Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-14138255-20140926004722/@comment-24994749-20140926010505

"The War" Ozpin spoke about divided the Kingdoms and ended 80 years ago (yay for timeline reference), so he might have been talking about the "Great War" that after which Atlas gifted the other Kingdoms with a transcontinental communications system (a sign of peace?)

But he also spoke about oppression, so he might have been refereeing to the Faunus War and the oppression towards the Faunus. If you think about it, 80 years is long ago that neither the students nor their parents lived it, but it's still rather recent, like, their grandparents could ahve fought in it.

That said, an all out war among the kingdoms, if it was fuelled by the said kingdoms having at that time very militaristic governments, could have included oppression simply as meaning to oppress anyone against the war or fuelling xenophobia. It is not unheard of militaristic governments to repress and censor artistic expressions, particularly because art has always been society's number 1 way to express rebellion and protest and spread ideals.