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

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.

Maizie a superb and thorough explanation.

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.

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

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

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."

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!

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...

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.

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.''

agression aggession aggression two goes to get it right

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

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.

my eyesight must be getting worse

Thanks MaizieD

Now I know [smile}

As we live on an island we have been protected from the easy land grab many countries in Europe have gone through.
Bitter resentments still linger.
This is probably where the EU has been most positive. And perhaps why we as a nation just don't feel the same way.
When there was talk of Turkey being part of the EU I had Bulgarian friends who hit the roof. They have not forgiven the Turks for their invasion of Bulgaria.......and so .

On this Remembrance Sunday we remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This thread has been interesting and sad also.

Ooops! Sorry! I meant Austro-Prussian. Serves me right for posting when I'm in between doing other things.

Yes, in 1866.

Anglo Prussian War?!!

Luckygirl That's what they'd been doing for thousands of years. In some ways, WW1 was the last "traditional" European war. Others countries joined in because by then we'd gone global. Don't forget it took place just over a century after the Napoleonic Wars and less than half a century after the Anglo-Prussian and the Franco-Prussian Wars.

It's not a silly questions. Historians have been debating the causes of WW1 for over a century.

There would almost certainly have been a different "casus belli" (cause of war) Labaik. Britain and Germany were gearing up for it (literally).

I am always puzzled why countries or, to be more specific, their male leaders) were/are fired up with the desire to seize territory.

Why do they not just do their best for the country they have? Bonkers in my book.