La trasformazione della Grande Guerra: il 1917

The Great War started as a classical conflict of power politics. Secret war diplomacy clearly reveals the belligerents' imperialistic ambitions while an ideological confrontation between authoritarianism and democracy was impossible, being Tsarist Russia a pillar of the Triple Entente. Everybody expected a short war; the prolongation of the hostilities, the fall of the Tsar, the intervention of the United States and other factors transformed the character of the war, which according to Triple Entente's propaganda became an ideological struggle to promote democracy and nationality. In this respect 1917 was a key year. Pope Benedict XV's note of 1st August 1917 proposed ideas for a new international system quite similar to those of Wilson, but envisaged a compromise peace while the American president wanted to destroy the German Empire. In 1914 the Old Continent was the "proud tower" at the top of world power: this ended with "the suicide of civilian Europe", as the Pope labelled the war already in 1916.