Hundred years of memory

The government of Britain has asked their citizens to switch off their lights and light candle between 10 pm - 11 pm on 4^th August, 2014. This incident was all over the social media and many thought that it was a part of saving energy program or any activity of “Earth Hour”, but it was nothing like that, actually the world has marked the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War and in order to give tribute the Cultural Minister of Britain Maria Miller has asked the people of Britain to light candle and give tribute to the incident. To this the foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey added by saying, we don’t want to see such war and the whole Europe should support this incident by turning off their light for one hour.

What was the reason behind World War I

Actually the question is still unanswered who started this war, but according to common history it is believed that assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife in Sarjevo was the immediate cause for World War I. On 28^th Aug, 1914 a letter declaring war was send from Vienna to Belgrade was leaked and the news was spread all over before the war started. Before the war nearly one month before Gavrilo Princip, an ethnic Serb and Yugoslav nationalist from the group Young Bosnia, which was supported by the Black Hand, a nationalist organization in Serbia had killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, just after this Austria has declared war against Serbia. Till then Serbian army has entered 230 km inside Austrian territory as the news was leaked that Austria was about to attack.

Despite of constant vigilance the letter was leaked and the Politica Newspaper had published the news declaring it as emergency edition in which it stated that now war cannot be stopped. Austria’s Prime Minister believed that the capital city cannot be saved from war and thus laid their army against Serbia. At the same night Serbian army defeated Austrian navy. After this Austria started sending their army who started bombing in Belgrade. Serbia’s army in order to stop Austrian army decided to break off railway bridge on Sava river, but they did not succeeded to destroy the bridge completely and Austrian army entered their territory, the Austrian navy were also ready to attack.

In this war out of 45 lakhs Belgrade soldier 11 lakhs soldier died. Thousands of people died of cold and hunger, nearly 60,000 people were hanged, the world had experienced the extreme war and it was named World War I. In 1914 Austria declared that Serbia would be finished after the war but the result was totally different and Austria lost the battle and Serbia emerged as a super power, who led the united Yugoslavia.

Nearly 37 million people died

In this deadliest conflict in human history nearly 16 million people died. First World War was about acquiring power by some countries, extending their territory and control and to emerge as best in the race of survival. Firstly Britain and France were the only powerful empires but later Germany, Italy and Japan also came together to form a group and their union was such that it gave rise to world war. This incident is still a big lesson for global world. The First World War had ended the German Empire, Austria-Hungary Empire, Russian Empire and Ottoman Empire. The present condition of west Asia has its root in First World War itself. In Germany the rise of Nazis under the leadership of Hitler is the result of this war, who kept the foundation stone of Second World War. 

Towards the end

First World War has completely changed the politics, geography and history of the world. The dawn of Europe and emergence of America as the super power has started from here. The end of colonialism has also started from here, after war the participated countries enter into crisis and found it difficult to run colonialism and they break off. 

Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution

In 1914 Russia was not ready for war, because just nine years before Russia was defeated by Japan. At that time Nicholas II ruled Russia. According to a report from BBC, modern European history specialist Dr. Jonathan Smale, Russia’s geographic border extended from central Europe to Pacific Ocean and Arctic to Afghanistan. Nearly 17% of the total land area was under Russia. After the death of Nicholas II, Bolsheviks due to various reasons enter into revolution. Within 2 years of World War I nearly 175 million Russian soldiers died and more than 5 lakhs soldiers were injured and at the same time Russia was dealing from food crisis. The then present ruler Trotsky did not match with the expectation of the Russians. Under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin Bolsheviks promised Russian citizens to give food and peace land, people believed Lenin and supported him in the revolution.

Foundation stone of Second World War

After the end of First World War in 28 June, 1919 Treaty of Versailles  was signed between Germany and the allied powers which held Germany responsible for all the loss and damage and for this Germany was banned in many ways beside that Germany was asked to pay  compensation for the loss. When Hitler became the leader of Germany he opposed all these terms of the treaty. Beside that many other countries even felt it unfair and thus the seed of Second World War started flourishing.

America was acting neutral at the starting of World War I

The president of America during World War I was Woodrow Wilson. At that time America was busy in strengthening their economy by entering into trade relations with various European countries, for this reason in the starting America had kept some distance from this war. Beside that Woodrow Wilson a modern historian student knew the price of this war and thus when all the countries have entered into this war America on the other hand was neutral.

After banning Germany and his allies by Britain and many other countries America has to suffer much trade losses. In 1914-1916 where America’s trade with England and France was triple on the other hand their trade with Germany had reduced by 90%. And now when America was thinking of entering into the war in March, 1916 German naval ship shot Britain’s ship named Lusitania in English Channel in which 128 American citizens died along with British. At last on 6^th April, 1916 America was forced to go at war against Germany.

