"The Great Myth: World War I Was No Accident" Topic

"This month marks the 100th anniversary of the start of World War 1, formerly called the Great War.

Not surprisingly, this has brought all sorts of stories and op-eds discussing the disastrous events that killed some 16 million people and wounded an additional 21 million others.

To this day, most observers continue to claim that World War I was an inadvertent war: that is, that none of the countries involved particularly wanted war but war came nonetheless. Some claim it was the major armament programs and offensive military doctrines adopted by European countries in the run-up to the war that made WWI inevitable. Others claim it was the hypernationalistic populaces that caused the war. Still others blame the tight alliances that European nations formed in the years prior to WWI, which created an environment in which the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by an anarchist could plunge the entire continent into a bloody war. And then there are those that blame the situation on the irreconcilable interests of a rising Germany and a declining Great Britain. Regardless of the particular explanation invoked, most seem to agree that the war was an accident…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

There has to be a national sense to invoke. Without German "inferiority complex" at work versus mainly the French (the prime enemy), the German population would not be reachable, they would not believe in the necessity of war. Germans knew that the French snubbed even scorned them and their boorish culture. But in war-making Germans could prove their superiority. Take that pathematic complex over generations even centuries of development into account and you have a population of Teutons itching for an excuse to fight again. Hopefully, that mind set was killed off once and for all in the 20th century. We will find "the next world war" starting up elsewhere over entirely different reasons….

No one claims that WW1 was an accident. They claim that the specific time and way in which it started was an accident.

It is a rehearsal of the old accusation against Germany for starting WWI. It has the originality of wrapping it up on a nice political theory, though. It goes something like this: powers that are on top, when feeling threatened by upstarting powers that look that are about to catch up, start wars while they feel they have still a lead.

Basileus66, won't that political theory mean that Britain (the major power) would be the one to start the war, , not Germany the raising power.
In my opinion Germany was a land base power and was stupid in trying to take on England as a sea power. Only made her an enemy. Bismarck would not have approved,