic insecurities of a certain type of moron, let's reiterate, as the author does, books like these aren't looking to replace or elide or supercede existing narratives on the first world war. They are an addition to, and are significant in raising new stories up from the poppy fields and the plains of Africa. Here are stories that have barely been mentioned at all, of the Carrier Corps who died in the hundreds of thousands supporting colonial armies on both sides in their war in Africa. They have no gravestones, of if there are memorials, they aren't considered worthy enough of remembering individually like the white european soldiers are.
If you'd rather stick your fingers in your ears and go lalalala in the face of stories of imperial racism, outrageous treatment of human beings simply for being a different skin colour, then stick to the narratives that make you feel warm and cuddly instead. For those with a genuine interest in the extent of multiracial warfare, of the hidden stories of heroism, of the volunteers who wanted to fight for the distant Kings and Heads of State who ruled their colonies, of the additional battles they had to fight, and of how their tales have been consciously or unconsciously pushed to the sidelines then this book is a truly essential read.
I knew so little of this side of the war. Perhaps I was aware of some of the gurkas who fought for Britain, and some of the Indian troops, but that's about it. One forgets entirely about the consequences declarations of war would have had at all the various imperial outposts of England, France, Germany etc. And yet so much did, battles were waged and lives were lost in their thousands. Propaganda attempts to undermine each side's colonial forces, and also showcase hospitality to foreigners abounded - the Brighton Pavillion hospital for Britain that treated the Indian troops, the Wunsdorf camp outside Berlin that showcased the 'respectful' treatment of Muslim and Sikh and Hindu PoW's on the other side.
The way that pernicious and malignant concept of racial hierarchies had taken hold, a Victorian era pseudo-science influenced by and misunderstood from Darwin and infects the colonial thinking of the white officers in the deployment and segregation of troops is fascinating and depressing. The absolutely abhorrent Americans I think take the prize for most outrageously racist, but it's a close run thing.
These stories are as true and and as important as all the others we know, the lives and personalities as far as the record books have preserved them deserved to be known every bit as those we've known for decades.
As ever, to appease the chronic insecurities of a certain type of moron, let's reiterate, as the author does, books like these aren't looking to replace or elide or supercede existing narratives on the first world war. They are an addition to, and are significant in raising new stories up from the poppy fields and the plains of Africa. Here are stories that have barely been mentioned at all, of the Carrier Corps who died in the hundreds of thousands supporting colonial armies on both sides in their war in Africa. They have no gravestones, of if there are memorials, they aren't considered worthy enough of remembering individually like the white european soldiers are.
If you'd rather stick your fingers in your ears and go lalalala in the face of stories of imperial racism, outrageous treatment of human beings simply for being a different skin colour, then stick to the narratives that make you feel warm and cuddly instead. For those with a genuine interest in the extent of multiracial warfare, of the hidden stories of heroism, of the volunteers who wanted to fight for the distant Kings and Heads of State who ruled their colonies, of the additional battles they had to fight, and of how their tales have been consciously or unconsciously pushed to the sidelines then this book is a truly essential read.
I knew so little of this side of the war. Perhaps I was aware of some of the gurkas who fought for Britain, and some of the Indian troops, but that's about it. One forgets entirely about the consequences declarations of war would have had at all the various imperial outposts of England, France, Germany etc. And yet so much did, battles were waged and lives were lost in their thousands. Propaganda attempts to undermine each side's colonial forces, and also showcase hospitality to foreigners abounded - the Brighton Pavillion hospital for Britain that treated the Indian troops, the Wunsdorf camp outside Berlin that showcased the 'respectful' treatment of Muslim and Sikh and Hindu PoW's on the other side.
The way that pernicious and malignant concept of racial hierarchies had taken hold, a Victorian era pseudo-science influenced by and misunderstood from Darwin and infects the colonial thinking of the white officers in the deployment and segregation of troops is fascinating and depressing. The absolutely abhorrent Americans I think take the prize for most outrageously racist, but it's a close run thing.
These stories are as true and and as important as all the others we know, the lives and personalities as far as the record books have preserved them deserved to be known every bit as those we've known for decades.
