World War I got started in earnest 101 years ago, when Russia and
Germany declared a mutual state of war on August 1, 1914. France piled on a
couple days later, and Britain did the same within hours.
The textbooks say that WWI was provoked a month earlier by the
assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on
June 28. The shots fired by a Bosnian Serb nationalist led to 20 million
military and civilian deaths.
A more accurate understanding of the origins of the war—and any
war—must include a recognition that the effective causes of war are the many,
sometime independent and sometimes overlapping, incremental acts and plans of
individuals and governments that finally make conflict seem “inevitable.”
The European powers, including Russia, had been jockeying for years for
economic power and political hegemony or dominance on the continent. Britain
and Germany had been openly competing for naval superiority on the seas and
coastal waterways. The 19th century monarchical and dynastic powers
were struggling to retain power in an increasingly hostile international
environment.
The brutal fact is that the European powers had been preparing for war
for a long time. It really wasn’t a great big surprise in the summer of 1914
when it started.
The bitter truth is that many leaders, and many of the men and women who would
become cannon fodder, welcomed the advent of World War I.
The frightening reality is that human nature hasn’t changed in the last
100 years.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015 All rights reserved.
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