LeftHandGuy
Well-Known Member
We fought WWI because King Edward VII had a penchant for high class French whores and his meddling in foreign policy saddled us in an alliance with France a nation that since the last two centuries at least had been...unlike Prussia and then Germany...Britain's traditional enemy.
Think you'll find it was because we had a treaty with Belgium - coupled with an anxiety about a potential German threat to the Royal Navy. More or less agree with you about the Second World War outcome. Not sure I can agree that the USA's primary foreign policy objective was to bankrupt the British Empire. They've had some anti-imperialist rumblings from time to time, but mostly have been interesting in boosting prosperity...
Anyway, I think it's also worth pointing out that war's aren't only ever "about" the issue that brings one or more participant into them. Sure Poland was the casus belli if you want to put it that way, but the war became about defeating Nazi Germany, and the defeat of Nazi Germany was and remains probably the UK's greatest contribution to the human race despite the shameful abandonment of Poland at the end of it (a subject about which I have strong feelings and a familial connection).
