The Great War Was Entirely England's Fault: An Economic History of World War I (1999)
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World War I (WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War, was a global war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. In America, it was initially called the European War. More than 9 million combatants were killed; a casualty rate exacerbated by the belligerents' technological and industrial sophistication, and tactical stalemate. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although Italy had also been a member of the Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary, it did not join the Central Powers, as Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive against the terms of the alliance.[11] These alliances were both reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy, Japan and the United States joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the Central Powers. Ultimately, more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history.[12][13] Although a resurgence of imperialism was an underlying cause, the immediate trigger for war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set off a diplomatic crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia,[14][15] and international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked. Within weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation for the invasion of Serbia.[16][17] As Russia mobilised, Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, leading Britain to declare war on Germany. After the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that would change little until 1917. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, but was stopped in its invasion of East Prussia by the Germans. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. Italy and Bulgaria went to war in 1915, Romania in 1916, and the United States in 1917. The war approached a resolution after the Russian government collapsed in March, 1917, and a subsequent revolution in November brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers. On 4 November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to an armistice. After a 1918 German offensive along the western front, the Allies drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives and began entering the trenches. Germany, which had its own trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on 11 November 1918, ending the war in victory for the Allies. By the end of the war, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires—ceased to exist. The successor states of the former two lost substantial territory, while the latter two were dismantled. The map of Europe was redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created. The League of Nations formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such an appalling conflict. This aim failed, with weakened states, renewed European nationalism and the German feeling of humiliation contributing to the rise of fascism and the conditions for World War II. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWI
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Russia invades Germany because some clown gets whacked in Sarajevo. That's what started World War 1...total friggin nonesense "that would be over in a week." The Germans and the Austrians made France, Britain and Russia pay for their nonsense even though the latter three ultimately prevailed.
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Gunther I didn't know that Britain tried to kill off all the jews ?
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regardless of the experts have to say I believe the Great War was really caused by the greed and power of Imperial Britannia that had by that point taken too many slices of the pizza and the other fellows around the round table were being squeezed out of dinner session , in a way the natural laws of equilibrium apply to human societies and are unavoidable , unfortunately in the process of maintaining the balance of World power few million people have to die time to time
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I was about to watch this, but luckily it warned me it was by the revisionist hack Fergusson, dodged a bullet there.
The man will argue that black is white to sell books.
isn't he lecturing at Harvard? I don't know how he's pulled the wool over their eyes! -
He was indeed a supporter of the Iraq war version II:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/20/niall-ferguson-interview-civilization
but he thought better of it later, not because he thought it was wrong but because Bushco should have done it better (somehow?). Here's a quote:
"The problem I constantly wrote about then was that if you invade and overthrow the bad guy, hold elections and then piss off, it doesn't work."
Not a very penetrating analysis from someone who's supposed to be one of the big three historians practising today. -
I seem to recall that this fellow was in favor of the 2nd occupation of Iraq post 911.
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