September 8, 2021
The replacement of economic globalization with an unprecedentedly global war forced Europeans into closer contact with peoples of other races, and in new types of relationships; it forced them to confront and question what it was they meant by ‘race’ – a term which, as in the designation ‘British race’, seemed capable of loose applicability to almost any people who shared a culture, background, kinship or colour. Nationalism and its close cousin, ethnic nationalism – the idea that it was natural for every distinct people to occupy its own nation state – seeped into the bloodstream of Europe (Olusoga)
To provide a comprehensive review of this mammoth work is quite impossible. An absolute eye-opener on the realities of the First World War, and an essential book to fill in our distorted knowledge of the reality on the ground, that four million non European servicemen fought and many died for a conflict they had nothing to do with. I want to provide here a summary of the points that have struck me the most from the book.
1. During the conflict, the German sabotage of the British empire included supporting as well as encouraging British Muslim subjects to fight a jihad against their colonisers. The union of faithful across the globe did not completely succeed then, but has been called upon again as a model by different players.
2. The South African government imposed that native servicemen from SA in Europe be segregated from the other servicemen in secluded compounds with no opportunity to mingle with other servicemen.
3. The US published a paper called wartime Secret Information Concerning Black American Troops, where they reminded their French allies that black servicemen are 'regarded by the white American as an inferior being with whom relations of business or service only are possible. 4.The Germans had a PoW camp of foreigners and non Europeans where they conducted anthropological studies on human skulls, their sizes and their languages.
5. Chinese labourers were deployed in France by the Chinese government to work for the Allied forces and were used as technicians. After the war many couldn't go home and were abandoned by the Allies. The local population did not help them and considered them a hindrance.
6. Caribbean, Senegalese and other Afro American forces were forbidden upon their return from war to take up higher office military posts and were often subject to vilification, torture and murder in an effort to remind them of 'their place'.
There's much more to be learnt from this work, which is a huge research effort and one that hopefully starts to set the record straight after a century of censorship and airbrushing and flawed history school books.
To provide a comprehensive review of this mammoth work is quite impossible. An absolute eye-opener on the realities of the First World War, and an essential book to fill in our distorted knowledge of the reality on the ground, that four million non European servicemen fought and many died for a conflict they had nothing to do with. I want to provide here a summary of the points that have struck me the most from the book.
1. During the conflict, the German sabotage of the British empire included supporting as well as encouraging British Muslim subjects to fight a jihad against their colonisers. The union of faithful across the globe did not completely succeed then, but has been called upon again as a model by different players.
2. The South African government imposed that native servicemen from SA in Europe be segregated from the other servicemen in secluded compounds with no opportunity to mingle with other servicemen.
3. The US published a paper called wartime Secret Information Concerning Black American Troops, where they reminded their French allies that black servicemen are 'regarded by the white American as an inferior being with whom relations of business or service only are possible. 4.The Germans had a PoW camp of foreigners and non Europeans where they conducted anthropological studies on human skulls, their sizes and their languages.
5. Chinese labourers were deployed in France by the Chinese government to work for the Allied forces and were used as technicians. After the war many couldn't go home and were abandoned by the Allies. The local population did not help them and considered them a hindrance.
6. Caribbean, Senegalese and other Afro American forces were forbidden upon their return from war to take up higher office military posts and were often subject to vilification, torture and murder in an effort to remind them of 'their place'.
There's much more to be learnt from this work, which is a huge research effort and one that hopefully starts to set the record straight after a century of censorship and airbrushing and flawed history school books.
January 12, 2025
Shocking. I've learnt so much from this book about the role of Indian and African soldiers in WW1, and the appalling treatment received by black American soldiers both in Europe and when returning home after the war. One of the most interesting readings of WW1 is that it was a civil war between white supremacist empires, who seemed to deeply regret the initiative being given to people of colour due to their successes on the battlefield, as part of the allied forces.
In terms of the landscapes affected by the war, it was the first time men of colour came to fight in European wars on European soil. This exposed the varying degrees of racism and white supremacy in each army, but perhaps went furthest in highlighting the seedlings of fascist ideology growing in pre-Nazi Germany. Olusoga ranks the fledgling American military as one of the worst - perhaps unsurprisingly - whereas the French military allowed men of colour to rise up the ranks and be treated with a greater degree of respect. That said, the violence experienced by black American military personnel in St. Nazaire left many questions, and the treatment of Senegalese regiments echoes the worst of white supremacist imperialism.
One of the most shocking and appalling outcomes of the war was the wave of murders carried out against black American servicemen on their return from WW1. The worst excesses of white hate reared its head, leading to the brutal killing of decorated soldiers and their families on the streets of the southern states. White racists, including the Ku Klux Klan, felt that black Americans needed to be 'put in their place' after their achievements on the Western Front. Shocking.
