It has taken a century for it to become fully apparent how momentous the changes ushered in by that four-year conflict were: the fall of five dynasties (Romanov, Hohenzollern, Wittelsbach, Ottoman, and Habsburg) and the virtual ending of an aristocratic social system that had been in place for nearly a millennium. Frantic acceleration of technological development, especially the communications and mobility technologies that have changed the daily life of nearly everyone on the planet. Four years is not a long time for that and the shock waves are still reverberating.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3704887/posts
The Slippery Macron Commemorates One War .... Starts Another One?