jlf1961
Posts: 14840
Joined: 6/10/2008
From: Somewhere Texas
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quote:
ORIGINAL: meatcleaver
Not true. There had been an arms build up for about twenty years and that was the crucial factor. Germany was the new kid on the block and Britain and France wanted to keep them in check which is one of the reasons why Britain and France signed the entente cordial. It was the arms build up that caused the house of cards to collapse. Which was the reason for so much anti-Americanism in Europe during the cold war,the American empahasis on a arms build up seemed to be a case of deja vu to many Europeans. Also, there was no reason for Britain to join the war, the oft cited treaty with Belgium, didn't require Britain to help them should they be attacked. It was Britain joining the war that caused the war to go global and Britain joined the war for nationalistic reasons and for no reason of substance.
The act that is considered to have triggered the succession of events that led to war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-HungaryYoung Bosnia. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against the Kingdom of Serbia activated a series of alliances that set off a chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was in a state of open warfare.
The mutual defense treaties between the Entente Powers initially consisted of France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and their associated empires, and the Central Powers, initially consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary and their associated empires. The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October 1914, followed a year later by Bulgaria.
Serbia had a mutual defense treaty with Russia, so when the Central Power forces invaded after the assassination, Russia went to Serbia's defense.
With Russia declaring war, her allies did as well, meaning England and France.
While there were underlying causes from the previous century, the single incident that ignited the war was an assassination of one man, the heir to the thrown of Austria-Hungary.
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Without WWI, there probably wouldn't have been a Russian revolution so there wouldn't have been Stalin. NAZI Germany was a result of WWI. Japanese militarism was a result of western imperial interference and without the fear of being colonized by western powers as many countries in that refgion were, Japan would have probably developed differently.
Imperial Russia was primed for a revolution, whether it was communist or something else. You seem to have forgotten that feudal system was alive and very well, and the noble classes owned everything, the peasants had no rights to land ownership, and barely any rights giving them ownership of business.
Civil discord had been building in Russia for some time before WWI, and Lenin had already gathered a large following in the country. The Czars secret police had rounded up and executed hundreds prior to the start of hostilities.
quote:
It doesn't take one unifying force to stop war but it takes commitment from ordinary people to use their heads and think and that is where I agree with you, you can see on these boards that many people believe what governments tell them without thinking for themselves.
The problem will still remain that any culture is going to find some reason to fight. At this stage in human evolution, we have yet to find other ways of solving problems other than force, from violent crimes to war, the drive is the same, to have what someone else has, or to win an argument at all costs.
For that matter, in the very broadest sense of the word, warfare is just one more example of how the human race exists on the planet.
We do not live with the planet, but we mold it to our desires, we tear down mountains to put up shopping malls, destroy forests to build houses in habitats that belong to endangered species, and if another country, religion or race pisses us off, we destroy it, or force it to change.
I would put forth the hypothesis that if tomorrow some one solved the problem with Faster Than Light travel, created every system needed so that when the ship went from a dead stop to begin accelerating up to lightspeed (as in star trek) the entire crew were not immediately splattered into compressed smears of bio matter on the bulkheads immediately behind them, and discovered intelligent, alien life out in the galaxy, some <insert favorite colorful term here> would declare, "It looks hostile, let's f*ck with it!"
But then, my opinion of the human race in general is rather biased, and I give the species an over all rating of 2, and even the third or so who rate a overall score 9.5 cant improve the situation, although individuals who present educated debates such as yourself meatcleaver, fall into the third worthy humans.
I dont care if you disagree with me, especially if you present an intelligent, educated argument, since we all have our opinions.
It is when the debate goes from words to clubs I find my point proven.....
Now, if we could somehow prevail upon the governments to use nonlethal means of combat, such as paintballs filled with dyed fresh very wet manure, artillary rounds filled with the same, and convert all bombers to drop liquified loads of the stuff, we could declare the winner by which side ends up cleanest.
Or perhaps bring back the custom of the commander in chief leading from the front, which may put an end to war as we know it.
_____________________________
Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
You cannot control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you throw them out of.
Paranoid Paramilitary Gun Loving Conspiracy Theorist AND EQUAL OPPORTUNI
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RE: War is fucking stupid! - 
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RE: War is fucking stupid! - 
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