[C19fan]

As a FYI, Mr. Johnson is the Tory Mayor of London and heir apparent to current PM Cameron.

[VanDeKoik]

Germany?

Did this person ever read a history book on that war?

[knarf]

AND ... born in 1964, his teen years were approx 1980 - 1985

The Reagan years

[Leaning Right]

It is a sad but undeniable fact that the First World War – in all its murderous horror – was overwhelmingly the result of German expansionism and aggression.

I'm always suspicious of anyone who uses the phrase "undeniable fact". Because that's a clever little way of saying "no debate will be permitted."

[mountainlion]

This year is the 100th anniversary of WWI and 150 years since the Civil war. 60 years ago we were in WWII then Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq... War has not solved anything so why do they try to blame someone on starting war and ignore finding solutions to stop wars?

[txrefugee]

In the Dark Ages of the Middle Ages, people were ignorant because of lack of education.

In the coming Dark Ages, people will be ignorant because of education.

[agere_contra]

The war started because Germany invaded Belgium and Austria-Hungary (AH) invaded Serbia.

As Boris says: those powers - the 'Axis' powers - didn't go to war because of the assassination of the Arch-Duke. They went to war because they believed that they were going to gain control of Europe.

The Austro-Hungarian empire seized on the death of the ArchDuke as a pretext, and gave an almost impossible ultimatum to Serbia.

Serbia promptly accepted 90% of their terms. They accepted all the terms that they could possibly accept and still maintain sovereign control over their own army. Austro-Hungary had saved face - there was no sense in which the Axis powers were backed into a corner.

However peace simply wouldn't do. The Axis powers wanted war because they believed - not unreasonably - that they were going to win it. They had a very precise, war-winning plan - the Schlieffen plan - and they meant to use it.

WW1 was a war of territorial aggrandizement launched by the German Confederation and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They could have had peace, but they wanted war.

We are often told that WW1 began because of a comparatively trivial assassination - but this is not true. World War One was a horribly sincere war of oppression.

Hope this is helpful.

[Mercat]

Just sent it to my brother who is a docent at the WW1 museum.

[Fiji Hill]

It is a sad but undeniable fact that the First World War – in all its murderous horror – was overwhelmingly the result of German expansionism and aggression.

Of course, Britain, France, Russia, Italy and Japan--the good guys--had no desire to expand their empires. None whatsoever.

[US Navy Vet]

Read this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning/dp/0345476093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389191245&sr=8-1&keywords=the+guns+of+august

[Born to Conserve]

How dare the Germans resist the peaceful British Empire.

[BenLurkin]

Darryl Bates: What started it?

Col. Andy Tanner: I don’t know. Two toughest kids on the block, I guess. Sooner or later, they’re gonna fight.

[subterfuge]

Much like this thread, the posters at that publication are not commenting on the premis of the article, which is the left are a wimpy, lying, truth avoiding bunch of idiots.

[Timber Rattler]

I think that this guy needs to go back and read The Guns of August.

[Ditter]

I was born in 1940 and some of my first memories are of hearing my parents talk about and cry about WW2. I remember when the pictures of the Jews who were rescued appeared in the newspaper. Even though the Germans are different now I know that I have not forgiven them completely for WW2.

[sickoflibs]

I am sure glad that I wasn't born around the turn of century where I could have been drafted by Woodrow Wilson to join the French in those trenches.

WWI mess was a reason why Americans were so isolationist when Hitler and Japan were on the march prior to Dec 1941.

[nathanbedford]

It was Germany that pushed Austria to make war on Serbia. It was Germany that declared war on Russia, on August 1 1914. It was Germany that decided it was necessary to invade Luxembourg, and it was Germany that deployed the Schlieffen plan (devised in 1905, incidentally) and sent her troops smashing through neutral Belgium and into France.

The statement, which I think is the extent of the particulars supporting the claim of Germany's war guilt, is full of historical inaccuracies. Germany did not push Austria to make war on Serbia. Germany only declared war on Russia after Russia mobilized and declined to demobilize, mobilization in those days being terribly threatening because of the state of technology closely associated with railroad timetables etc.. The invasion of Luxembourg hardly caused World War I, it was an event in the war after it commenced. The von Schlieffen plan was a war plan, just like the war plans maintained today in our Pentagon and in the staff offices of virtually every army in the world. So what?

This argument about responsibility for the start of World War I has now been going on for century and will continue no doubt with more bad historical analysis.

[onedoug]

Gavrilo Princip. ‘Just thought the name should be mentioned.

[Billthedrill]

Oh dear, this again. There are essentially two general schools of thought about the inception of WWI, neither of which blames either the Germans or the Serbs entirely. Certainly the Serbian Black Hand was attempting to destabilize the situation by assassinating Ferdinand, who was actually more pro-Serb than anyone else in the Austrian government. The Black Hand was afraid that his proposed accommodations would interfere with their program of radicalization. They wanted war, yes, but not that kind of war.

The Germans had done extensive war planning for decades, but within the young Kaiser's government there was a very aggressive faction that actually favored employing them. These were waiting for an excuse, and they found one, although even they didn't anticipate the magnitude of what resulted.

Tuchman's Guns of August case has, over the years, been side-tracked because of the revelations concerning both of the above, but it is a rather sound case for why the thing couldn't be stopped. It centered around tight mobilization schedules that HAD to be completed once started or the entire railway systems of Germany and Russia, especially, would collapse. That placed the armies in position for war, at a time when any rockfall could set off an avalanche.

Less obvious is what the assassination meant to the government of Austria-Hungary, a country that only existed as an attempt by the Habsburgs to rescue their failing empire by incorporating fresh Hungarian resources (1867). It wasn't simply the death of one of many claimants to supremacy, it was a tidal change in the empire. The mess was that there were factions within the Serbian, Austrian, German, and even the British governments who were jockeying for power. That didn't start the war, but it was why it wasn't aborted.

In my purely personal opinion the bulk of the blame does go to the German government. It did the majority of the planning and had the most opportunities to turn the sequence of events off. But certain blame must also fall the Russian and the Austrian directions for their persistent rivalry in meddling in Serbian affairs, and to the Austrians for refusing to hold up after the sitting Serbian government called for arbitration on the last of the conditions demanded. Had that hot spot been cooled the Germans might still have attempted the Schlieffen Plan but the war would have taken a very different and more limited form.

All only my $0.02 and subject to vigorous debate, as it has been for just shy of a century now.

[x]

1) It's complicated.

2) I don't see Boris ever becoming PM -- not until he breaks down and buys a comb, anyway.

[Ravnagora]

Thank you for posting this, “C19fan”.

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