Germany waged racist propaganda against the Allies and their black regiments during and after WW1, also highlighting American racism to get black soldiers to surrender. Olusoga makes the case for how this virulent strain of German white supremacy provided the foundation for Hitler, with children born of relationships between white German women and black Allied soldiers being forcibly sterilised to 'protect the white race'.
I never fully understood how Germany went from WW1 into the frothing fascism of Hitler, but it was a journey not an eruption. Many of the Nazi's ideas grew from the race-hate promulgated during the 1910s and Germany's defeat. If you prime a mono-ethnic (white), humiliated populace for a racist future, fascism can be the end result.
The stories shared by Olusoga here must be told to truly understand WW1 and its global impact.
In terms of the landscapes affected by the war, it was the first time men of colour came to fight in European wars on European soil. This exposed the varying degrees of racism and white supremacy in each army, but perhaps went furthest in highlighting the seedlings of fascist ideology growing in pre-Nazi Germany. Olusoga ranks the fledgling American military as one of the worst - perhaps unsurprisingly - whereas the French military allowed men of colour to rise up the ranks and be treated with a greater degree of respect. That said, the violence experienced by black American military personnel in St. Nazaire left many questions, and the treatment of Senegalese regiments echoes the worst of white supremacist imperialism.
One of the most shocking and appalling outcomes of the war was the wave of murders carried out against black American servicemen on their return from WW1. The worst excesses of white hate reared its head, leading to the brutal killing of decorated soldiers and their families on the streets of the southern states. White racists, including the Ku Klux Klan, felt that black Americans needed to be 'put in their place' after their achievements on the Western Front. Shocking.
Germany waged racist propaganda against the Allies and their black regiments during and after WW1, also highlighting American racism to get black soldiers to surrender. Olusoga makes the case for how this virulent strain of German white supremacy provided the foundation for Hitler, with children born of relationships between white German women and black Allied soldiers being forcibly sterilised to 'protect the white race'.
I never fully understood how Germany went from WW1 into the frothing fascism of Hitler, but it was a journey not an eruption. Many of the Nazi's ideas grew from the race-hate promulgated during the 1910s and Germany's defeat. If you prime a mono-ethnic (white), humiliated populace for a racist future, fascism can be the end result.
The stories shared by Olusoga here must be told to truly understand WW1 and its global impact.
March 20, 2018
This is a fantastic book. It's well-written, well-researched and should be essential reading for every school child in Britain.
It's a history of forgetting as much as it is a history of colonialism. It tells the stories of what happened to the colonial troops of Britain and France as well as the African-American soldiers of the United States of America. It talks about the thinking behind their dispatch to the front line and why it was objected to. It tells the stories of their involvement in the fighting and their treatment upon their return.
In a way perhaps the biggest insult is how we have gradually erased these people from our collective memories of World War One. Or how when we do remember them at all it isn't a crosses row on row but in mass graves or statues not as individuals.
I knew some of the stories of the British side of things but the French material was mostly known to me. As was how the Germans used the presence of colonial troops in the Allied Armies to suggest that they were coming to dilute and despoil the white race. The fear of black men mixing with white women is very much to the fore. As is the fear of what would happen in the colonies once you'd taught colonial men to fight against white men. Colonial troops had been used before but they were mainly used to fight other non-white peoples. Now we were going to train them to fight and kill other white men. This fear stood square behind the way African-American troops were treated by the United States too.
Indeed the American section is perhaps the most shocking. Partly because one forgets the epidemic of lynching that was going on in the US before they got involved in the war, partly the way they were treated once they went to war and the absolutely disgusting way they were treated upon their return from the fighting. How their courage was erased from the story to suit a white narrative. This section should be read by every American, especially now. (Although I fear some might approve of it in the current climate.)
The book is also good on some of the myths created by the Allies about the people's who served under them: that there were Indian races more 'martial' than others being the most repeated.
O, perhaps the other most important part of the book is the experience of the Chinese Labourers whose role in World War One has been almost entirely erased from Western memory.
To conclude this is a book everyone should read because everyone should remember.
It's a history of forgetting as much as it is a history of colonialism. It tells the stories of what happened to the colonial troops of Britain and France as well as the African-American soldiers of the United States of America. It talks about the thinking behind their dispatch to the front line and why it was objected to. It tells the stories of their involvement in the fighting and their treatment upon their return.
In a way perhaps the biggest insult is how we have gradually erased these people from our collective memories of World War One. Or how when we do remember them at all it isn't a crosses row on row but in mass graves or statues not as individuals.
