Whose fault was WW1?

[Lancer]

I think it was the Russians. The Serbs were way outa line and the Russians backed them up.

[Dis]

Austria and Germany

[BeBMan]

It was of course Bush's fault ....

[Cort Haus]

Austria's.

[KrazyHorse]

The Netherlands

[lord of the mark]

John Locke's fault.

[molly bloom]

Ned's.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Whose fault was WW1?

Originally posted by Lancer
I think it was the Russians. The Serbs were way outa line and the Russians backed them up.

I blame the Austrians for acting precipitously and the German for forming an offensive alliance with them.

Yes, a Serbian whacko did off the Austrian heir to the throne. but (a) Austria didn't have irrefutible evidence that wacko was tied to the government, and (b) Austria could have opted for punitive steps less drastic and bloody than going to war.

And, while a defensive alliance is stablizing because it loosens the chances of war, and offensive alliance is destablizing, because -- as here -- it increases the chance of war.

The Russians were justified in backing up the Serbs. While the Serbs actions are not laudable, Austria's reaction of invading Serbia was more out of line than anything done by the Serbs.

[DinoDoc]

Re: Re: Whose fault was WW1?

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Yes, a Serbian whacko did off the Austrian heir to the throne. but (a) Austria didn't have irrefutible evidence that wacko was tied to the government, and (b) Austria could have opted for punitive steps less drastic and bloody than going to war.

We didn't. Why should Austria be held to a higher standard?

re OP: It was quite obviously the fault of the British.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Re: Whose fault was WW1?

Originally posted by Lancer
I think it was the Russians. The Serbs were way outa line and the Russians backed them up.

I agree. Serbia was ready to accept the Austrian proposal until the Russians came in and said they'd back Serbia all the way, which made Serbia a bit more apt to reject the terms presented by Austria.

[Tattila the Hun]

I seem to recall that the Austrian proposal was impossible to accept, and they just presented it to get casus belli.

[Zkribbler]

Re: Re: Re: Whose fault was WW1?

Originally posted by DinoDoc
We didn't. Why should Austria be held to a higher standard?

Ha ha, got you there! We've never admitted that the real reason we invading Iraq was because Saddam attempted to have George H.W. Bush assassinated.

[Dis]

I've always suspected it.

If someone tried to assassinate your father, would you not want him taken from power and put on trial?

[lord of the mark]

Given the changing power positions in late 19th early 20 centuries, the contests for power among competing nation states, the contesting for colonial resources, I think its clear there was going to be another great power war at some point, and given how it had been repeatedly demonstrated how bad it was to get isolated in such a war (see 1866 and 1871) it was also pretty likely that at some point an alliance war would take place.

Woulda happened even if Ferdinand wasnt shot, even if Kaiser Bill had been totally sane, etc, etc. Might have had different alignments, but it still would have happened, most probably. To avoid it you need to go back at least 50 years and modify dramatically the imperial situation, the power relations etc. Or else the Europeans have to keep getting lucky in each international crisis for several decades, until the power situation had changed so dramatically that the multipolar world faded away peacefully, or till nukes are invented.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Ned's.