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
people 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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