I knew some of the stories of the British side of things but the French material was mostly known to me. As was how the Germans used the presence of colonial troops in the Allied Armies to suggest that they were coming to dilute and despoil the white race. The fear of black men mixing with white women is very much to the fore. As is the fear of what would happen in the colonies once you'd taught colonial men to fight against white men. Colonial troops had been used before but they were mainly used to fight other non-white peoples. Now we were going to train them to fight and kill other white men. This fear stood square behind the way African-American troops were treated by the United States too.
Indeed the American section is perhaps the most shocking. Partly because one forgets the epidemic of lynching that was going on in the US before they got involved in the war, partly the way they were treated once they went to war and the absolutely disgusting way they were treated upon their return from the fighting. How their courage was erased from the story to suit a white narrative. This section should be read by every American, especially now. (Although I fear some might approve of it in the current climate.)
The book is also good on some of the myths created by the Allies about the people's who served under them: that there were Indian races more 'martial' than others being the most repeated.
O, perhaps the other most important part of the book is the experience of the Chinese Labourers whose role in World War One has been almost entirely erased from Western memory.
To conclude this is a book everyone should read because everyone should remember.
January 16, 2018
A beautifully written and fascinating history of WWI's global dimension. This book brings to life the now sadly forgotten battles in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and the colonial subjects of Britain, France and Germany that participated in the war effort. What I found most interesting and apropos to current events are the cultural and racial bias in these three warring countries with their impact still felt today. For example, both the British and French subscribed to a "martial race theory" meaning that certain groups, like the Gurkhas of Nepal or the Senegalese, are naturally warlike and make good soldiers, which condemned them to higher casualty rates because they were often thrown into the front line of an assault against the Germans. The French kept most of the Indochinese colonial troops behind the lines in support positions because of their small physical stature. This fatal underestimation of the Indochinese led to the debacle 40 years later at Dien Bien Phu.
The most troubling chapters are those describing the treatment of African-American soldiers by the US military. Racism in the US military was so prevalent that African-American troops had to fight under the French flag. And for those fortunate enough to survive the Western Front, homecoming (in particular in the South) meant a real likelihood of being lynched or beaten because whites could not tolerate a black man in uniform.
The chapters on the Asian efforts in the first global conflict are also fascinating. In addition to the stories of the troops from India and Indochina, about 140,000 Chinese laborers from Shandong province went to the Western front to work as mechanics, trench diggers, road builders and in other support roles at the time when China was a neutral country. This book has given these forgotten souls a voice to reach us through the intervening century.
The most troubling chapters are those describing the treatment of African-American soldiers by the US military. Racism in the US military was so prevalent that African-American troops had to fight under the French flag. And for those fortunate enough to survive the Western Front, homecoming (in particular in the South) meant a real likelihood of being lynched or beaten because whites could not tolerate a black man in uniform.
The chapters on the Asian efforts in the first global conflict are also fascinating. In addition to the stories of the troops from India and Indochina, about 140,000 Chinese laborers from Shandong province went to the Western front to work as mechanics, trench diggers, road builders and in other support roles at the time when China was a neutral country. This book has given these forgotten souls a voice to reach us through the intervening century.
July 30, 2017
This book addresses less known part of the World War I – namely participation of on-whites in European fronts. It should be noted that while the majority of deaths/wound of the war were European, there were hundreds thousands of other people across the globe, who took part and paid their part in suffering, which was largely forgotten after the war.
Special highlights are for Indian troops of British, French Tirailleur Sénégalais. Also German African campaign of general Lettow-Vorbeck and his Askari. German attempts to subvert Muslims with Jihad, special POW camps for ‘colored’, whom they tried to persuade to rise against their colonial masters – inadvertently they created large early collection of audio clips with natives’ speeches, valuable for modern anthropology.
Also there was participation of Siam and China. The former supplied the most specialized force on the European theatre. The latter ‘lent’ over 200k laborers to work in France – those were responsible for mending the scares of battle after the armistice.
The sad story of US participation also described in detail – sad from the fact that ‘colored’ were able to fight only under French command, no WASP would ‘smear’ himself with black. And when they returned, lynching was on the rise ‘to remind blacks their place’
Special highlights are for Indian troops of British, French Tirailleur Sénégalais. Also German African campaign of general Lettow-Vorbeck and his Askari. German attempts to subvert Muslims with Jihad, special POW camps for ‘colored’, whom they tried to persuade to rise against their colonial masters – inadvertently they created large early collection of audio clips with natives’ speeches, valuable for modern anthropology.
