threaded | unthreaded | newest first

WWI hindered E-o?

topic posted Mon, July 25, 2005 - 7:32 AM by  Yul
Is it more than a coincidence that Esperanto's popularity began to decline around the same time that World War I broke out?
posted by:
Yul
offline Yul
Michigan
68 friends
join to post
  • Glenn
    Glenn
    offline 32

    Re: WWI hindered E-o?

    Tue, July 26, 2005 - 7:02 AM
    It fits, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong (I certainly may be), but didn't the League of Nations then try to start a push for Esperanto after the War?

    However, the point about popularity declining coinciding with war is certainly fitting. WWI and WWII certainly would have had hope-smashing effects on those who favour world unity.
    join to post

  • Re: WWI hindered E-o?

    Thu, March 2, 2006 - 2:55 PM
    Obviously, the wars drained a lot of energy from other pursuits. But also, WWI and WWII put an end to multilingual Eastern Europe, the environment that spawned Zamenhof and the Esperanto movement. WWI restructured multilingual empires into monolingual nation-states. WWII completed this process, and also divided Europe and the world into separate blocs with English and Russian as their interlanguages.
    join to post

Recent topics in "Esperanto"

Topic Author Replies Last Post
The Out Orb Tribute to Carl Sagan (La Outorba Homg^o al Carl S... Yul 0 November 29, 2007
Esperanto with Autonomy Hudson Yul 0 June 29, 2007
wtf? Orangeboxman 0 February 17, 2007
I want to scream about those anti-Esperanto folks! Yul 17 January 15, 2007