The Lessons of the Versailles Treaty

Yes indeed!

I read a book that claimed one of the reasons the UK went to war in WWI was due to a crisis sparked by Irish Home Rule. There was another Home Rule Bill in parliament. The army was dead set against it. Apparently this bill went further then any other such bill. If the bill passed the Army was going to revolt! The Home Office & War Office pushed for war on the continent to head the Army off. I find that to be an extraordinary claim!

I need to find that book again! I can’t quite remember the exact title or I would give it to you. I lent it to a friend before I moved and never got it back. There were a flurry of books on the centennial of WWI it was one of them.

"There’s no question average Serbian people suffered horribly in WWI and again in WWII. Their leadership though was most certainly not innocent. They were constantly agitating and provoking the Hapsburg Empire until they really went too far with the murder of Frank Ferdinand and his wife. The ironic thing is that far from being some cruel oppressor about to come to the throne, he was well known to be s liberal reformer - and the Hapsburg Empire was pretty slack as it was compared to most."

Agree whole-heartedly with the above. The assassination was a monstrous crime on a whole multitude of levels. That it turned out to be MEGA-counterproductive goes without saying. Serb nationalists learn very little from history, unfortunately. Milosevic's speech at Gazimestan Field in Kosovo in 1989 at the 600th anniversary of the epic battle against the Turks was another example of such a counter-productive action that stirred the pot of hatred and brought about horrific consequences for all involved.

I spent two years of my life while wearing Uncle Sam's uniform helping to clean up that mess.

Then, (as in 1914 and 1941), the average Serb on the street did not want war. But the leaders in the Balkans - on all sides - have a pretty poor track record of listening to the people.

I agree with most of this. The Russians.....the generals and media whipped up nationalist fervor for war. First Nicholas promised Wilhelm only partial mobilization and not on Germany’s border then reneges when told it was all or nothing. That right there started it all.

I can understand Germany’s perspective - they explained their situation, got assurances of only a partial mobilization (even though their thinking was that spied was their only defense and therefore any Russian mobilization without a German reaction put them at dire risk) - and then the Russians went ahead and did exactly what they promised they wouldn’t knowing what it would mean. Nicholas II didn’t lie. He intended to keep his promise when he made it but it sure didn’t look like that to Wilhelm. To him it looked like they lied to gain military advantage and were hell bent on destroying Germany.

The Germans were foolish for thinking the Belgians would just roll over AND that Britain wouldn’t go apeshit over the prospect of Antwerp falling into hostile hands when they had always gone apeshit before over that......the whole reason Belgium exists is to keep that territory out of French hands.

But damn, everything could have been smoothed over with some better diplomacy. It didn’t have to come to a massive bloodbath. Leaving the Germans royally pissed, the Russians isolated and creating an enormous power vacuum in Eastern Europe by destroying the Hapsburg Empire really set the stage for further massive carnage.

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