Actually in 1916 the citizens of America saw Woodrow as angel of peace and thus he emerged as a winner in the election and on the other hand his opponent Charles Evans Hughes was seen as supporter of war. After winning the election Woodrow focused more in attaining world peace and also kept various proposals before countries participating, in order to avoid war. League of Nations was sponsored and led by Woodrow Wilson in order to attain global democracy. In January 1917 Woodrow has also played an important role in compromise between Britain and Germany to end this war and for all this he was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize.

World War I in Numbers

Totally 124 countries were participating directly or indirectly in World War I, of which 37 countries were directly supporting this war. Nearly 87% of the total population use to stay in this 124 countries and a group of 32 countries were known as friendly nations who were against Germany and only four countries were supporting Germany. Nearly 4 billion people died in the war from Britain and their allies and nearly 2 billion people died under the leadership of Germany. Nearly 60 lakhs soldier were injured in this war and nearly 80 lakhs people were found missing.

Rise of Hitler

In First World War Hitler was a brave soldier in German army. Hitler had succeeded in surviving the battle many times during the war and he was honored with two bravery awards by Germans. In October, 1918 with war against Belgium his one eye was injured during a gas attack. In this war Germany lost the battle and there empire was towards the end.  Germany was declared a republic country and on the basis of written constitution presidential government was introduced along with political and military the post of president was introduced. In 1919 German government signed the treaty of Versailles, according to this treaty Germany was held responsible for all the damage and loss and was asked to pay the compensation. The result of war forced Germany to lose its colonialism and at the same time they were forced to wipe their hands from a large portion of their territory. At this time Hitler joined the military intelligence unit in Munich and from here the rise of Hitler started. Hitler by his speech started telling the people about the loss from First World War and the Treaty of Versailles. At this time due to various reasons there was a continuous rise in the price of the goods and then Hitler under Nazi party on 8^th November, 1923 declared a revolution in Munich and slowly he started raising the issues and problems of farmers and workers in Germany and at the same time also started taking part in various local election. In August, 1934 after the assignation of Hindenburg, Hitler became the ruler of Germany. After this Hitler played an important role in strengthening the economy of the country.

Role of India

When there was war among all the nations of the world at that time India was ruled by Britain. Undivided Indian army has supported this war by providing both military as well as food supplies. Indian army participated in France and Belgium, Arab, former Africa, Israel, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Persia including Salonika and many other parts of the world supporting this war. According to the report of Commonwealth War Grave commission nearly 11 lakhs Indian soldier participated in this war, out of this 1.38 lakhs were send to France, 1.44 lakhs were send to Israel and Palestine where as 6.57 lakhs soldier were send to Mesopotamia (at present known as Iraq).  Beside this a large number of Indian army was send to Africa.

In this war India’s contribution was not just military supplies  in 1914 royal marine army was also trained and was send to protect the shores of Mesopotamia. The Indian businessman played an important role in supplying food and various other supplies to military. Beside this in Indian army 300 nurses were send to war zone under Queen Alexander Imperial Military later the number increased to more than 10,000. At this time more than 200 nurses died in the war zone. According to the report for all the military across the world nearly 2 lakhs animals for meat and nearly 37 ton of supplies were supplied.

BRICS summit 2014 and its effect on global economy

The 6^th BRICS summit 2014 was hosted by Brazil on 14-16^th of July in Fortaleza. It was the sixth annual diplomatic meeting of BRICS nation. In this global economic scenario BRICS nation has added a new milestone by declaring to establish a “New Development Bank”. After World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF) the New Development Bank would be the third most important global financial organization of its kind. The Headquarter of the bank would be in Shanghai, China and the first President of the bank shall be from India. India’s president ship would be for six years then the President ship would be given to Brazil followed by Russia, their tenure would be for five-five years. 

After the financial crisis of 2007-2008 the importance of developing countries has raised globally. In the last decade there has been a change in the global economic scenario, especially in the contribution of global GDP, the share of developing and developed countries has raised a lot. In some developing countries a huge raise in FDI can be seen and at the same time the area of important needs in developed countries has also increased especially in case of growth by keeping in mind infrastructure and environment.

According to recent report of United Nation, to continue the pace of growth in developing countries nearly one trillion US dollar is needed for financial investment annually. The absence of financial investment in developed countries may give rise to electricity and water crisis to a huge population, knowing these challenges to occur in future the steps taken by BRICS is very important.

How will be New Development Bank?

The starting capital of BRICS Development Bank will be of nearly 100 billion dollar. In this development bank the share of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa would be equal that is 20 billion dollar each. The starting share capital would be 50 billion dollar. The bank will work on the principle of equal voting right of each country. The starting share of each member country would be 10 billion dollar. This raised capital would be used for infrastructure development and local growth planning of each of the member country of BRICS. In spite of this one important feature of this bank is that small countries having low economy can also apply for fund for their local development planning. The entire BRICS nation has agreed on 100 billion dollar of contingency reserve arrangement (CRA). From this arrangement the BRICS nation would get enough funds to encounter financial crisis. Beside the equal investment of shared capital of each member country, China’s share in CRA would be 41% and Russia, India, Brazil’s share would be 20% each where as South Africa’s share would be of 5%.

