I've never un derstood- what was the Great War all about?

I've always felt the same, Grand Duke Franz Ferdinand gets assassinated and that unleashed hell I think Europe had been at the mercy of Prussian/German agression for the best past of a century until they were finally defeated in 1945. The French had a taster of being walked over by them prior to the two world wars during the Franco/Prussian War 1870/71.

agression aggession

and the Franco-Prussian disastrous was in 1870.

Growstuff, I agree, any 'excuse' woud have done.

40 million died - Russians with the highest Casualties.

agression aggession aggression two goes to get it right

sorry

''The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I were about 40 million: estimates range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. The total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel.''

TerriBull None of the great powers (which at the time included Austria) was free from blame. Historians tended to blame Germany, but history is generally written by the victors.

France was able to extract punitive reparations from Germany and Hitler was able to exploit the Germans' grievances in his build up to WW2.

Have to get a square one at each end, pinkquartz [ ]

Such an interesting topic, the inter-relationships in Europe since the beginning of the 19th C. Of course, Britain always saw the German Protestant states as their allies and friends, particularly as their rulers had been so closely related for so long. It came as a real shock to many Brits in 1914 when we went to war with Germany.

WRT to the Russians. I've an interesting diary written by an English girl who was in Russia at the outbreak of WW1 and who joined up as a nurse to the Russian Army. She describes how the army just fell apart after the Russian Revolution when no-one was really in command. Which kind of goes to show how the ordinary soldiers were just 'cannon fodder'; they all just drifted away when the chain of command broke down. Not interested in fighting anyone...

I think that was the Austro Prussian war, not Anglo. Austria was the undisputed leader of the German States, and this conflict started as a dispute about the administration of Schleswig Holstein . The Prussian army invaded Hanover, Saxony and Hess challenging Austrian supremacy by gathering all the German States under one state, and it all kicked off from there!

According to the historian Niall Ferguson, "in 1914 it was a clause in an 1839 Treaty that led Britain to intervene in what became the First World War.... Formally, Britain went to war because the German attack on Belgium violated the 1839 Treaty of London, which.... bound all five of the great powers of Europe to uphold Belgian neutrality."

PS My dad used to cite that treaty too, and the consequences of its being violated.

Jabberwok I had already corrected myself. It was the Austro-Prussian War.

The 1839 was the justification for going to war, but there's evidence that Britain was gearing up for war. Look at the statistics for the build-up of armaments, especially shipping. It's also interesting to look at the tone of newspaper articles in the few years before 1914. They were more often or not full of jingoistic nationalism. Of course, there were people who didn't support war, including pacifists, but they were generally rubbished by the establishment. The foot soldiers (and sailors), who made up the majority who died. didn't matter to the "powers that be" playing their military and imperial games.

Maizie a superb and thorough explanation.

Apologies growstuff, I didn't read the posts properly, (cooking dinner and multi tasking!) I didn't mean to sound a bossy boots! Again apologies.

Britain and Germany were involved in a battleship arms race. There were concerns in Britain that Germany wanted to expand in Africa, in addition to the growing strength of the now united Germany. The Austro-Hungarian empire was also loosing power, especially over the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire was known as “The sick man of Europe” as it was failing economically. Both Germany and Britain recognised how important this could be in the future.

There was also a treaty between Russia and France to combat the growing power of Germany, whilst the British signed up to the Entente Cordiale, with France and I think Russia promising help in case of invasion. The invasion of Belgium was the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as the UK was concerned.

There is no quick answer to the question and as mentioned before and historians are still debating the issue at least a hundred years later. As more documents are still becoming available the discussions will probably continue indefinitely.

Just as an aside, many historians think that the Treaties in Paris, Versailles included, laid the seeds for WW2. A favourite question could be “to what extent was WW2 inevitable, following the outcome of WW1”

BBC bitesize would be a good place to look for the causes of WW1. Hope this helps.

I think everyone's contributions have been excellent, MOnica, but thank you . Nice to be talking about something non controversial I do love History...

Yes, thank you Jura 2 for asking the question. Maisie, I agree, it’s great not to be arguing about politics.

I too love history.

It might also be worth remembering that the Royal Family are German by descent, they changed their name to Windsor in 1917 because of high anti-German sentiment in Britain. Prince Philip is of course Greek and George V's cousin was Nicholas II of Russia. There was much intertwining of politics and royalty which created a background to narrow, nationalist concerns.

Rivalry amongst the European powers had been running for centuries before the 20th century right back to the demise of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. It was Napoleon who won the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 so bringing this about. The Holy Roman Empire was then replaced by the Austro Hungarian Empire/dual monarchy which gradually lost control of the Balkans through the 19th century. This provided the context for the disastrous assassination of Duke Ferdinando.

One might also remember land grabbing going on around the Globe from the America's to the Far East to the race for Africa! Rampant colonialism and the race for resources!

Prince Philip isn't even Greek! Danish and German...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_royal_family

WW2 wasn't inevitable, but the Treaty of Versailles certainly did lay seeds. It was one of the reasons the Americans (some of them) were keen to get Europe (especially Germany) back on its feet after the WW2. It didn't want a weak Germany, which could have succumbed to Communism or sparked yet another war.

Here is a link that gives the main reasons www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/causeww1.htm

You will need to copy and paste, I think

No problem Jabberwok. I was originally having a senior moment.

Five empires collapsed as a direct result of WW1. It defined the future of European history. I think one has to understand the mentality of people before then to understand how it happened, but it's always useful to remember when observing current events. One relatively small incident in Sarajevo sparked a light in a tinderbox.

I think it's difficult to understand because we have become used to having relatively good relationships with our European neighbours, but go further afield to North Korea, Iran or Ukraine and it's easy to see how a major war could start.

Prince Philip was born in Greece and to the Greek and Danish Royal families.

Thanks everyone who has contributed to this thread. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my history lesson.

BTW I too though the DoE was Greek. His mother (?Alice) was deaf and dressed very strangely didn’t she for her son’s wedding?

In 1903, Alice married Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and lived with her new husband in Greece until their forced exile in 1917 thanks to Andrew’s involvement in the Greco-Turkish war. The pair had four daughters before giving birth to their first son and youngest child, Prince Philip.