Also there was participation of Siam and China. The former supplied the most specialized force on the European theatre. The latter ‘lent’ over 200k laborers to work in France – those were responsible for mending the scares of battle after the armistice.
The sad story of US participation also described in detail – sad from the fact that ‘colored’ were able to fight only under French command, no WASP would ‘smear’ himself with black. And when they returned, lynching was on the rise ‘to remind blacks their place’
April 2, 2022
For most Britons, the First World War is represented by the simple image of futile frontal attacks on the Somme. For some, this limited picture may be expanded by images of futile frontal attacks at Passchendaele and Gallipoli. This is a very limited view even of the war in Europe, but David Olusaga's excellent book shows how this really was a 'world' war, with military operations in Arabia, Africa and the Pacific, and troops and workers from many countries across the world coming to Europe. As in his other books, Olusoga presents a large and complex picture in a clear and accessible prose style, combining a real sympathy and understanding with evident outrage at the attitudes and behaviours of too many of the participants. We must be careful not to judge people in the past by the values and expectations of today, but the callous disregard shown by too many senior figures to the experience of their non-white troops and support units is remarkable. But it is the active racism of the United States that really shocks - perhaps especially the accounts of how black soldiers, decorated for their bravery in the trenches, were lynched on their return home for the affront of daring to wear their uniform and medals. Strongly recommended.
March 16, 2019
This is one of the best history books I got to read - it educated me in so many ways and made me appreciate how far we've come. I barely knew anything about the non-white people fighting during WW1. One day, when looking for pictures to colorize (which is a hobby of mine), I found one presenting soldiers from Nigeria, Vietnam and Senegal among POWs. It got me curious as I had never heard about their role. Now I know. And it's not a pretty story.
The complexity of the racial theories that governed who is sent to what battle is mind boggling, and yet, the lives of millions of African Americans, Indians, African colonial troops, Chinese and Ottoman troops were dictated by outlandish ideas. I was angry and upset while reading most of the book, especially the part about African American soldiers being lynched for wearing their uniform. It's not a light read, but it's written beautifully and does not ooze hate as one may expect. In fact it tells a story, a story which is more about those whose graves we can't even find today than about their opresors. A beautiful tribute to those who were forgotten.
The complexity of the racial theories that governed who is sent to what battle is mind boggling, and yet, the lives of millions of African Americans, Indians, African colonial troops, Chinese and Ottoman troops were dictated by outlandish ideas. I was angry and upset while reading most of the book, especially the part about African American soldiers being lynched for wearing their uniform. It's not a light read, but it's written beautifully and does not ooze hate as one may expect. In fact it tells a story, a story which is more about those whose graves we can't even find today than about their opresors. A beautiful tribute to those who were forgotten.
May 18, 2021
This was a brilliant book. It achieves that rare feat in modern dialogue - it studiously and accurately records the historical activities of non-white soldiers during World War One, avoiding either the erasing of their contribution that was all too often the case in the past, or their airbrushing in to events inaccurately that seems to have become more common recently. I watched the accompanying documentary series on BBC some time ago, which was good, but the book is far better, giving detail and context of a whole new level.
There is just one criticism - the book's only passing commentary on the Middle East theatre of the war - the theatre where more non-white soldiers, principally South Asian from the Entente side, served than any other. This omission is made clear from the start, and I can only hope that the author is planning a follow up that will cover this - it would be on my shopping list if he did.
There is just one criticism - the book's only passing commentary on the Middle East theatre of the war - the theatre where more non-white soldiers, principally South Asian from the Entente side, served than any other. This omission is made clear from the start, and I can only hope that the author is planning a follow up that will cover this - it would be on my shopping list if he did.
October 15, 2017
I don’t often write book reviews, but I had to after finishing reading this. As a history teacher, I like many have always been fascinated by the world wars. I’ve enjoyed studying them as a student and teaching them to students in lessons. But as a history teacher who is black, this book has really resonated with me. David Olusoga has done an amazing job of opening my eyes up to a war that I didn’t even no existed. The extensive detail of the contributions of African, Caribbean, African-American, Indian, Middle Rastern Chinese and so many other non-white, non-Europeans is incredible. It inspired me to do assemblies for Black History Month this year on the contributions of black people to the First World War. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of why the First World War truly was a global war, I highly recommend this book.
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