Today marks the 100th Anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the spark that ultimately set off World War I, the defining event of the 20th Century.
I am sure there will be speeches, memorials, and even parades...and rightly so...the Great War, as it was known until 1939, pretty much created the bloody century that is still affecting global politics.
There has been a great deal written about the causes of the war, its meaning to European society and the great monarchies it destroyed, and the futility and carnage that the first real industrial war caused. The debate will probably never end over the ultimate culpability for the war--the Serbian secret society with ties to the Serbian government that harbored the assassination plot , the faltering Austro-Hungarian Empire trying desperately to keep its polyglot peoples together; the expansionist Germans; or the conniving Russians.
Needless to say, the only thing for sure was that once the mobilization process got started, war was inevitable as the old wisdom of Thucydides kicked in--all human affairs are ultimately driven by fear, honor, and interest.
Der Spiegel has a couple of excellent articles about the war.
I am sure there will be speeches, memorials, and even parades...and rightly so...the Great War, as it was known until 1939, pretty much created the bloody century that is still affecting global politics.
There has been a great deal written about the causes of the war, its meaning to European society and the great monarchies it destroyed, and the futility and carnage that the first real industrial war caused. The debate will probably never end over the ultimate culpability for the war--the Serbian secret society with ties to the Serbian government that harbored the assassination plot , the faltering Austro-Hungarian Empire trying desperately to keep its polyglot peoples together; the expansionist Germans; or the conniving Russians.
Needless to say, the only thing for sure was that once the mobilization process got started, war was inevitable as the old wisdom of Thucydides kicked in--all human affairs are ultimately driven by fear, honor, and interest.
Der Spiegel has a couple of excellent articles about the war.
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