100 Years Ago: The Seeds of World War I

It's hard to imagine how a war begins. In our modern,  war against ism of your choice era, we tend to think in terms of presidential decree. There's a speech, debate that's squelched by accusations that those who question the cause lack morality and/or patriotism, and then the bombing by remote control and 24-hour news channel spin begins. We seldom understand the underlying currents, the whys of war are too shrouded in nationalism and our biases toward what our culture defines as right or good often make it impossible to comprehend the real causes for armed conflict.

Almost 100 years before the events which would culminate in the first world war, the European powers had established an agreement to balance power and international order at the Congress of Vienna. The peace that agreement fostered ushered in an era of tranquility and prosperity the likes of which had seldom been seen on the continent, however by 1914 the underpinnings of the Vienna agreement had began to erode.

The Ottoman Empire, weakened by economic and political setbacks, began withdrawing from continental Europe leaving peace and order in the region in the hands of two competing powers: Russia and Austria-Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian minority attempted to impose their will on a larger and restless population of Slavs and amid growing unrest Emperor Franz Joseph declared Bosnia-Herzegovina a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1908. This decision violated the Berlin Treaty of 1878 and served to further incite the Slavic peoples and the Russian czar.

In wars in 1912 and 1913, Serbia doubled its territory, increasing the threat to Austro-Hungarian regional supremacy. At the same time Russia entered into a treaty with France (over lands seized by Germany in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War (1870 - 71)) and Great Britain (which feared the growth of Germany's navy represented a threat to traditional British naval dominance). Germany allied herself with Austria-Hungary against the threats of Russia, France, and Britain and the fuse of the Great War had been strung, all that was required was a spark and there was no shortage of men with matches at the ready.

By 1913 Danilo Ilić,  a Bosnian Orthodox Serb school teacher and banker, had become the leader of the Sarajevo cell of the Serbian guerrilla movement known as the Black Hand.  In late 1913 the order came to end the Black Hand's phase of organization and move toward revolution against Austria-Hungary. In January of 1914, at a Black Hand meeting in Toulouse, France, a list of possible Austro-Hungarian assassination targets were discussed, including Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand however the participants decided on the Governor of Bosnia, Oskar Potiorek as their target and dispatched carpenter and impoverished former Herzegovinian nobleman Muhamed Mehmedbašić to carry out the assassination.

En route to Bosnia-Herzegovina from France, however, Mehmedbašić's train was stopped by police. Thinking the police might have been alerted to his mission, he threw the dagger and bottle of poison he'd brought for the purpose of carrying out the killing out the train window. When Mehmedbašić arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina he began looking for replacement weapons.

Vive la Margarine!

As you probably know, I like to pour over old cookbooks. It gives me a chance to find forgotten recipes that might be worth trying along with a few that definitely are worth avoiding. Well, during today’s trawling I came across this recipe for Victory Meat Dish from Mrs. Scott’s North American Seasonal Cookbook: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.  

The name was the first thing to catch my attention. It reminded me of the infamous Freedom Fries served at the House of Representatives Cafeteria during 2003. America’s good for redefining and food-isolationism during times of military upheaval and, since the cookbook was written by Anna B. Storck Scott in 1921 (not long after the end of World War I), the name isn’t surprising. The recipe contains another little nugget of arcane culinary practice though, the use of Oleomargarine which, by chance, is why I decided to write this blog post on Bastille Day weekend.

 

Oleomargarine was one of a new class of food products in the twenties: processed food products. Oleomargarine, even without the E-Z Color dye-pack, has a colorful history. Its origins can be traced back to Emperor Napoleon III. Napoleon was faced with the problem of feeding his navy and the poor subjects who’d overthrown the French monarchy over that whole “let them eat cake” thing so he offered a prize to anyone could create a cheap and palatable butter substitute. The winner was French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès. In 1869, Mège-Mouriès patented a process for churning beef tallow with milk to create a butter substitute he dubbed Oleomargarine.

The prospects for this new product of science weren’t exactly sunny yellow, though. The product failed to gain widespread acceptance and Mège-Mouriès sought the help of a Dutch company (Jurgens) to build an international market. It was at this time that dyes began being added to the product to give it a more butter-like appearance.

It’s probably obvious that dairy farmers and butter manufacturers didn’t take well to the introduction of a cheap butter substitute. Lobbying by the dairy industry resulted in a tax of two cents a pound being levied against margarine (no small sum in the 1800s). Artificially colored butter became contraband in thirty US states by 1900. Between 1886 and 1948 Canada enforced a total ban on margarine with only a short exception during World War I and in Quebec bans on dying margarine remained in place until 2008. Margarine producers didn’t take these restrictions lying down, instead they sold dye-paks along with their product so that consumers could make their own artificially-yellow butter substitute at home.

The growth of the Pure Foods Movement of the 1920s eventually helped margarine’s case, preventing dairy producers from including additives in natural butter that would make it more spreadable. Smooth-spreading margarines became the toast-topper of choice during the depression and the rationing of dairy products during World War II convinced many consumers to switch.

In 1950, the U.S. government finally repealed its margarine tax, and the market continued to grow as individual states reversed their bans. Even the medical industry seemed to be on the side of margarine for a while, declaring that the high levels of saturated fats in butter put diners at a higher risk of heart disease. As we all know, though, the healthcare pendulum always tends to swing back and forth and eventually margarine got the doctor’s thumbs down for the use of trans fats which not only increased risk of heart disease but raised levels of LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad stuff).

The truth? Actually there never was good evidence replacing butter with margarine cut the chances of having a heart attack or developing heart disease. So, if I were to include this recipe in my Bastille Day feast I’d have to leave out the margarine in spite of its French connections. Still, vive la France!

The Beaches of Normandy

A LIFE photo of a soldier crawling through the surf under German machine gun and mortar fire.

Most of us probably don’t connect June 6^th with anything more than balmy summer weather and maybe a little vacation time with the family. Turn the calendar back to 1943, though, and you will land on the day of the Allied invasion of Normandy, D-Day. So, while enjoying the tranquility of summer pause a moment to think of all those young men who perished on a French beach for the sake of freedom and say a silent thank you to those who gave everything for what we all too often take for granted.