Why New Development Bank?

The 5^th part of global economy is under BRICS nation but in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the voting right of BRICS nation is only 11% which is very less. For the past 70 years the organization running under Briton-Wood principle needs lot of improvement. According to the report of “Washington Post” in 2008 and 2012 a proposal was kept to increase the share of voting right of BRICS nation but the decision is still pending.

In this case the share of developed countries had to reduce but the organization did not agreed to this proposal for various reason and ultimately the small European nations has to suffer as their share in voting rights would have been reduced thus it was criticized by most of the European nations. According to them due to the reduction in the share of voting right they would be ignored by the developed nations and IMF and they would not be getting enough funds for their growth plans beside that their contribution in the economic growth would also be ignored by the organization. In short from the starting the control of IMF and World Bank has been in the hands of Europeans and Americans. In an interview with Nogueira Batista the person who represents Brazil and many other countries in IMF, said that if the global financial organizations would have done their job properly there would not have been any need of new bank.

India’s hope vs China’s Ambition

There are no two approaches in the infrastructural development of BRICS nation’s New Development Bank that would play an important role. In terms of India and China the importance of Bank can be easily seen, both the nation is a fast developing financial power globally. In this case the eyes of developed countries are also on both these emerging financial powers. If we talk about the relation between India and China, it has always been ups and down. India-China border issue is very old and the issue is still on. China’s possession in Arunachal Pradesh, Laddak, Jammu and Kashmir and many other parts of the land is always been a matter of concern for India. For the last few decades both neighboring countries relation has been going through various agreement related to border issues. China proclaims 90,000 sq.km of land in Arunachal Pradesh as their territory beside that they have also illegally captured 38,000 sq.km of land in Jammu and Kashmir. Thus for all these reasons agencies hesitate to invest in infrastructure projects in Arunachal Pradesh.

Now the question arises that to what extend the new agreements between India and China would be helpful for China to become a super power? The former executive director of India in IMF between 2003 to 2006, Booby Mishra in an interview said that China wants to become a financial super power till 2020 and in this case the New Development Bank would help China to achieve their goal, thus in this case India has to stay alert. Though the bank can take more than 10 years to establish their importance and put an impact over the international market. At the same time some believe that developing nation’s first step of establishing a New Development Bank is a good start to economic growth and development.

Hope from New Development Bank

The analysts believe that the contribution of BRICS nation internationally in growth projects would be very important. At the same time the members of the organization believe that BRICS Development Bank / CRA will counter World Bank and IMF. From these funds for various plans, emergency help, loan for various projects and financial help in controversial land would become much easier. The World Bank believes that in developed countries nearly one trillion dollar of investment is required in the field of infrastructure. The total development banks globally are capable of providing only 40% of the needs.

Certainly BRICS Development Bank will give more importance to electricity and power, transport, telecommunication, water and sewage system and various development projects. The demand for infrastructure development in low income countries will also rise. Some analysts believe that in near future the members of BRICS will also raise and it may happen that the loan limit in BRICS Development Bank may even go up than the World Bank. It may also happen that for high quality loan portfolio huge reserve fund would be required. In this case the organization has to deal with various security issues. Now the world’s eye would be on the effect of the step taken by BRICS nation in global economy. 

BRICS contribution in global economy

The members of BRICS are the fastest developing nation with lot of potential for growth. Some of the facts of these developing nations include-

Brazil is the largest producer of sugar, orange and coffee, where as Russia has huge amount of gas and oil reserve which is very important for running various huge projects. India is one of the richest sources of mineral resources in the world. China’s economy is the second largest economy of the world just after America. According to economists till 2020 China will leave behind America in terms of growth and development beside that the GDP of China will also surpass America’s GDP in terms of domestic production. South Africa is well known for coal, gold, platinum and diamond throughout the world. In BRICS nation word’s 40% of the total wheat is produced.

26% of the total land area is covered by BRICS nation, beside that they contribute 21.5% in the total domestic production of the world. They also contribute 24.4 % in global gas production. Nearly 42% of the total population of the world is covered by BRICS nation. Globally 42.2% of contribution is on the production of power and nearly 20.7% of share is on the production of oil. The BRICS nation covers 32% of the global agriculture land, more than 50% of the contribution in the growth of the global economy is from BRICS nation. Beside that they contribute 10.2% of the global expenditure in various military activities. The trade between the members of the BRICS nation has reached to nearly 300 billion dollar and till 2015 it will reach till 500 billion dollar according to some economists. BRICS nation has a total of 44 trillion dollar of foreign exchange, thus the contribution of BRICS nation to the global economy is increasing very fast day by day.